Isn’t this a nice sake set? 5 o-chokko or sake cups, and 2 tokkuri or flasks. The flowers painted on the ceramic are simple yet beautiful, and the cups are thin and light. My wife and I saw this item for sale at the bazaar at the Naruto library on Sunday. It looked nice, but when I saw the price, I had to buy it. How much? ¥100! That’s right, 100 yen, about $1 dollar!

I’m not sure how popular sake still is in Japan with the younger generation, but I’ve always enjoyed it. I believe (though I might be wrong) that the sake expert John Gauntner said that you know what you are getting when you spend a certain amount of money on sake. With wine, there can be hits and misses, no matter what level of money you spend (well over a certain amount, ie. lots of money, you will consistently get a good/great wine). With sake, once you spend a certain amount (much less than you would comparably to the wine world) you will consistently get good/great sake.

So anyway, I picked this up and later in the day I had to baptize it. Some sake was purchased, the vessels and cups were washed and sake was enjoyed. I regret that I couldn’t share the experience with my father-in-law, as sake is nice to drink when enjoying someone’s company.

The bazaar held a few other wondrous surprises including some black rice we found (locally grown), some nice clothes we purchased and some quince that I found. Those will be cooked up this week and if the results are OK, I will share the news with you.

Three cheers for bazaars! Hip-hip, hooray!