| We hopped off the boat near the half-way point so that we could wander around part of Matsue's business district and then grab lunch. We stopped at a sake brewery to learn a little bit about making sake. They didn't have any materials in English, so Nomi-sensei filled us in. This is a photo of the tasting room. There are five major kinds of sake. Unfortunately, I don't remember their names: light and clear, aromatic, aged, full-body, and a cloudy style that looked similar to the cloudiness you'd see in an unfiltered German wheat beer. Both Nomi-sensei and Rob had to drive, so I was the only one tasting. I tried them all. (All were chilled, none warm.) The light & clear version is the taste I'm familiar with. The aromatic kind was amazing: I would have sworn that there were grapes in it; it reminded me quite a bit of a Riesling. I ended up buying a bottle of the 2004 award-winning brew. I had no idea how I was going to fit it into my already-stuffed suitcase, but it was worth the hassle: this stuff is good!
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