Meeting Rishiri

Rishiri's Annual Konbu Festival, Part 1

Hey, I’m Rusty. Welcome to our weekly newsletter, sharing the startup journey of Kamui Whisky K.K. Each week the team will share a story as we set up a craft whisky distillery on a remote, volcanic island in the most northern part of Japan.

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Somewhere between Casey looking for land and me shopping for stills, he gave me a call and says, ‘Hey, there’s an annual festival in Rishiri and they want us up there.’

Me: ‘To do what?’

We had, literally, nothing but an idea and some conversations at this point. Oh, and a logo. Besides that, we had nothing. So what are we going to do at a festival? I had an image of us mulling around, standing out as the only two gaijin, babbling about a whisky we might be - maybe - possibly yes, making in a year or two, and selling how good it was going to be.

But, whatevs.

Two months later, I’m on a plane to Tokyo and meet Casey. We fly together to Wakkani, take a bus to the ferry terminal, and hop on the ferry to Rishiri. If you ever do make the trip to Rishiri, I strongly recommend taking the ferry and buying the first class ticket (pro tip); its a few extra bucks but probably some of the best money I’ve spent in my life.

I wake up in that big, fat, comfy first class lounge chair to a lot of rustling. As the ferry gets closer to Rishiri, everybody wants to see it. They all start moving to the deck; some of them to catch their first-ever glimpse of Mt Rishiri-Fuji. Which is…………gorgeous.

As the ferry is pulling into the port, Casey starts waving to a couple of salarymen on the dock. They are waving enthusiastically back; a little too enthusiastically….It reminded me a little bit of Fantasy Island. My guard’s up.

Turns out the two salarymen are part of the Rishiri-cho Mayor’s office and have been instrumental in helping us with everything, really everything, for this Distillery. They are god-sends, we are very thankful for their belief in us. They also treat us like royalty; which ain’t too bad.

It was getting late in the afternoon, so we headed straight to the land Casey had finally secured; an acre, acre and half, facing directly West right into one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen.

After being memorized by the sunset, we head to dinner at a local izakaya and end up drinking too much sake, which leads to arm wrestling (apparently this is a thing on the fishing boats). Quick travel tip: a great way to make friends with the locals - let them beat you. [Editor’s note: objective observers saw no “letting them beat you”.]

The actual festival didn’t start until mid-afternoon so the next morning we had some time to kill. Azuma-san, our architect, decides to jump on some bicycles (when I say bicycles I mean old, steel, one-gear granny bikes made in the 1950s) and tour Rishiri.

If you ever want to learn about history and culture, take an architect. Or maybe just Azuma-san. As we rode, he’d suddenly stop and examine a building (sometimes walking around it) then explain to me the significance of what he was looking at and why. How all the homes are custom, owned by the same families generation after generation; how each house has a family crest on the front of the house, how to look to find it; how they use to paint the buildings with charcoal because the winters are so brutal; how this island was the last of the Ainu.

How rich and deep the culture is on the island. It feels magical and mythological at the same time.

A bit sweaty and a few hours later, we return to the hotel to get ready for the festival and our first pop-up ever….