sake sake!

Hey everyone. Last Tuesday (on my only day off for the last few weeks) I went on a Sake brewery tour with a few friends and enjoyed many a free sample before heading out to Harbourland for an Indian feast. It was abloody great day. The funniest place we went to was the second brewery, just a little "mom and pop" place. it was closing up for the day, but we deftly took advantage of the two factors at our disposal:
1: Japanese people are generally too polite to refuse anyone anything directly.
2: They didn't speak any English and would therefore have been hard put to explain they were closed with all of the perfuntory linguistic embellishments that make up a Japanese apology.
So invited in we were, and to the delight of our reluctant host's husband, who showed us the inner workings of his very makeshift business. We saw steaming drums of Sake brewing, countless rust vats of fermenting sake and we drank. Upon discovering it was Pavla's birthday, our affable guide went straight for the hard stuff "Hey Canada!" he cried as he plied us with shot after shot of "free samples". Apparently he thought we were all Canadian, or something. It was hilarious. Poor Sarah, who's tiny, stumbled out of there slurring and madly stumbling towards the next sake stopover. I, on the other hand, was nothing if not dignified. A rarity and something of which I will remain proud until the next time I make an arse of myself in public.
Some Piccies...