腰が痛い! 如何して？ Ow! What the F did I do to cause that? Lower back went off while taking a shower.
(0)Author Archive for risu
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I picked up something different from Mamaya at Shirokiya’s food level – a onigiri made from rice mixed with tarako (cod roe) and thinly cut konbu (prepared kelp). Overall flavor was very good. Rice was a little on the softish side, and the same was true for the salmon onigiri I got, so the rice was either overcooked, or not allowed to cool properly after steaming. The nori (seaweed laver) was all limp since there was no JDM-style wrapper that kept the nori separate from the rice until you opened it. I didn’t see any of the ha-togarashi onigiri available, so maybe this one replaced it as a rotating flavor. Continue reading ‘Mamaya Yaki Tarako Konbu Onigiri’
While listening to the vacuous K-pop that occasionally ninjas its way onto 97.1 by the unfortunate grace of there being Japanese-language crossover K-songs that make it onto the Japanese chart rankings, I realized that although unintentional on their part, “KARA” means “empty” (空) in Nihongo – you know, like in “karate” or “karaoke” (go look it up). How oddly appropriate! Guess that’s another one to add to the list of otherwise innocuous names that go bad when transplanted into another language like “Nova” and “Pajero.”
(0)Popped into Mojo Tactical to visit Dave after I got back from Japan. He had these KFC parody patches in original color and subdued tan. Image is pretty good, but the subtext is somewhat forced …not particularly clever …okay, lame. Eh, it’s worth several laughs. Sort of makes me want to put a fully loaded plate carrier on one of the Colonel Sanders statues outside a restaurant and take a picture! Definitely can’t put a bump helmet on him unless you gut the foam, since his fiberglass hair is huge. Maybe a keffiyah would be better. Patch has a rude gesture, so it’s after the break… Continue reading ‘November Patches’
I hope the trains aren’t super crowded on the way to the airport. It should time out OK, since I’ll be headed out around 15:00, so that’s after lunch and before the pau-hana rush. Still, I’ve found myself standing all the way to Chitose before, so today might be more of the same.
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Now that’s something you don’t see every day… no less in Japan! Odd there were no security guards about, but that would just make breaching the gates easier for the sake of advancing the movie plotline.
Hopefully Wayland will enjoy these, since he’ll be inflicted with them. I guess we will all end up being victims though, unless Fabio goes incommunicado and avoids the meetup in anticipation of this. I’ve eaten shako (Oratosquilla oratoria) once. It was flavorless and didn’t break apart when chewed. It wasn’t rubbery like squid, it was more crunchy like gristle. Great. Garlicy gristle! Maybe everyone will be lucky and Ag or Customs will seize them.
Seriously, how do these guys do it? The hourly forecast called for rain last night with a clear, partially cloudy morning, followed by increased cloudiness at noon, with clearing again in the afternoon and evening. It indeed went from blue skies with scattered clouds this morning to a full overcast at lunchtime. I’ll expect blue as I head to the airport this afternoon. They must have some serious supercomputing power!
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What should I find at the supermarket than two new-ish dark offerings from mainstream breweries. Decades ago, it was “Dunk” (heck, that’s so old, it exists only in my memory and I can’t find anything about it online… did it even exist? It had Arnold the Governator in their advertising and was product-placed on some stewardess drama) which faded from popularity, but now darks are back, albeit still on the tamer end of the flavor scale. From Yebisu comes the Creamy Top Stout aimed to compete with the widgeted Guinness, and Asahi Dry Black, a dark lager offering. I actually had the Yebisu Creamy Top Stout on draught at a restaurant in Okayama last year, but this is the first time I’ve tried the Asahi Dry Black. Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Battle of the Black Cans’
I can just hear Fabio fighting the power! This mild, clear weissbier is produced by the Moortgat Brouwerij (brewery) that brings us Duvel and the various “Chouffe” beers and ales from the Brasserie d’Achouffe brewery. The Vedett name was originally used to market a lager in the 1940’s, but in the 2000’s, the brand was realigned toward a younger, upscale market with the introduction of a pilsener and the weiss I will review here. The flavor is not as heavily citrussy out of the bottle as some other weissbiers are. There is a hint of bitter over the moderate wheat flavor. The carbonation is low: You can feel a hint of bubbles on the tongue, but there is no head. It is cloudy, as a weiss should be, but has the least amount of accumulated sediments of all the bottled weissbiers I have observed. This weiss is the lightest in flavor that I’ve had so far. That’s not specifically a bad thing, as I’ve had a couple of microbrew or craft weissbiers where they smack you on the head with a hand drilling hammer with the amount of sediment and taste overburden they have. The Vedett Extra White Weiss has a good balance of flavor and body, but is on the crisper, refreshing side of the scale instead of the fuller, “meatier” (meal in a glass) side. Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Vedett Extra White Weiss’