A few shows are returning after the New Year programming hiatus, and some new fill-in shows have started popping up. Here are some brief reviews after the page break: Continue reading ‘More 2013 Post-New-Year Anime’
Author Archive for risu
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This highly-adaptable bottle carrier designed by ITS Tactical and manufactured by Zulu Nylon Gear can fit almost any EDC water bottle currently on the market, even legacy GI 1-quart canteens. Made from US-sourced materials in the USA, this MOLLE-compatible bottle holder uses a Velcro-adjustable perimeter nylon webbing band at its base and elastic shock-cord keeper at the top to retain bottles up to the size of a 1-liter Nalgene. The MOLLE attachment is a traditional 1″ nylon webbing weave strap with a terminal snap. It uses one channel in width and three high. It can also be configured to fit a 2″ belt by passing the strap under the lowest two sections of weaving webbing. The main body is made from a piece of 2″ nylon webbing folded over a LDPE stiffener. The webbing perimeter band is sewn to the body and uses hook Velcro on one end and loop on the other for diameter adjustment. The tail of the main body loops under the bottle and is captured in the adjustment of the perimeter band by hook and loop sections at its terminal tip to keep the bottle from just slipping out the bottom. The elastic shock cord top retainer has a grippy tab for easy manipulation, and can be adjusted both in girth by tying it larger or smaller (the knot is inside the tab) and height by using one of two slots in the main body. I got the MultiCam version that uses jacquard woven MultiCam webbing and pattern matched Velcro. The snap is a blackened, Mil Spec non-magnetic brass component. Continue reading ‘ITS Tactical Skeletonized Bottle Holder’
As a special edition for sale in Hokkaido as omiyage to take back to the rest of Japan, Yuraku confectionery introduced the Shiroi Burakku Sandaa (White Black Thunder) chocolate bar. Since the introduction of Ishiya’s Shiroi Koibito white chocolate coated butter cookies, Hokkaido has been inexplicably tied to white chocolate. This is of course in tune with the image of Hokkaido as a snowy, white realm. Thus, the substitution of a white chocolate overlay on the normal dark, milk chocolate automatically makes the Shiroi Burakku Sandaa “Hokkaido-ish”. I haven’t seen the white version as a single bar for sale in grocery or convenience stores, but I’m generally not looking for candy bars. This gift pack is available at various shops at the Shin-Chitose airport, and according to the packaging is in fact made in Hokkaido. I have eaten the normal version, but I can’t recall what it was like, beyond being not “premium” chocolate. The white version essentially tastes like an inside-out Oreo cookie.
Several shows are on hiatus over the new year holiday, but a few new shows have sprung up on CR. Nothing outstanding though, but a few are not terrible. Read about them after the page break! Continue reading ‘2013 Post-New-Year Anime’
“What unit you with?”
“Huh?”
“What unit are you with?”
“I’m not with any unit: I’m just some guy.”
“No, really,”
(1)Here we go for another music extravaganza from Japan. With the declining economy, the presentation has been getting progressively sparser, but hopefully the talent will shine and carry the day. We’re doing this live, so bear with the typos and frequent updates! Ikimassho! Continue reading ‘2013 63rd Annual NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen’
Okay, I’m back in the land of cinnamon-scented urinal screens. The old HAL 767-3G5 ER, tail number N586HA had to return to the gate to get the brakes worked on. This is another one of the three Lufttransportunternehmen transfer aircraft. Apparently, the ABS light came on while taxiing to the runway, and that’s a mandatory checklist fail, so we had to come back in and get it looked at. It was probably a bad sensor, mabye affected by the cold temperatures, as they cleared it up in short order and we left only one hour late. I guess that’s what happens when you actually depart the gate early!
With temperatures of -6 to -8C and wind at around 3 to 8 m/s, I tried Propper softshell pants (no laminate membrane nor fleece inner layer) over Patagonia Capilene 1 long underwear. The cold could be felt more than less-breathable pants, especially when the wind blew. These pants would probably be OK in these temperatures for highly aerobic activities like snowshoeing or skinning up on a splitboard, but the urban comfort level gives out around 0 to -3C or so without a heavier baselayer.
Other than two bottomless powder days in Niseko I only got in one craptastic day at Sapporo Kokusai. Things timed out rather well this time at Niseko with a big storm preceeding me and continued snowfall while I was there. Things timed out poorly at Kokusai, with my visit bracketed by good days. The steeper powder stashes were all tracked out, and the unridden areas were still a little too soft to be able to carry speed on the shallow slopes. Monday would have been epic, and today (Wednesday) would have been not so suckariffic. Eh, sometimes you just have to chance it. You can’t nail the timing all the time. I guess I could have tried to hit there today then head straight to the airport and jump in the onsen before boarding, but there was the chance that heavy snows could have snarled ground transportation and I would have been stuck. As is with the holidays, traffic on the major highways has been pretty bad.
Okay, I’m off to Niseko tomorrow morning for some snow ripping and onsen dipping. I hope this time the stars are in alignment and I get snow, no wind, and cold temperatures. There better be some payoff for surviving the end of the world. Dammit!
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