The Big Blog Question

Last week, that wild and crazy Walla Walla woman, Catie from Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine, hit– or, rather, tagged – me and Denise over at Wine Matters with a heavy question: “Why do you blog?” To tell the truth, I’d never thought much about it before. But there’s a first time for everything, so here it goes.

Why did I start blogging about wine and sake?

Like all bloggers, I dig writing. Always have, and probably always will. Like most bloggers, I dig it even more when other people read what I've written. Shy though I may be, I’m an attention hog at heart. Is that so wrong?

A little over a year ago, something pretty significant happened to me. It started out as an ordinary day. Standing at the front of my Intermediate Writing class, watching students drift into an infuriatingly peaceful sleep, I looked into the future and realized that I needed to make a change. Something had to give, and I was worried that it might be my sanity. The thought of spending the rest of my life teaching prepositions made my toes curl; I was boring everyone, not least myself, with a tired spiel on the usage of “at”, “on”, and “in”. That night, I went home and thought long and hard about what I was really interested in, what I excelled at.

Drinking was the first thing to spring to mind. Although it’s technically not a vocation, I nonetheless felt like I was getting warmer. I’d recently started studying up on wine and found that learning about it increased my enjoyment immensely. At the same time, I started getting into sake. Once I cracked my first sake book (Philip Harper’s Insiders Guide to Sake, in case you’re interested), I was hooked. Y’all know I’m a geek. When I thought about it more, the idea of going into the wine and sake business didn’t seem so far-fetched. Perhaps it was possible to make a career out of drinking after all.

I began this blog as a means of synthesizing all the information I was gathering about wine and sake, and it’s evolved into a kind of gastronomic memoir. Putting my experiences into words has helped me tremendously in the way of remembering facts and figures, but it’s also helped me articulate my thoughts more clearly; my writing has (I hope) improved as a result. A bunch of cool opportunities have some my way, including some work for the Tokyo Food Page, but the best thing has been connecting with like-minded people who love food, wine, and sake.

On that note, I'm gonna reach out and touch someone, a few people, actually.

Etsuko, of Tokyofoodcast fame, a woman with a passion for sake and a soft spot for wine.
Hiroko, one of the forces behind Itakdakimasu, a foodie with the heart of an oenophile based in New York.
My new blog friend Scott, who brings his love of wine to the grill and then the table at Hipcheck's Blog.