My first sake of the evening was a daiginjo called Koshi no Homare. I would like to say that I chose this sake for a particular reason, but truthfully it was the first sake that I randomly walked up to at the daiginjo table. Koshi no Homare is brewed in Nigiita prefecture by the Hara Syuzou Corp. An interesting article in the Daily Yomiuri Online tells of how this brewery recently resumed production again in August of this year after sustaining major damage from the July 16 earthquake in Japan.
Unfortunately I can't tell you much about what Koshi no Homare tasted like because I honestly don't remember. My plan that night was to try and remember what each sake tasted like and I am ashamed to say that I failed miserably in my task. This was not because I was too inebriated to remember. On the contrary, the "plastic syringe" that we all used to squirt a small amount of sake into our plastic cups kept me from over indulging this night. No, my palate was simply "shot" that night from all of the complex sake I tasted. You try drinking twenty daiginjo in a row and see how your taste buds fair.
One of the few things I disliked about this event was that all of the sake (with a few exceptions) were served at room temperature as opposed to chilled. I assume this was done purposely since it would be a logistical nightmare to try and keep chilled three hundred bottles of different sake while still allowing people to self serve themselves. Thankfully there were a few tables scattered around the perimeter of the ballroom that were manned by representatives of specific distributors and brewers. While not many, these few tables were pouring chilled sake, and my wife and I took full advantage of this fact as you can see in the above picture.
The traditional kagami biraki ceremony or ritual breaking open of the sake cask signaled the start of the 2007 
