So I'm pretty tired now, there was an Obusession last night, which is this monthly gathering that Sarah puts together for the general public. Obusession always has various guest speakers who give lectures on a wide variety of subjects. Last night's speaker was an electrical engineer / world judo champion (these kinds of people seem to be the norm around here) who talked about his current project of putting all of the telephone wires in Tokyo underground as part of the city's beautification. Needless to say I understood about 4 words of it but at least he had slides for me to look at!! After the talk there is a dinner and after the dinner people head over to the Heikkiken bar for drinking. Thus far I have never managed to stay up later than the dinner portion of Obusession.
Today the tv crews came! I had previously thought that only the international exchange team would be here but actually there are two seperate crews filming at the same time!! Soooo chaotic, anyway they all will be here for 3 days so every day I am going to have to wear the company happi-coat. I have already managed to get a thin layer of rice crud ont he front so I imagine that after three days it will look splendid. There was also an interview with Sarah, our Sake Master, and the President that took place in the brewery. It was really interesting and since all three of them were in the same room at the same time (a rarity) they took the opportunity to try some of our newly pressed sake, dicuss this year's batch and decide whether or not they would serve some of it at the restaurant here as Nama-zake or "fresh sake". This means that customers could try this year's sake unpasturized and un-aged. I had my reservations about doing this at first (not that my opinion matters :P) because I have tried sake fresh off the press and I found it bitter, very astringent, and unpleasant. However after the interview was over I got to take a sip of our new sake (now two days old) and the taste had changed dramatically!! Sooo unbelievably good!! It was super duper awsome, tho still immature, it had lots and lots of spunk. Because this kind of sake is unpasturized it spoils very easily, so you can really only get it at breweries in the spring when the sake is being pressed. So during the interview it was decided to sell this stuff, which was pretty cool.
Also today was a special day in Japan, I forget exactly what it is called but the point was to bring in good fortune for the new year and drive out the previous year's demons. You do this be going around with a box of blessed, roasted soy beans, into every important room in your home (bedroom, study, etc) and then you hurl the beans our of a door or window and shout "oni wa soto!!!", i.e. demons outside!! Then you turn around and toss the beans into the room and say "fuku wa uchi!!" i.e. good fortune inside!! THen you run off tothe next room, leaving the mess of beans on the floow and do it again. So we were hurling beans and shouting all over the president's house, at patrons in the Club restaurant, the Heikkiken bar, the Masuichi offices, everywhere. While walking to and fro we (the President, Sarah, the Master Brewer, and all 6 of my co-workers) would eat the blessed soy beans (really good) and the two younger guys and I would throw beans at each other. It was a grand ol' time.
Oh and our Master Brewer here just got his Official 4th degree Master Brewer certificate from the government!! He's 77 years old and has been making sake for 60 years!!
Laterz
To be continued...