All Posts by:John Townsend

written by John Townsend

Translator, writer, sake lover. A native of New York in the United States, John relocated to Japan in 2005 after receiving his M.A. in Japanese literature. After three years working for the Shiga Prefecture as a participant of the JET Program, he moved to Tokyo in 2008 to join the localization department of a leading Japanese video game publisher. In 2017, his passion for sake led to his winning the 2nd Annual Mister Sake Competition held by the Sake Culture Appreciation Society (Nihonshu bunka wo tanoshimu kai). Since then, he has published essays on sake in both Japanese and English—including for the Japanese food-and-drink magazine Dancyu, and written and translated for tourism sites. He considers it his life’s work to share the joy of sake across Japan and around the world.