[jasonbvr]

Oh and the thing about taxes, Japan collects a very large tax on the consumption of alcohol. In fact producing your own alcohol is illegal because of the issue of tax.

I had a discussion last week with some of my students (adults, not the junior high kids) about making Ume-shu. This is the plum flavored liquor/sake. You are allowed to make your own Ume-shu at home because to do so you simply add shochu (potatoe based liquor) that you buy from the store. However I asked if they could make a home made schnapps as well like adding a little sugar and yeast to a bunch of peaches and letting it ferment. They said no, that would be illegal because you are producing the alcohol and not paying the tax for it whereas buying shochu the tax is being paid.

Then we started talking about moonshine made in the US and how if you add it to your gas tank you'll get better gas mileage. Followed by an enlightening discussion of the different grades of Nihon-shu (what the rest of the world calls sake), and how it is not classified as liquor while shochu is but some Nihon-shu's are just as strong as some shochu's.