After giving the amber liquid inside a few swirls, Yuri Yamada brought the glass to her lips.
It could be a common scene at any of Japan's thousands of bars on any given night, but Yamada is surrounded by hundreds of whiskey bottles, and she isn't enjoying the liquor the way most of us would.
Yamada, 28, is practicing to become Suntory Ltd.'s first female whiskey blender -- a profession said to require memorizing the individual tastes and aromas of whiskeys in nearly 10,000 different casks.