The cherry blossoms are here for their all-too-brief few days of glory. Anticipation was building. It’s an event important enough to be celebrated on seasonal beer cans.

The art captures both the clouds of pink from a distance, and the close-up flowers you see when you sit or stroll under them. Note that some of the petals have already fluttered to the ground, or rather water (the regular can for this beverage is blue, and the pink is subtly reflected in it). The plane is probably to contextualize the upper area of blue as sky. It is also a metaphor for the soaring of spirits upon seeing the blossom through beer goggles alcohol-induced well-being.
The astute imbibers among you have already noted that this can isn’t what is usually termed beer: it’s “happoshu,” which has the same alcohol content as beer but skimps on the malt to get a cheaper tax rate, yet is cunningly brewed to taste more or less like the real thing. It’s a crucial part of my evening, not so much for its price, although that’s nice, but as a flavor base-line that primes me to notice the extraordinary deliciousness of the Yona Yona beer I drink next, and not take it for granted.
It doesn’t end there. Later in the evening, my palate is ready for a flavor as explosive as the fireworks on the label. For hop lovers, it gets no better than Baird’s locally brewed Suruga Bay. During this week of blossoms, and for the rest of the year no less.

--Julian
Kinmugi happoshu (Suntory) ¥125
Yona Yona Pale Ale (Yo-Ho Brewing, Nagano) ¥250
Suruga Bay Imperial IPA (Baird Brewing, Shizuoka) ¥500