Finally saw a 200-series Land Cruiser here. It was a black Lexus version with vanity plates. I’ve already seen several in Japan since they came out in late 2007.
(0)Monthly Archive for August, 2009
Airsoft fans rejoice! Power Edge in Kaimuki just got in the new KSC Japan gas blowback H&K MP7A1 PDWs. I dropped by yesterday and Peter let me test fire it. The heft and feel is superior to the Tokyo Marui AEG version, and the lock time is much better. The perceived recoil is very nice! On firing, it is obvious that this one is packing significantly more muzzle velocity than the AEG. The construction was very nice – even the feel of the materials felt like genuine H&K. All of this comes with a bigger price tag though – just a little shy of $400 USD! This is not bad considering the current dollar-to-yen exchange rate of around 95-yen-per dollar, and the JDM MSRP of 36,540-yen. Spin by and visit Peter and Dave to check one out. They had four left yesterday…
I saw a negative reaction to some students burning a star cut from an American flag in the Honolulu Advertiser Letters to the Editor this morning. This act was meant as a protest to the anniversary of Statehood, but was typical in its half-baked execution, which is in turn typical of the ignorant mentality of certain native rights/sovereignity groups. Immediately popping to mind was a memory of television news footage from the early days of the Makua valley controversy of a man in glasses climbing out of his brand new Subaru saying, “We don’t accept the White man’s laws. We don’t accept the White man’s ways.” Really? Where’s your malo? Explain your glasses and car. If these students were really advocating a return to pre-contact ways, they darned-well had better be ready to cut out the star with an obsidian or shark-tooth implement and start the fire with hau branches – made in PRC Fiskars and the BIC lighter don’t cut it! If you’re going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk… unless you’re just a fake or poser.
(0)Chris and I discussed this on our seperate drives home almost a month ago, but with the impending doom of Felicia and getting sick, I neglected to blog about it. On my way to meet the guys up at St. Louis is when I usually see all kinds of freakish and stupid krapp, usually along King Street. On the way to the last ride, I saw this fixie dude ride past with a black and white fur sporran on his drive-side hip! WTF?! I guess he needed somewhere to put his pocket goods, since there was no way to actually use the pockets in his unnaturally tight, pencil-legged, fashionably faded black jeans.
Need to buy any military surplus stuff locally? Head up to Wahiawa and visit Camouflage Shop on Wilikina Drive. Their selection has expanded a little, and it’s more organized inside (it’ll never be like when it first opened!). Military HQ on Sand Island seems to be on the way out. There are a lot of empty shelves, and there doesn’t appear to have been any new inventory in over a year. Too bad.
(0)Soup curry is quite popular in Hokkaido, a viable alternative to warm the body from both within your belly, and from your tongue. The name is an appropriate descriptor, it is somewhere between a soup and stew/curry. The broth is thin like a soup, but is spiced like a curry. It’s gotten so popular that like ramen, there exists a soup curry yokocho (alley) where you can find shop right next to shop next to shop all serving soup curry. This past winter I made it to Hokkaido to ride the powder and was fortunate to have friends lead me to one soup curry joint that was quite enjoyable. 
After that experience, everytime I went food shopping I’d keep my eyes open to see if some company would create a soup curry mix just like you can get the wafu style curry roux blocks everywhere. No such luck. I chocked it up to the thought that it hadn’t gained enough mainstream popularity elsewhere in Japan to gain the attention of the food manufacturers. Until tonight. Part of the problem was I was looking for the wrong thing. Tucked out of eye level sightline on the top shelf at Marukai was this small 6 oz. jar of soup curry paste. Had to pay attention as there was no English characters, but there it was. I checked it out, pork and chicken fat were the top ingredients, how can you go wrong with that? The only thing that was holding me back was the latest best buy date looked to be 5/30/09. Three months…. The stuff is chock full of salt…. The cap wasn’t bulging…. It should be okay…. Continue reading ‘Soup Curry!’
The next selection from Kiuchi Breweries, their take on the classic weissen, wheat beer. A light amber, pours with a moderate head that quickly dissapates, and like a good weissen some sediment you should swish around the last bits to pour into glass to make it properly cloudy. There isn’t an overwhelming aroma. The prominent flavor is citrus. On the verge of being sour. You’d swear someone already squeezed a lemon into your beer. There’s some pleasant floral tones hiding under there, but you have to pay attention. Clean finish. Dare I say it, it almost doesn’t taste like beer. Flirting dangerously close to a chick beer. Good thing I had this after my soup curry meal, I’m pretty sure it would not have gone well during. 5% alcohol content, not buzz packing juice.
I would have prefered a little less sour and taste more of the grain, but this is still a good drink. I would have to interject a caution of it may not go well with some food, it worked out well for me being almost a dessert after my meal.
3 out of 4 weissen monkeys.
Last monday thoughts turned to riding St. Louis. After the recent rains followed by clear weather, figured conditions would be prime. Ckucky and JT having time on their hands had already done two Dumps runs by the time I got to the park. I’d passed one guy on a cross country rig on the road up, just a precursor of things to come. By the time I geared up and the guys were roused from their lounging on a park bench, this guy had rolled through the parking and continued up into the park. Continue reading ‘Invasive Species’
I tried a Chang Thai Beer from Cosmos Breweries in Thailand with dinner at Saeng’s tonight. This Pilsen-style lager pours golden with a high level of carbonation. The aroma is peaty or musty, and the initial flavor is moderately bitter with a light malt flavor. The malt flavor comes out a little more in the middle, and the flavor tapers of cleanly. It isn’t as smooth as say Wernesgruener, but it is a very well mannered, easily drinkable beer. Tiger is still my favorite Thai beer, but this is my second favorite.
5.0% ABV
Recommended
Three out of four drunken monkeys
New product from GU sport supplements. Decided to try these “energy chews” which is fancy talk for candy. OK, they put stuff like vitamins in it to differentiate it, but they’re largely sugar of one form or another. I’m a fan of the Cliff Shot variety, but the shop no longer brings in the Margarita flavor which featured higher sodium to replace that lost in sweat and assist staving off cramps. GU stuff has been hit or miss, I use their lemon lime and strawberry banana gel supplements. Again mostly because no one brings in my favorite Cytomax gel version. The other guys have not liked their other products flavors, even going as far as eliciting an anger response from one! Continue reading ‘Gu Chomps Energy Chews – Blueberry pomegranate’