I received a rather large package in the mail this morning which at first puzzled me - I knew for a fact that despite what I might hope, Rock Band really wasn’t going to arrive that fast! It was only when I saw the ‘Produce of Japan’ stamped on the side that it dawned on me who it might be from - my most significant client right now is a Japanese company.
I unpacked the box to find a rather large bottle of sake - 1.8L to be precise, this is apparently the traditional size. I’ve had sake before, but it’s fair to say I’ve probably only had the rougher stuff, since I’ve only encountered it in Chinese restaurants in the west (and once in China, but again I was with a western party) and I doubt they select it carefully when their patrons largely know nothing about it. I have no idea about what makes good or bad sake, it’s always seemed something of an acquired taste but on looking around the web at how many sake review sites there are even in English, I guess it’s a whole lot more complicated than I realise. This particular sake is, from what I can tell, a well regarded brand so I’ll be very interested to see what it tastes like.
This was a very nice gesture, and is linked to the fact that we recently passed a second significant milestone in the project I’m working on with them - a couple of demos for top brass & investors in Tokyo last week. It went rather well thanks to the hard work of everyone involved over the last 6 months - our team is small but spans 3 continents (plus a little dot in the ocean of course 
) and I think we got some great work done in the time. It was a relief and very gratifying therefore to know that the results went down well with the people that saw the demo. With luck I should be staying with the project for a while longer yet to continue to take the product through to the next phase.
And yes, when I am allowed to show you pictures of the product in question, I will.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:37 am
conclusion, it must be something graphical
April 9th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
A nice detail of them
1.8L is probably the standard size there as they can’t assimilate alcohol particularly well, so a little of it is enough to have a strong effect on them.
I like to take warm sake, rather than cool. I feel it’s more traditional this way
Tradition says (AFAIK) that when sake has a bad taste, something is going wrong inside of you (any physically or spiritually). I myself think this is mostly superstition and a matter of brands, but I guess I’m a little superstitious in this aspect 
Enjoy it, specially with the family and friends. That’s the best time to take sake
April 9th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
“a couple of demos for top brass & investors in Tokyo last week”
Bloomin ummer you must be doing something right!!
Im interested, how many projects are you working on now / have worked on that you want to tell us about but cant?
April 9th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Right now I’m only on one main project, plus a couple of on/off bits of random consulting. Over the last 18 months I’ve had about 8-10 paying clients, plus a bunch of other discussions regarding other projects that didn’t turn into actual paid work yet - quite a few aren’t public yet. It’s nice to have one decent-running project though, saves on all the overheads (contract negotiation, relationship building etc) associated with each bit of work.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Ahhh Sake…One of the most disgusting drinks know to man…
The last time I had some was some warm sake in a small secluded restaurant in Kyoto. Boy did it taste foul
April 9th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
1.8L, encouraging alcoholism!
I’ve never tried it myself, but it’d be interesting to see what it’s like. I’ve always been a fan of strong drinks. I grew up on Cognac after-all! (not in the literal drunken way, on very rare occasions).
July 4th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
[...] not much of a drinks expert, despite this not being the first time I’ve received locally-themed alcohol from people using / benefitting from Ogre, so I looked it up, and it has quite a history - [...]