The Alcohol I Wanted to Make
Translated by Omkar
Edited by Omkar
I am Shogo Mizutani, 30 years old, and until recently I was a blender at a brewery. The brewery I worked for is located in Hokkaido and produces Japan’s leading single malt whiskey. I was selected as a blender there at the exceptionally young age of 28. I was chosen because of my keen sense of taste and smell, as well as my deep understanding of the whisky at the brewery.
But such honor did not last long. Originally, a person who could become a blender had to be an senior person who had studied whiskey for more than ten years and had a good grasp of all kinds of flavors. It is no wonder, then, that the blender is the heart of the company, so to speak.
The blender tastes several hundred kinds of whiskey every day, and the whiskey created by the blender is the new product of the brewery. Moreover, the blender is also in charge of maintaining the quality of the existing whiskey, and is the guardian of the company’s traditions and the mainstay of the company.
A young man like me is envied by such an important executive, to a greater or lesser degree. And, unluckily for me, I was noticed by the manager of the blender’s office, and for one reason or another, I was forced to resign from my position.
Yes, an ironic weakness of my love of alcohol. I can’t drink at all.
Why do I still love to drink ? The reason is simple: my mother loved to drink. Since I was a child, my parents always told me that I might become a chef in the future because I had an excellent sense of taste and smell. In fact, I liked cooking so much that I went to a high school that had a culinary department.
Because of this, from the time I was a kid, I was taken to famous restaurants and ryotei for birthday presents. Because of this experience, I was always impressed by the greatness of chefs. I had always wanted to make food so delicious that people would cry when they ate it……
“What’s this, it’s super bitter, seriously. How can you drink this stuff like it’s delicious, Mom?”
“Maybe it’s too early for you. Alcohol is gasoline for busy adults. When you can think it tastes good, you will be a full-fledged member of society.”
“You’re telling me that the day will come when this bitter drink will feel good ? ! …… What the, I’m kind of dizzy……”
For the first time in my life, I felt dizzy. And when I realized, I had fallen asleep.
“Oh dear, I sank after one sip of beer. I guess I’m just like my dad, he can’t drink. How pitiful.”
Yes, I discovered when I was 20 years old, when I got my chef’s license, that I was a lousy drinker. My mother had only a passing taste for alcohol, and my father was constitutionally incapable of accepting any alcohol at all.
However, human beings are strange creatures, and I could never give up my obsession with something I could not do, so I never stopped exploring alcohol. As I savored various alcoholic beverages, my palate gradually accepted them.
And then I realized that I wanted to give my mother the best alcohol, so I got a job at a alcohol brewery. There were many kinds of alcohol, but the one that impressed me the most was whiskey. The greatness of whiskey lies in the years and the gravity of its flavor. It is a liquor that is delivered to people over time through a combination of many wonders combined with the unfathomable passion and efforts of its creators.
“Well, there are a lot of people who are quite vindictive in this industry, and I was fired because of it.”
“Eh, store manager !? Am I fired ?”
“What”
I was lost in thought while closing up the store, when my part-time worker, Saki, overheard me talking to myself. Saki is a very pure girl, which is rare in Kabukicho, so there must be some misunderstanding.
“Ah, sorry! That was me talking to myself! Saki-chan, you were working hard today and you are not fired. Rather, I will consider increasing your hourly rate. Okay.”
“Thank goodness, please don’t surprise me again. Well then, I’ll leave you to your work~~.” Saki patted her chest in relief, and with her backpack on her back, she cheerfully turned to leave the store.
“Yes, thank you for your hard work. See you tomorrow.”
“Yes, thank you for your hard work.”
She is a part-time worker at this non-alcoholic cocktail bar Mizutani, and she always works until the end of the day. Her dream is to be a rising musician, and she is working hard practicing her guitar.
After I was fired from the brewery, I thought about becoming a chef, but once I fell in love with whiskey, I couldn’t break free of my obsession and opened a bar in Kabukicho. The main customers at this bar are people who can’t drink alcohol but want to have a good time in Kabukicho.
After all the part-timers left, I started closing the bar. I cleaned the water, checked the gas source, and calculated the sales. As I do these tasks in the quiet store, a gloomy feeling rises up in me.
“Because of the strange rumors spread by that section chief, no brewery will hire me. What is he, a traitor who put foreign substances in alcohol barrels ! Which one of you is a dung beetle who got into the position of section chief by the grace of your parents ? This is why I hate family-run businesses ! !”
Phew, it’s a little late for that. I took a chance and thought about a sake or wine brewery, but I just can’t give up on whiskey. So here we are, taking a shot at Kabukicho! I am planning to open my own brewery. Fortunately, the business is going well, and my family’s mountain is growing oak, the so-called Japanese oak quercus, which is indispensable for whiskey production. All that remains is money.
Whiskey takes at least three years to be ready to drink, and twelve years if it’s good….. Worst case scenario, by the time I’m sixty, even if I can barrel up my own booze and drink it when I’m seventy-two, will I even be alive ? ! How old were Grandma and Grandpa when they died ?
“Anyway, I’m running out of time.”
Or should I save some money and go to England? When it comes to whiskey, England is the place to be, right? One of my favorite whiskeys is Matsuzuru. Its founder, Matsuzuru-san, went to England before the war to learn how to make real English whiskey by himself and opened a brewery in Hokkaido.
“I’ll be thinking of the real England here, and thank you for your hard work after closing time! I’ll have an Islay malt for my drink!”
I poured a single teaspoonful into a shot glass. I lick it off as I drink it. I’m a bit of a hopeless drunk, though, so 40 percent alcohol by volume is a very strong alcoholic beverage. And even after adjusting for the amount of booze I drink, I’m still……
“Oh, baldy. A young guy like me doesn’t belong in a prestigious blender’s room ! You know the difference between single malt and rum, so shut the fuck up !”
Ah, I’m so drunk. Kabukicho is still lively today. Huh ? When did I leave the restaurant ? Ah, that’s right, I got carried away and drank too much. Wahahaha, oh well !
“Life will turn out the way it’s supposed to turn out !”
As I crossed the road briskly, I heard a blaring horn. And it was a blinding flash of high beams. I covered my eyes with my arms and tried to look in the direction of the sound.
“““Aaaaahhhh ! ! !”””
“Hey, somebody! Call an ambulance !”
“Oh, no, that won’t help !”
I can hear noises and see dozens of overlapping reflections in my field of vision. I think I’d better go home and go to bed. Oh, but first, let’s go to the bathhouse. The usual place, the usual girl, but come to think of it, that girl skipped out on her meds, didn’t she ?
That …… suddenly made me feel sleepy. I’ll go to the bathhouse… next… time.
The next time I woke up, I was in a room in a Japanese house somewhere. For some reason, I got up holding my head. I felt as if I had hit my head hard.
“Hmm, what is this place ? Is this a new kind of Japanese-style bath house…. Umm, what was I doing a while ago ?”
I tried to remember. I remember saying bye to Saki and having my usual drink, and I think I drank a lot. And I was feeling so good, I mean I was drunk. Then I left Kabukicho and ran out onto the street in front of me and a truck rammed into me…… Ha ha ha, Did I run into a truck……
Could it be that I’m dead ! ! ? Eh, but isn’t this too real to be a dream? In times like this, you can pinch your cheeks and …… it does not hurt. Haha, what a dream ? Even if I pinch myself, it doesn’t hurt this much~~.
While I was doing this, the sound of a shishi-odoshi rang out from the Japanese garden, which I could see through the glass panels of the shoji screens. Besides, the smell of cigarettes came wafting in, and I heard someone’s footsteps. It sounded like someone walking with some kind of cloth trailing……
“G-Ghost ? ?”
A peculiar sense of fear drifted through the moonlight. Then, the next moment—.
Quietly, the shoji door in front of me opened. The moonlight of a large full moon streamed into the room. What I saw was a large pond, pine trees, a fence, and a princess in a juni-hitoe. The princess was standing with a smoking pipe in one hand, and a servant in a happi coat behind her, kneeling on one knee and holding a tray of cigarettes in the other.
“You’re awake.”
The princess spoke to me like that. Against the moonlight, she had a divine appearance that made me fall in love with her. Her hair ornament glittered in the moonlight and the sparks from her smoking pipe burned red in the shadows of her face.
“……”
“What are you doing, staring stupidly ?”
“Huh ? Forgive me, it’s just you looked so beautiful. Subconsciously.”
I’m not flattering her. I could feel the beauty that was unlike any other person, even in this dimly lit room. The princess walked into the room with a giggle and sat down in front of me. Half of her body was brought into focus by the moonlight. She wore makeup like a maiko from Kyoto. White powder, light red, silver and gold hair ornaments, and a twelve-layered kimono with a red base…… Her attendant stood back for one.
“hehehe, praising me won’t get you back to the floating world.”
“Eh, floating world, perhaps !”
Before I could come to grips with what she had said, the princess clapped both hands twice.
The princess clapped her hands and the kuroko appeared one after another to serve the food and sake. In no time at all, the living room was brightly lit with candles and other items, and the banquet was ready. The princess poured me a drink, and I returned hers. After sharing a glass of sake with the most beautiful woman wearing a kimono, she began to explain to me about the situation.
“You must be confused, so let me explain. Isshiki”
“Ha”
The attendant at her side responded in a dignified manner, turned his body to me, and bowed politely. I could not make out the servant’s face, which was hidden by a thin white cloth. Nevertheless, his voice was boyish and high-pitched, and he was probably a man.
“My name is Isshiki. I am the princess’s servant. Let me explain on behalf of my master.”
“Likewise, I would like to thank you for your help.”
“Well then. Shogo Mizutani, as you may be aware, you are dead.”
“…..”
Well, I’m dead after all. It was a fleeting life, wasn’t it? I have no face to show to my mom and dad. I’m such an unfilial son of a bitch for letting my parents taste the opposite side of my life. Oh– I’m dead– ! I looked up to the heavens, but all I could see was the ceiling. Still, I could see my parents’ faces clearly in my eyes.
Thus, I looked up to heaven for a while, and then looked forward, rubbing my face with both hands as if I were washing my face.
“May I continue ?”
“Yes”
Halfway through, I gave a half-hearted, half-empty reply. The mysterious being in front of me resumed his story without paying any attention to me.
“When you passed away, you left behind strong regrets in this world, and your reincarnation did not come true. Therefore, God took pity on you. My master, Chronois-sama, picked you up.”
What did he just say ? What’s with that look and the sideways name ? And didn’t he say he picked it up? What does that mean? I repeated the words that had stuck with me.
“Chronois ? Pick me up ?”
Then the princess interrupted.
“Right now, this is just a temporary appearance, dressed in a way that is familiar to you.”
I see, so you thought I was Japanese and familiar with Japanese clothes. I’ve only seen juni-hitoe in textbooks ! Oh, then why did I know this was a junihitoe just by looking at it ? As I was pondering such a trivial question, the attendant made a small coughing sound to get my attention.
“We picked you up because the wishes of Chronois-sam and Shogo-sama’s wishes coincided !”
“Wish…… ?”
Did I wish something on God? I’m pretty sure my first visit this year was to……, can’t remember at all ! As if seeing through what I was groaning about, the princess interrupted me again.
“Alcohol. You want to drink alcohol, don’t you ? You want to make alcohol, don’t you ?”
Alcoholic…… Yes, I can’t die yet, God ! ! I haven’t given my mom the best gasoline yet. I shouldn’t be dying here……. Drops of water dripped onto the tatami mats. It was quiet at first, like an evening shower, and then it became more and more violent.
“Waaa………..”
In this room, there was no sense of time. Still, I think I cried for quite a while. Yet, there were no more tears.
I looked up into the princess’s face and realized that I couldn’t come back to life. Then, my heart surprisingly lightened, and the attendant, realizing this, began to speak again.
“Chronois-sama is the god of time.”
“Hah.”
A curt reply, a fact that has no tangible reality. His words were not enough for me, he was useless. At that moment, she took over the conversation.
“Isshiki, thank you for your hard work. I will talk about the rest.”
“Ha”
The attendant sits back again, sitting airily behind her.
“What do you think, Shogo? Will you join me in my conversation? I am also an unparalleled lover of alcohol, so why don’t you go to another world and brew some drinks to sublimate your unfulfilled desires?”
I felt my ears move, which they shouldn’t have. My unfulfilled dream of brewing alcohol might not be over yet. That gave me immeasurably greater hope.
“What do you mean ?”
It’s simple. I am a god and you offer alcohol as an offering. In return, I will transport you to another world. There, you can make your alcohol as you please. I will provide you with the body and tools you need to make alcohol. So, what do you say, why don’t you come back to the floating world once more ?
This is exactly what I meant when I said that I had no right or wrong. I just died of my own stupidity, but God picked me up and is giving me a chance. This is the scene that everyone dreams of…….
I took her hand without hesitation.
“I will go. If I can make alcohol, I’ll go wherever it is.”
Thus, I was transported to another world.
Author’s Afterword:
I hope you enjoy my work.
My favorite kind of liquor is the tipsy white sour, Budweiser for beer, Sato for distilled spirit, Asahitaka for sake, Kiho for wine, Scallywag for whiskey, Anniversario for rum, Steinhager for gin, Zubrowka for vodka, Awamori Chuko, Otar for brandy, and Snow Country for cocktails !
In the recent notes, the main character, and other, original illustrations !
Footnotes:
料亭 = Ryotei, Traditional Japanese restaurant. 歌舞伎町 = Kabukicho. Kabukicho is a famous entertainment district best known for adult-oriented nightlife. ししおどし= Shishi-odoshi (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/File:Shisendo_Souzu.jpg) 障子 = shoji screens (A door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame) 十二単 = Juni-hitoe/A Twelve-layered ceremonial kimono (worn by a court lady) 半被 = Happi Coat (A Happi Coat is a traditional tube-sleeved Japanese coat, usually worn only during festivals) 舞妓 = Maiko is an apprentice geisha in Kyoto and Western Japan. 浮世 = Ukiyo (floating/fleeting/transient world) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo) 黒子 = Kuroko (Kuroko are stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre, who dress all in black.)Sponsored Content
