This sake combines Japanese and Navajo culture together

HOLBROOK, Ariz. (InvestigateTV) — Atsuo Sakurai and his wife, Heather, make award-winning sake at a shop just off Route 66 in Holbrook.Sake is a traditional Japanese alcohol made from fermented rice. Its history spans thousands of years. Sakurai’s shop, Arizona Sake, makes the beverage in a 200-gallon vat.Sakurai said people are often surprised to learn the sake comes from Holbrook, Arizona, on Route 66.“Oh, yeah. Initially, nobody believed,” he said.Sakurai is from Tokyo, about 6,000 miles from Holbrook. He worked in the sake industry there before moving to Arizona.“Initially, I had a dream. Starting a business, establishing a business. Sake manufacturing somewhere in the world,” Sakurai said.Heather Sakurai is from the Navajo Nation. The couple combine their cultures in the bottle. Sakurai said one of the sakes uses Navajo tea.“Navajo tea, Navajo tea sake. This is Navajo tea itself, a plant,” he said.At the shop, workers wash and heat rice in baskets and then put it in vats to fermen