Sake Factory

As a child who frequented Japan every summer, my favorite store was a few houses down. It was a toy store that had models and radio-controlled cars and games and candy and... You get the drift. When I returned to Japan 17 years later, in 2007, I was sad to see that the once welcoming doors were now shut and the toy store had gone out of business. What I didn't realize that right across the street was another business that I would have not had any interest in, at that young age. It was a sake factory. Oh Em Gee! For the Matsuri, they opened up a small stand in their driveway - $1 sake shots in a wooden box (more like 4 American shots), $2 Sapporo dark beers, chicken and beef skewers, and Miso soup. The sake was smoooooooooooooth...