After four long, slow, tortuous months of waiting in NYC I finally took off, and arrived in Obuse on Dec 3rd, 2003. Obuse is a tiny ( < 15,000 peeps) town in the middle of Nagano Prefecture, about 10 min by train outside of Nagano City. First of all let me say that Obuse is beautiful. Really really beautiful. Not that I have gotten a chance to see it. On the first day I woke up, went to Sarah's office and I haven't stopped running since. I got my visa registration card, multiple re-entry permit, bank registration, lunch, visa pictures, my office was set up, had dinner with the president of Masuichi, Sarah, and Masuichi's architect John Morford, got mostly unpacked, and surcame to jetlag.
Day 2 was the beginning of working at Masuichi, as brewing wouldn't start until that afternoon I got the honor of helping to clean out a warehouse, so that we could fill it with straw for the spring project of re-thatching Hokusai's old workshop. Finishing this mini-project I was informed that a Shinto priest would be coming later on that day and that I would need to put on Masuichi work clothes. Of course the largest size that they had at the time was just a tad too small for me. Here the workers wear these buttless tie-around skin tight blue pants. Really difficult to figure out how to wear it at first, and the holes for your feet were just barely big enough to fit my feet, and it took three men pulling and tugging at my pants to get them on.
So anyway the Shinto priest finally showed up and I had to participate in a cerimony to bless the brewery, brings good luck and helps ensure nothing goes wrong with the sake you see. It was incredibly nerve racking as I had no idea what anybody was saying, the president was there as well as his brother, and a bunch of serious people in business suits, plus it was being video taped! All I had to do was walk up to the priest, bow, take a branch from him, place it on an alter, clap twice, bow twice and get back in line with everyone else. Luckly I dont think that I screwed it up! Later there was a big dinner, and soon after dinner I passed out from jet lag again. Oh well, the brewing season would start soon and, I would be waking up at 5:30 am to start work so no point in trying to get used to the time change anyway.
To be continued...