In December of 2017, several thousand copies of the inaugural issue of inCiderJapan magazine started making their way around Japan and parts of the world. It was an ambitious vision, a bilingual (English/Japanese) quarterly publication that aimed to accomplish three things: educate people in Japan about cider, promote Japanese cider and cider makers, and connect Japan’s bourgeoning cider scene with the rest of the world.
Two months later I incorporated the idea into a company and thus inCiderJapan was born. By the same time the following year, with four issues under my belt, I was suddenly being asked for interviews and travelling to other countries to talk about my work and what I saw for the future. My short answer? Expanding the business into import and distribution, because the future looked bright and flowing with cider.
Closer to the truth was the stark reality that the business needed a reliable revenue stream. The costs associated with publishing were accumulating, what very little advertising I was receiving simply wasn’t enough, and my savings account was on the brink of being reduced to nowt.
So in 2019, after miraculously procuring a small business loan, that’s exactly what I did. Ciders from Australia, America, and the UK to start. Exciting times, I was hopeful, felt encouraged. Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground…
Fast forward one more year, the 2nd of February to be precise. CiderCon 2020 in Oakland, California had just successfully wrapped and I was on the phone confirming my flight home. The agent I was speaking with seemed unusually concerned, a peculiar urgency in her voice insisting I get on whatever next flight possible because, of “some breaking news related to SARS”, there was a chance the airline was going to soon begin cancelling all international flights.
Nine days later the World Health Organization gave it an official name, COVID-19. A month after that, they declared it a global pandemic…and then, the world shut down.
I’ll spare everyone the details of my personal woes over those next three years. We all went through our own incredulity, ennui, and levels of hell. Suffice to say, I was forced to shutter the magazine, move cities, and in the process wasted a business loan having to use it to survive.
Into the blue again, into the silent water…
And here we are today, in the latter half of 2025 and enter Japan Cider Guide. Sooo, what’s up with that? Well, in the aftermath of everything that’s all been said and done, Japan Cider Guide is my unapologetically unremitting attempt to get. Back. On. Track. And. Do. Something. Right.
Oooookeee, you may whisper, but what the bl@*p!ty bl#%p does that mean? Fair enough.
As defined on the site’s banner, Japan Cider Guide is the definitive source of information for all things cider in Japan, as curated by me. So whether it’s cideries, cider makers, ciders, or ciders events – if it has anything to do with cider and relates to Japan, I’ll be putting in my twopence on the matter. Nuff said.
Indeed, it’s partly an incarnation of the magazine, and I’ve kicked things off with articles originally published in past issues. Unlike print media, however, where content becomes antiquated the moment it’s out in the world, an online format will allow me the ability to edit, update, keep things fresh and relevant, not to mention increased ways to connect with an audience. Crucially, it affords me the freedom to be honestly subjective, which is absolutely necessary when reviewing and reporting as opposed to merely conveying information, which stifled me before.
But Japan Cider Guide is much more than a redo of a well-regarded undertaking that went tits up. It’s an fortuitous opportunity, and bigger challenge at that, for me to open up and do more, to share more, to give more (and more about all that in future posts) of the things that I am most passionate about.
And so, I invite you to come with me and experience my world and life in Japan…not just in the realm of cider, but deeper and beyond. For while I am a Certified Pommelier™ and Licensed Educator for the American Cider Association, I’m also a longtime magician, analogue hardware junky, and aspirant propagator of (mostly) carnivorous plants and chili peppers. An ubernerd, not gonna lie.
And hey, if you’re keen to show your support, please click the button below to make a contribution to our PayPal account. Your help will neither go unnoticed nor unthanked, and this website will only grow better because of it. As we say here in Japan, yoroshiku onegai shimasu!