Japanese cheese

Hokkaido master succeeds in creating a distinctly Japanese cheese

He calls it...Japacheese.

No, not really.

(Man, nothing can top "Ja-pan"...)

For Keisuke Yamada, the mountain cherry trees that rustle in the breeze on the Hokkaido farm where he works are more than just a beautiful sight. Back in the fall of 2002, they provided the answer he was looking for when he needed inspiration for producing a distinctively Japanese cheese.

"The idea was to spread the leaves on the ground and have the cheese ripen on top of them," says the 28-year-old, whose cheese workshop occupies a corner of Kyodo Gakusha Shintoku Farm in Shintoku in the western part of Tokachi Plain. "That way, I thought, maybe some of the fragrance of cherry blossoms would seep into the cheese."

He really called it--you'd better sit down for this one--Sakura.

Cliche naming conventions aside...I want to try it!