Sake Karma – Sake Friends Helping Sake Friends

Call me new age! Ha! Call me whatever, but I seriously believe that there is a lot of karma in the sake industry. Some say what goes around comes around. Some say you reap what you sow, but most agree that what you do comes back to you in spades or sake!

Karma in this context comes in the form of friends helping friends. I have helped a lot of people for the past 15 years. I have helped to make contacts for folks. I have helped to put brewers in touch with importers. I have helped people gain access to working at sake breweries. And I have helped competing retail stores by telling about the pitfalls and traps about selling sake to help them make a better business plan to compete against me! Stupid? No! Karma smart.

I am karma conscious because I had some people help me back in the day. Two guys in particular took me under their wing, because perhaps they saw that I would one day give it back! Koichi Saura the owner of Urakasumi brewery in Miyagi, and Kazu Yamazaki the head of Japan Prestige Sake International here in the US both went out of their way to help me and give me a “sake sense” about the endeavor that I started so many years ago. In simple terms they looked out after me. Both guys kept in touch with me when they did not have to. Why? I’m not absolutely sure, but I think that they sensed in me a person who was capable of spreading sake karma and goodness.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think it was Koichi who recommended me to become the first Sake Samurai. I am grateful to this day. And I am not 100% sure why Kazu opened his portfolio and sake sensibilities up to me, but he did and I am eternally thankful. Both of these guys gave me sake strength, and I’m probably still selling sake today because of these guys! You don’t believe me? Well, why don’t we do a little test! Why don’t I show you right here how sake karma works? Are you sure that you don’t believe me? If you don’t then scroll down now to read another section, but if you do then think good sake karma. Are you thinking?

This is how sake karma works! Koichi Saura is the current owner and president of Urakasumi Sake Brewery in Miyagi Prefecture. Urakasumi has an exporter/importer called Japan Prestige Sake International run by Kazu Yamazaki. Koichi makes it and Kazu brings it to market. And we sell it! So if Kazu all of a sudden has a positive karma feeling on behalf of JPSI and Urakasumi and tells me that I can get a little sumpin’ sumpin’ off of a fresh case of sake from Miyagi then I say, Wow! And I say, cool! So if you are still reading this piece about Sake Karma, then behold the following: if you come to or call in to the store and say “Sake Karma Is For Real” then we will sell you a bottle of Urakasumi Junmai Daiginjo sake for the same price that we sell the Urakasumi Junmai. You get a bump up in two price points for the low price of the Junmai. You go from premium to super premium by simply reading this article and by saying the magic words. Now that is Karma!