Stress

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before in this space, but I've come to realize that stress is the absolute assassin of creativity. As i've gotten older, as my professional duties have become increasingly "important," as the stakes, real or imagined,  have gotten higher; i've noticed that my ability to simply organize my thoughts and put them down on paper has become harder and harder to bring out.
It's quite frustrating.

Other factors maybe at play as well.

Perhaps the Twitter/Facebook lifestyle of just posting in bite-sized bits has led to a situation where I actually think in them too. 

But then again, maybe my attention span has simply shrunk over time like -oh, look at that...

Tokyo, Sake, and Effort

Sometimes, despite all I've done with regard to my trips to Japan, i can't help but be disappointed in myself.. I've somehow managed to go to Tokyo five times now in the past six years, twice within the past 9 months. I would expect someone who has done this to, at the minimum, speak the language conversationally, but instead I still find myself muddling along, barely able to count to 10. 

Every time I went, I've envisioned blogging every night at my room, posting pictures and sharing details about my trip, and ever time I've posted maybe once or twice, and spent the rest of my time wandering. 

This is not enough.

It's not enough because I really want to share my experiences, i want other people to understand why i love that city the way that I do, and often, when i bring someone there, I accomplish that. It feels as if i drag them out to the other side of the world and say, "LOOK!"

Fortunately, the city tends to speak for itself, and out of the half dozen or so people I've been responsible for bringing to Tokyo, a generous number of them have decided that it's a place that they want to visit again.

I suppose by that measure, I've been successful. 

I'm also a bit of a sake ambassador to my friends, breaking stereotypes and introducing people to premium sake. I've helped many understand what sake really is and how it should be served...

But that's still not enough.

I want to find a way to spread this information more, to teach reach out and share what it is about Japan, about Japanese culture, about Sake with as many people as possible.  I've had ideas about how to do this, and now I'm thinking that maybe i need to start taking them seriously. 

My goal is to update my Sake Blog at least weekly and, in an effort to get my writing back up to snuff, update this blog daily. This is the first day, the goal is to make thirty, we'll see how I do in the next few weeks.