Danger Zone

Let me tell you about someone new I met. She's totally innocuous looking, comes at you in small doses but ultimately her plan at the end of the day is to leave you shattered and picking up the pieces.  Heed my warning. For reference, her name is Sake. I had my unfortunate encounter with her last Saturday at a festival, held in her honor.
Even more unfortunate was that Will left for Taiwan last Saturday on a business trip, leaving me to attend this Sake festival without him. Thankfully, (but in hindsight they were probably thinking the opposite was true for them) I had a couple of friends to go with.
There was a TON of people at this Sake festival, which was held in Saijo right by where Will works. With fantastic food and more drinks available around the perimeter of the festival, what's not to love?!
Within the circle, the festival itself, booths with hundreds of Sake were waiting to be poured into the teeny, tiny, adorable sake glasses that was given to you upon entry. Also handed to you upon walking in was a large pink book with the hundreds (thousands?!) of Sake that you could check off as you went through them. I was so ticked I left my pen at home. Seriously though-who could possibly drink, or even want to drink that much. ugh. The mere thought actually sends me into dry heaves.
We went to a few of the booths, each trying a bit of one another's to see if there was a fan favorite. Some were sweet, some were dry; others tasted exactly like how rubbing alcohol smells. These are my astute observations on Sake. For the record, # 55 was my all time fav.
After we left the smaller area and returned to the perimeter, we encountered more people whom Will works with, ate (a lot of) amazing grilled/smoked gouda and oysters, and unfortunately drank more sake which interestingly enough was being poured out of a bamboo faucet. Crazy.
The train ride home sucked. The company during the day? Fantastic. All in all fun memories and the knowledge that in the future, I'll probably just stick to a cold glass of beer.

crazy crowds

So this was a sake mixed drink. Cheating a little but oh so good. 

cheeeeeeeeseeeee.