Sake festival

Yet again, at the end of October, we made the short train trip over to the Hana-no-mai sake brewery for its new sake, which they freely pour for six hours. We saw Christine there with some friends that she brought along:
And we brought a few people along with us from Four Seasons and Aichi University including Mike:
Sian with friends Sachiko and Miho:
Eric & Rachel with Ayako:
Me with a friendly obasan: Ayako with Carrie and Sachiko:
Sian was given some oranges and an empty box of chocolates from a stranger:
We enjoyed doing karaoke with a cloth on some chopsticks:
We met up with our sake buddies who we see once a year at this event:
We enjoyed watching some taiko drumming:

One great guy I met was Kenji, who cooks at a restaurant and made lots of the food we ate on that day:
He was very good at getting rounds of sake for us at regular intervals:
He also had a funny T-shirt on. You can see him here giving care to two of the guys who had passed out:
I did one of yearly traditions of taking a photo with someone who had passed out:
And finally, at the end of the event, Ayako spotted our local representative for the national government who was recently voted in, so I can say that I met somebody semi-famous that day:
Again, another fun day at the sake festival

Hana-no-mai sake festival

On Sunday, we went to the Hana-no-mai sake festival, which we go to every year at the end of October. Yet again, we could receive a nice sake glass to refill with sake as often as we liked and then polish it off:
We also found that we meet the same people there each year. Here's me with Masaki:
Here's me with a friend who I see each year at the sake festival. We'll have a good time talking and drinking and then wish each other well until next year:
There's also the entertainment there like these strangely dressed clowns who walk around playing music:
Here's Ayako with Kathleen, Christine and Heather at the shrine:
It was only a small group of us who came out this year:
And here's Christine and Sam getting out of the mini shower that came through:

Sake sampling night

On Friday night, I attended a sake sampling at Heart of Gold, which is where I went for last year's Thanksgiving dinner. A friend, Matt, was holding the event and also provided some delicious food as well:
I met the local sake expert, Robert, and was treated to lots of interesting information about different types of sake from Shizuoka as well as the history of sake in this prefecture. Here is a picture of me with Robert below:
Robert had brought four types of sake from one local brewery for us to sample. We drank them in increasing order of quality. The first two went well with the food we were eating. The third was quite nice by itself. The last and best one had quite a complex taste to it and I found it went well with the ice cream that we had for dessert, although not everyone agreed with me on that.
Later on, some others joined us to help finish the bottles we had started. Although this group has met before a few times, it was my first time. I was glad to find out about this group since I haven't met many others who enjoy finding out about the different types of sake and examining them closely. I'm looking forward to the next time the sake sampling group meets.

Hana-no-mai sake festival 2007

(Jan. 3, 2009): I just discovered a post that never was. I was putting labels on all of my posts and realized that there was no post on the Hana-no-mai sake festival in 2007. So here it is:
It was a beautiful day and this year I didn't have as much to drink as last year. Ayako had a bit more to drink this time, so I was kinda taking care of her, but basically she was fine:

"Hana no mai" sake festival

On Sunday, there was a free sake festival at a shrine near the largest sake brewery in Hamamatsu. When you arrive, they give you a nice sake glass and then you can fill it as often as you like:
We found a spot to sit and drink beside a friendly group of guys:
There was even some entertainment such as clown musicians, basket heads and taiko drummers:

Sake

Since I've been in Japan, I've found that my favourite drink here is sake. There a number of types and qualities, so I'm hoping to get better at distinguising them. I've already found out that the quality is closely matched to the price. You can buy either small or large bottles at liquor stores such as the small ones below:

At bars I've tried both hot and cold sake. Hot sake is much smoother although the taste is much more subtle. For cold sake, they sometimes but a glass in a square wooden cup and then pour sake into the glass so that it overflows into the square wooden cup. This is suppose to show you that they are giving you so much that it overflows the glass.

I've heard there are also sake bars, so I'm hoping to try going to one of those sometime. There's also a sake festival in a month or so which I'm hoping will be a fun time.