Kiwi Yamabushi

Kiwi Yamabushi

The “Most Disgusting” Drink in Japan (According to 1878)

Featuring “rare cheese”.

Aug 22, 2025
∙ Paid
A black and white illustration of Isabella Bird, the woman who noted the pyramidal shape of Yakushi-san and the other two mountains of Kaneyama
Isabella Bird, the OG Japan content creator. Image from her Wikipedia page.

Isabella Bird, the OG Japan influencer who came to Japan in 1878 (that’s right, almost 150 years ago), also came through Yamagata where she thoroughly disgusted locals with…

Milk.

From my Yakushi-san article:

Bird’s arrival in Yamagata was far from uneventful, riding a cow of all cr…

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