I’m sitting in my living room watching Tropical Storm Irene (downgraded from hurricane status a few hours ago) wreak havoc with my vegetable garden.  We don’t get weather like this in New England very often and are not used to dealing with it.  As a result, every loose branch and unsecured piece of patio furniture finds a way to come loose and take out the power lines.  In Orlando however, high winds and rain seem to be an almost daily occurrence in the late summer, and is taken in stride. 

The beauty of the Disney Downpour is the regularity and predictability of the late afternoon rain, and that it almost always clears up after an hour or two and leaves the early evening cleaner and slightly cooler.  During our last trip to WDW we were caught in such a storm while touring through Epcot’s World Showcase.  We ducked into the American Experience pavillion to put on our rain ponchos (a necessity for your pack!) and drink some Frozen Cokes.  Since we had a couple of hours before our dinner reservation at Tokyo Dining, we decided to spend some time in the Japanese Anime exhibit before heading up to dinner.

The exhibit is very cool whether or not you like anime.  But if you or your kids are into Miyazaki movies, Pokemon, or Hello Kitty, it’s a little slice of heaven.  It was still pouring when we left the exhibit, so we ducked into the back entrance of the giant Mitsukoshi department store.  Hidden in the back corner of this gargantuan store is a very nice surprise – a Sake bar!  I’m guessing it was a combination of the thunderstorm, the sake, and being at WDW, but it had one of the friendliest, happiest bar crowds I’ve ever encountered.

Here’s a portion of the menu, which I snapped to remind me which sake we ordered so that I could buy it later.  There are around ten different sakes available, plus plum wine.

I usually prefer unfiltered sake, and there is one on the menu.  But I’ve tried that brand before, and it’s not my favorite.  So, I chose Tenryo Koshu, the vintage sake, while my drinking companion chose the yuzu flavored.

Here’s the very sweet bartender pouring my sake, the bottle, and a snap of the finished product.