I had the extremely good fortune to be invited to speak at Tokyo’s second annual Fermentation Future Forum (F3) earlier this month. I attended and spoke at the first F3 in January 2017 and I spent that week in Tokyo and at the forum wide-eyed, so happy and with a very full belly. F3 is organized by cultural luminary Teruo Kurosaki and his bright and creative staff including festival creative director Kentaro Ichiki. Kurosaki-san is a world renowned designer, former founder-owner of Idee, founder of the Tokyo United Nations University Farmers Market, publisher-owner of Media Surf, owner-founder of Midori co-working spaces, Freedom University and much, much more. I had the pleasure of initially getting to know him through a project that I edited for Hawthorne Books — the English edition of True Portland — which came out summer 2017. Check out our super fun launch party for it last June at Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery.
Pretty soon after Kurosaki-san and I met in 2016 he was interested in the annual Portland Fermentation Festival which I co-founded with my dear friends George Winborn and David Barber in 2009. Some folks close to him attended our late October 2016 festival and the next thing you know I had an invite to come speak at his first annual Fermentation Future Forum in early 2017. Kurosaki-san (and his bright team!) works fast!
Check out my post about last year's F3 here.
There is much to share about this year's 2018 F3 and I think that photos do the best job. They give you an eye into just how special and inspiring the weekend was. The audio both of my talks are embedded below if you want to have a listen. The translated talks took place at Akarenga Sake Brewery aka Red Brick in Kita and in the Fermentation Lounge at the United Nations University in Shibuya.
I am so honored that I got to be a part of Tokyo’s first and now second annual Fermentation Future Forum and I hope that we have many years of colorful, creative and inspiring collaboration ahead between the Fermentation Future Forum and the Portland Fermentation Festival which inspired F3. I'm also so very happy that Jimbo and I got to attend F3 together and both contribute to the great energy and vitality of it all. Check out Jimbo's awesome F3 playlist here. So good!
I didn't end up using the closing words that my dear friends Earnest and Yuri Migaki of Jorinji Miso translated and helped me to speak so I'm posting that below as well as a belated thank you to everyone who attended, organized and made this year's F3 in Tokyo so wonderful.
Thank you Earnest and Yuri!
Fermentation Future Forum (F3) fermentationfutureforum.org
My talk with Teruo Kurosaki (Mediasurf, Midori++) and Hozu Yamamoto (Tokyo Art Gallery), moderated by Etsuyo Okajima (Freedom University) at F3 at Akarenga/Red Brick Sake Brewery:
My Q&A moderated by Etsuyo Okajima (Freedom University) and translated by Masaki Yam (United Nations University Farmers Market) and Takeshi Okuno (Mediasurf++):
Without further ado, all sorts of 2018 F3 pics:
F3 always has such smart and creative design. I grabbed this from the festival homepage when Jimbo and I were officially invited to attend earlier this month.
I asked Jimbo to snap this photo of me as we arrived at Akarenga Red Brick (home of F3 on Saturday and Sunday). Festival talks,panels, performances, tastings and more were held throughout the enormous 100+ year old no longer operating sake brewery as well as outside surrounding it -- primarily to the left and back of the building as oriented in this photo.
This year all festival staff and volunteers wore these rad F3 lab suits. Some folks wore these last year but not as many as this year. I want one! I should have asked...
My first (of many) F3 familiar face! My friend Etsuyo Okajima. Jimbo took this photo of us right before a panel that Etsuyo moderated titled Borderless Fermentation.
We showed up a few minutes early to Akihiro Lio's (of 123-year-old vinegar brewery Lio Brewery in the seaside town of Miyazu) vinegar talk and I'm sure glad we did because it filled up to capacity and standing room only in this room and the adjoining room (at 90 degree angels from the stage -- so two same-sized rooms in an L shape toward the stage). Lio was one of the F3 speakers I was most excited to hear and meet. Lio is a fifth generation vinegar maker and at Lio they control the process of vinegar making from start to finish even cultivating some of their own rice and making all of their own sake which they ferment into award-winning vinegar. It's 100% new-harvest, pesticide-free rice that goes into their delicious rice vinegar which is aged eight months or longer.
I'm very glad that there were photos to go with Lio's talk because there were no friends nearby to translate. We still learned a lot from Akihiro Lio.
Choose your own adventure! And these are just the indoor adventures at F3...
We chose the subterranean adventure -- downstairs to the basement art and performance space after Lio's talk for an INCREDIBLE liquid light show set to beautiful often discordant music by Akiko Nakayama. She calls her liquid light shows "alive art" and we were absolutely transfixed. Find her on social media. So inspiring.
I'm including this one because it really shows in contrast the thick nearly 1/4-inch of mold on the sake cave walls. So wild.
F3's awesome Friday and Saturday schedule.
Me and Jimbo with the Oizumi Kombucha crew. These folks are bringing their delicious kombucha to the Portland Fermentation Festival this year!!! Love them and their super tasty kombucha.
The sake governing body office adjacent to the festival. All sorts of sake vials and scientific charts en route to the festival loo.
Before we caught our subway back south to our Suidobashi/Jimbocho hotel in the evening Jimbo and I grabbed a couple tasty handrolls here -- tuna and uni. YUM!
My suitcase to Tokyo was half-filled with gifts for lovely F3 folks this year -- most of which I brought with me on day two. All sorts of Portland goodies!
The sun came out on day two in full force. Such a beautiful F3 day!
Snapped this after the first session as attendees lined up for different fermented lunch goodies from booths and carts.
Jimbo's dear old friend Eli, who's lived in Tokyo with his wife and family for several years, met up with us and attended some fun festival events. Long time no see for these two and my first time meeting sweet Eli.
We got to see Nhhmbase play!!! So good. I still haven't found one of their albums yet (tried at one shop in Tokyo) but will soon. Really dig their sound and energy.
Everyone did.
Right when Nhhmbase was done F3 staff swooped in and got the space ready for the next few talks with Shohei Yasuda of Restaurant Kabi, Shinobu Namae of L'Effervescence and other inspiring folks speaking to all things fermentation.
We snooped around the old sake brewery a little. No longer in production but still a lot of great equipment.
Really yummy F3 beer from Kokage.
We got the sampler and shared.
I LOVED the Fermented Book Bar by Book Truck!
So many fantastic Japanese fermentation titles that I hope will be translated into English in years to come.
Zone 2 of F3 where a lot of the panels took place.
Restaurant Kabi serving up delicious fermented treats -- lightly fermented mackerel with broccoli shoyu, tsukemono and cheese. Every F3 attendee had a token in their tote bag for one of these.
DJ Jimbo!!!!! Apple of my eye. I posted the link to his F3 playlist above. Do your ears a favor and have a listen!
Love Me And Miso Soup's pour-over miso!!
I got the single-origin demitasse with Get Lucky miso from Kumomoto ;)
They only had one left but I reallllllly wanted this miso zine that they produce. I didn't ask for it but I probably should have at the end of the day. Oh well.
So cute!!
My talk with the hugely inspiring Hozu Yamamoto of Tokyo Gallery (Japan's first commericial contemporary art gallery started by his father), Teruo Kurosaki and Etsuyo Okajima. He and Kurosaki-san talked about the importance of curating art at home in Japan and how home fermentation is very similar -- largely a lost art. Cultivating both is important and we need to do better. I agreed, added to that and talked about our polarizing political climate in the US and how catalyzing and diversity-celebrating events such as the Portland Fermentation Festival are important. Long live STINKFEST and F3!!
Flyers handed out after my talk and at the end of the day for Sunday's day 3/final day of F3 at United Nations University.
We made it to the second level of the brewery for the very last pour of the Fermented Bar. So glad that I made it because I hadn't had a chance to check the Fermented Bar out.
This man poured me...
A 30-year-old inky, rich, chocolately tasting mirin!! Tastebuds danced for hours after. I can still taste it.
The very special sake list.
Aaaaand after a night out post-day-two of F3 spent visiting Bar Martha listening lounge in Ebisu (so cool!!) we were up bright and shiny to head to day 3, the final day, of the Fermentation Future Forum at United Nations University.
Kurosaki-san's UNU farmers market is such a great market! If I lived in Tokyo I would shop here regularly. We had a chance to walk around a bit before my talk and Jimbo's DJing. I got some really yummy citrus and shoyu.
Fermentation Lounge F3 at UNU!
Grape Republic wines, some really yummy sakes...
I hope that Grape Republic will come to the Portland Fermentation Festival. I told everyone that we don't have festival sponsorship or a travel budget but that we can put them up (my place, friends' places) if they can get to Portland to be a part of the festival.
DJ Jimbo making everyone feel so good.
Yas pouring Portland beers and ciders before my talk. Reverend Nat's Cider went fast...
This was a really yummy slightly crunchy ferment that I *think* is butterbur/fuki -- toxicity removed via fermentation.
I talked for an hour and Etsuyo asked questions and cycled through Portland Fermentation Festival slides. The link to my talk is above but some topics discussed include promoting diversity and countering xenophobia (particularly in relation to US political climate) through exposure to welcoming, tasty, funky diversity with the Portland Fermentation Festival and F3; our festival's history, the importance of skill sharing, how festivals such as ours and F3 build community and create lasting change and impact in cities and beyond, use it or lose it -- encouraging and inspiring youth to ferment, how fermentation is an antidote to glabal sameness and industrialized story-less foods. It was a really fun talk and during it you can hear the miso making demo with Miyamoto Miso talking place in the background -- in the back of the room. The loud buzzing is the sound of the electric grinders grinding the steamed soybeans. I love that both were taking place in the same space and at the same time.
This is one of the slides from the Portland Fermentation Festival that attendees loved during my talk. I told them how in 2015 we found out that Neil Young was coming to Portland to play a show for his The Monsanto Years tour after we'd already set the Portland Fermentation Festival date ON the same date so we sent out a change the date email with this photo as part of our apology. I CANNOT miss Neil Young!! Not possible.
Pickle pins!! Many F3 attendees got pickle pins this year thanks to Loly LeBlanc and Phoenix Rath. They flew first class ;) This is another slide that attendees loved. XOXOXO
After my talk I served up samples of some of my homemade 2 1/2-year-old miso and plum wine vinegar that I brought from home. So glad that I brought these to share!
AND I even got to get in on the miso demo action after my talk. I got to mix a batch of koji and steamed ground soybeans with sea salty water, form that into balls and throw them into the big buckets. I've never thrown my miso (I didn't know people do -- to eliminate air bubbles) and I will now forevermore. Practical and so fun!!!
THIS guy is the most fun ;) DJ Jimbo brightening up the room with all sorts of great tunes.
Me and my friend Etsuyo Okajima after our Q&A. I love Etsuyo. She comes to Portland often.
One of the wildest bites of F3 this year was the fermented fugu roe aka pufferfish roe. Fermentation deactiviates the toxicity. It was really salty, sour and yummy -- nice pop.
Fermented squid. Verrrrrry flavorful. This wasn't my favorite but I'm very happy that I got to try it.
My friends Takeshi Okuno and Yusuke Tanaka -- both integral to F3 -- having fun at the end of F3.
Me and the Oizumi Kombucha crew again. Throughout the festival I had three of their delicious kombuchas -- hibiscus lemongrass, yuzu and chai. So excited that they are coming to Portland Fermentation Festival this year!!
Me and Akihiro Miyamoto of Miyamoto Miso! I am so happy that I met Akihiro and I hope to visit his miso factory in Uozu the next time I'm in Japan. He loved my miso and I loved his :)
Me and DJ Jimbo! We really are the luckiest. So happy we got to attend F3 together.
F3 would not be possible were it not for mastermind Teruo Kurosaki and his super creative and capable staff. Every year that I know this man seems like 10 because of all of his accomplishments in a 12-month span. He constantly inspires me and I'm so grateful to know him through editing True Portland (English Edition 2017, Hawthorne Books) and attending his first two F3s thanks to him making it happen. His closing remarks at F3 this year were inspiring and educational. Looking forward to all the greatness to come from Kurosaki-san and F3 in years to come.
Peace out and thank you F3 -- all on one hand ;) Thanks for checking out this post. I hope to put together another post about all the amazing things we got to do in Tokyo on this visit at some point in the future. For now I'm going to rest my brain bean which I mildly concussed en route home in the Tokyo subway system. So, peace out for real. XOXO Thank you F3!
