The decline of civilization.....

[gurdymonkey]

I took the long way home via Jack London Square so I could pick up a nice bottle of sake, as I have been invited to visit A Certain Japanese Clan at Pennsic.

To my utter horror and disgust, the JLS branch of BevMo had (a) moved its sake shelf over next to a window - showing ignorance or indifference to the fact that sake is light and heat sensitive and (b) did not have a single bottle of Rihaku Wandering Poet. (Which begs the question, what is my boss going to end up giving me for Christmas when he walks into HIS local BevMo this December.)

No, I cannot call myself a connoisseur of sake or even a sake snob. I am still educating myself and my tastebuds - but I know what I like and I know what I don't like and I know that Wandering Poet is bottled heaven.

There were a bunch of Momokawa sake (but only the Asian pear flavor of the fruit infused Momokawa Moonstone line), a few Takara products (gotta have Takara, they brew in Berkeley) and a few other varieties I am not familiar with. Considerable shelf space was wasted on fourpacks of something called Sake2me. Dammit, I cannot present a bushi daimyou and his people with fruity girly wine-coolerish sake for trendaholic Silicon Valley yuppies that comes in a frickin' four pack! It is Just Not Done.

I finally found something that I knew was good because it was served to me at Estrella - Murai's Nebuta Honjozo. It also has a wonderfully ferocious ukiyo-e samurai with beetling black eyebrows on the label, which may amuse The Daimyou. A friend is driving out to Pennsic and has agreed to transport it for me so it doesn't get smashed in my checked luggage. BevMo has been duly emailed with a plea to bring back Wandering Poet, even if it's only the 300 ML bottles. If they don't, I'm just going to have to make special trips up to El Cerrito or into San Francisco to buy sake I know I like - because BevMo's promotions never ever seem to apply to sake anyway!

Comments

[spearweasel.livejournal.com]

I think it's awe-inspiring that you put some much thought into what you do. It definitely prods me to up my own game, even if I don't manage it very often. I sometimes feel conflicted playing a Japanese persona, because, well, I'm not picky. I'm not perfectionist. When one plays a Japanese persona, those are definitely good qualities to possess... they add to the verisimilitude. But that's why my robes are dark grey, my armor is black, and my persona is more like one of those wise-cracking Zen monks I read about. As a Japanese saint said,

はくな またた

*runs away giggling*

I love a man who can giggle....

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

O Most Noble Kamaitachi-dono!

You are too kind. I confess that my earliest influences in pursuing a Japanese persona were people who came to the SCA from re-enactment backgrounds which required a high degree of accuracy.

Fujimaki Tosaburou Hidetora started his SCA career doing a Welsh persona and it just wasn't working for him. Right around the time he squired to the knight I was then dating, he decided he wanted to do Japanese. As his lady's knight, I felt it incumbent upon me to be supportive and learn enough to hold up my end of the conversation. Part of that involved a bit of bonding at Pennsic 28. Part of it involved pointing him at Fujiwara no Aoi (kass_rants) in the hopes they could network and brainstorm. I only knew her slightly at the time. They chattered at each other for about four minutes, then turned to me and said: "And you're coming too, right, Jehanne?" Which is how I ended up making kosode, nagabakama and uwagi for a local themed event in the East, and got to know Kass and her husband Bob.

I should also mention some of our Tousando brothers. Date Saburou Yukiie and Ii Saburuou Katsumori, for playing poetry games with me. Otagiri Tatsuzou for his mad stuff-makin' skilz and his gallant hospitality when we first met at Estrella a couple of years back. Effingham, for his irritating habit of posting something like, "That fan's wrong," and refusing to reappear for months while my brain itches unmercifully and I go figure out how to research why the fan was wrong.

Part of the nitpickery also comes from the fact that there are so few people doing Japanese in my kingdom, and a fair number willing to be vocally negative about anyone doing it at all. The West can be downright hidebound about certain things, so I use that "guest in a European court" loophole for all it's worth. I am an emissary of The Exalted One, The Son of the Sun. I don't show up unless I am dressed as his representative, I don't lounge in a nylon chair like I'm watching TV when I am at court, I bow polite greetings to all and make obeisance to the hairy Vikings on the throne, or are they Persians this reign?

Your game is your game. My game is my game. What one gets out of the game is what one puts in. If you're having fun doing what you're doing that's great. If you're learning stuff along the way, that's great too.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Did the so-called management of this establishment seem to be of the type that might heed the words of someone with a clue? Words like "HEY, ASSNOZZLE! Your whole display is gonna SKUNK if you don't move it or at least put up a damn curtain!"

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

It is, at least, a north facing window. I did get an automatic reply that says my email was received. Whether anyone at BevMo will do anything about it is up to BevMo.