Fortunately, today is #hakutsuru day, so I get to work out my job market-related frustrations with learning to move my body's energy all about and hopefully sending all that bad energy out of my body and straight into the floor.
I just hope all this residual energy doesn't shatter my windows or crack my foundation, cuz I've got a lot to let out! 
Well, I done did it. Didn't give in to my whiny brain and just finished #hakutsuru class and feel good, just like I knew I would. It was a good class too, so I'm really glad that I went.
Take that, silly brain! 
It's another chilly and gray day outside, so I've been fighting off the weather-induced malaise today. I need to go to the grocery store, but I've pretty much already decided I'm not going to do that.
Trying now to psych myself up for doing my #hakutsuru class. My brain is really pushing hard for me to blow it off because of the timing of the class and the fact that I'm hungry, but I really want to do that class. I enjoy it quite a bit, I always learn something new from it, and I know I'll feel better once it's done.
C'mon, 
! Get yourself high! Get out of your funk! It'll be good for us, I promise!
And that's my first #hakutsuru class of 2025 in the bag. Good thing that I've got some vidyas of at least some of the kata so I didn't look like a complete boob tonight by forgetting everything I've learned over the holiday break. It was good to be back in training, though. I really like hakutsuru - seems to better fit my body the older I get.
Last night's #karate class did indeed do a number on me last night for sure - all that floor work and the muy thai warmups led to quite a bit of soreness today. So my rust in remembering the kata was further "enhanced" by the rust on my internal gears.
I have a feeling I'm gonna be even more sore tomorrow. 
@slightlyoff What's more, there's gold at the end of the Hakutsuru Sake museum tour! 
30 sake only available in Japan (I'm not wild about the Hakutsuru sake imported into the US by Mutual Trading Company) Sake ice cream made from sake lees (I'd never seen or tasted this before... very interesting!) Sake tasting room with free samples of Tokubetsu Junmai & a tasty lemon-flavored sake as well as 2 Junmai Daiginjo-shu (ultra-refined premium sake)
One last post about the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery tour: Here are some photos of some of the historical sake brewing process stages.
Seimai & senmai - Milling & washing Shinseki - Soaking of rice in water Mushimai - Spreading of koji Shubo - Initial fermentation Moromi - Final preparation
Also, this is a clip of the sake brewing process.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-LgUph8P6zc
BTW: I was training to be a Japanese sake sommelier back in the 90s before I fell ill, so I have a real fondness for sake.
And despite it not being my usual sake brand of choice, I have a huge appreciation for what Hakutsuru has done. This is one helluva sake museum & I highly recommend it if you're in Nada.
If you're interested in sake brewing & you can't make it to Japan, here's the ENGLISH translation of the entire museum tour!
https://qrtranslator.com/0000001818/000001
Speaking of "things you should have been paying attention to during the sake brewery tour", this photo is of sake ice cream. It's delicious - made of sake lees, the rice remaining after sake is brewed from it.
The soft serve is available behind the shop counter. There's a museum sign in multiple languages advertising it.
I sat outside the brewery with cups for my family & guess who came up to me waving & pointing at my ice cream like a child.
I walked away.
I was startled, trying to figure out what happened when I noticed she pounced on the machine & hit the dispensing buttons repeatedly while nothing happened.
I sipped my cup, observing her lose her shit, walked up again, INSERTED A SPECIAL TOKEN, dispensed another cup of "Yamadaho" sake (pictured) & walked away.
The look on her face was priceless: Someone apparently didn't have any tokens (you had to have paid for them previously) and started to make a scene.
(2/2)
This was one of the funnier parts of the Hakutsuru Sake tour for me:
Let's start out by saying certain cultures don't believe in queuing. Some are even rude enough to actually PUT HANDS on you to push/pull you out of the way to get to their objective.
So a woman "of a certain culture", forcibly grabbed my shoulder & side & pulled me out of the way to get to this sake dispensing machine while I'm holding my "guinomi" (sake ceramic cup) under a tap getting a pour.
(1/2)
#sake #japan #hakutsuru
The Hakutsuru Brewery did an amazing job outlining the process of brewing sake, featuring the different rice that Hakutsuru uses as well as the milling process for different refined sake grades.
My favorite part of the tour: Hakutsuru Sake Brewery, founded in 1743. I've visited many sake breweries in Japan but never been here.
The sake they import to the US ("Sho-une") is pretty mass market & IMHO just okay but their Japanese native sake (and their museum) is really phenomenal!
