"I was lost on a street corner in Toyko, several minutes late for my Kikisake-shi test, the Japanese Master Sake "Sommelier" exam. I had only a set of directions to the examination hall, written in Japanese characters, and my own limited command of the language to guide me. The first policeman I stopped spoke no English, but he was able to grasp my problem and pointed me in one direction, scribbling down more cryptic…