Founders: Kimi and Michiko Sakai It is persimmon season and the dried orange balls hang on strings in the morning air outside of homes. They hang like lanterns shedding off an orange hue. It hints that we are in the country-side where food, humans, and the elements are all close to one another. Here in the mountainous belly of Honshu Island, winter air is beginning to impose its grip on the land, while the changing autumn leaves burn warm fires in the hills surrounding the to