One of my regular yearly gigs is teaching a small sake seminar for licensed tour guides aimed at helping them to introduce sake to overseas guests in English. I start by sharing my story to help them understand what hooks people outside Japan into the world of sake. I then proceed to provide pointers on what aspects of sake to focus on the initial introduction to the beverage. My advice these days is generally to focus more on the culture, history and traditions to start with and then once you have earned the person's interest, you can then start to talk a bit about how sake is made, the ingredients, and styles, etc. The seminar is provided by the Japan Sake and Shochu Maker's Association and the venue is the old red brick brewing research center in Oji, Tokyo, the former HQ of the NRIB. This year the seminar was also beamed live to a second venue in Osaka. There is also a seminar by Shuso Imada, manager of the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center about the global sake industry. Once again, this year's seminar was fully booked. Following the seminar, participants had a chance to ask some questions such as "how to you get around the perception that honjozo is lower quality than junmai?", "what kind of sake is best served warm?", "how do you explain umami", and many more. With more sake-savvy guides out there, perhaps more visitors to Japan will get to discover sake during their trip.