I hate you, JAL bagel. You taste funny. Your label says you’re “maple-walnut flavored” and that you’re “New-York-style”. I haven’t been to New York, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a maple-walnut bagel before you. Don’t get me wrong – I like bagels – just not you. I almost don’t think you’re really a bagel. When I bend you, you tear instantly. Although you’re dense and chewy inside like you should be, your rind is almost nonexistent. It’s like you weren’t boiled anywhere long enough prior to baking. The long-winded description on your packaging says you’re made with the finest wheat from Montana and pure spring water from the Cascades. I didn’t realize Montana was such a famous wheat-producing state. In any regard though, even the best of ingredients can be made into the worst of foods. Importing ingredients from America doesn’t automatically render an American bagel. I saved part of you for Root to eat so he could taste your nostalgically unpleasant flavor and get all angry too, but he didn’t show up today. I don’t want to be wasteful, but I think I’m just going to throw the remainder of you away since my stomach already feels a little upset. Continue reading ‘JAL Bagel’
Archive for the 'Culture' Category
Page 27 of 37
On the way to Sapporo, I only had an hour layover in Narita, so after getting through immigration, baggage claim, and customs, I ran over to the domestic counter to check my bags in then went up to the observation deck to cool down. After the sweat evaporated, I went inside to look for a quick bite. I was thinking of going to Sushi-den, the usual sushi-ya I eat at, but I didn’t want to scarf everything down in like 10-minutes and run out of there, so I went to Kyotaru, the take-out sushi place over on the North side (it’s right on the main walkway fronting the balcony overlooking the check-in counters). One of the first things I saw was their Battera, so without even looking at any of their other offerings, I grabbed one and was off to the domestic gate. Continue reading ‘Mmm… Battera’
A few years ago when JAL retired it’s last B747-200SUD on a final return trip from HNL to NRT, it was met with much fanfare, filled with people who bought tickets in advance specifically to be on that last flight. I used to avoid the HNL-NRT run if I couldn’t get the later flight that was downsized to a newer B767 to specifically avoid that plane. It was stinky, creaky, noisy, and uncomfortable, yet some people found some sort of nostalgia in all of that – enough to pay a premium to be on that last flight. I was on it a couple of weeks before that final flight, and I don’t miss that old bird one bit. Continue reading ‘Jumbover’
No, really people. I heard the lady, and she even said it in Japanese! In fact, she ONLY said it in Japanese! As I wait near the gate in the waiting room, I watch all the anxious people milling about the gate. There are a few tour groups, and their companion guide is even telling them, “please, go sit back down until they call your row,” but they insist on clogging up the area in front of the gate entrance. At every instance when a slightly different announcement comes over the PA, whether it be for premier members or parents with young children, they start the push again. There is no way I could be a guide because I’d be all like, “F**k, are you m**herf**kers all like f**king stupid or something? Sit the f**k back down!” Samuel L. Jackson as a tour guide… Continue reading ‘Wait Until Your Row Number Is Called…’
Scored this from Dave over at Power Edge on Monday at the grand opening of their new store off of Kona Street. Thanks Dave! I feel priviledged to be one of the few who possess his custom-made brain-eating zombie Cookie Monster patch!
Heading up Ward today a couple of cars behind a State Sheriff’s Department vehicle, and he stops in the middle of the intersection at Beretania, turns on his rooftop flashy light, and gets out of the car all haughty and disgusted looking. He leans down and picks up the remmnants of one of the contra-flow lane signs that someone has summarily destroyed and tosses them onto the sidewalk at the corner by the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Great. Clear a road hazard by creating a hazard for pedestrians on the sidewalk? Genious.
(0)Oh, krapp! I slept thru the first hour of the Kohaku! Once again, I sit in front of the TV on New Year’s Day watching the local delayed broadcast of the NHK “Red and White Song Festival”. Let’s get to it forthwith. Hopefully I can catch the beginning in rebroadcast later… Going live!
Never shy about giving themselves a pat on their own shoulder, this year’s theme seems to be revolving around NHK’s morning drama, “Ge Ge Ge no Nyoubou”.
After hearing mention of this, happened to be going past the second location of the Japanese Market Nijiya (a California francise, I believe) and saw that it was open, and I needed stuff for NewYears. It’s in that small collection of stores at the corner of Piikoi and Kona, where Blockbuster used to be. It’s a fair amount more condensed than the University location, and a large portion I thought was wasted on a eating/lounge area. Anyway, it a pretty convenient location and parking is free and easy, although their dedicated lot is not huge and can get congested when there is some lady in a Mercedes waiting to pick up friend blocking three people trying to get out of stalls and leave. You can always park in Ala Moana in the Sears corner and its a short walk over. I didn’t think they were so successful to warrant a second location, but we shall see! Oh, and a good amount of interesting JDM goodness to see.
Man, I just saw some old dude on a moped with a Chang Beer T-shirt! Where’d he get that? I want one!
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One of the fun things about travelling around Japan is trying out regional food and beer. While in Iwanai on the Southwest coast of Hokkaido on the Sea of Japan, I had a chance to try this local offering. Considering that the farming belt above the coastal town of Iwanai was where hops were first cultivated in Japan, and this is where Sapporo Breweries sources the hops for their “all Hokkaido” Hokkaido Meibutsu “gold can” lager, I was expecting at some kind of mind-altering hops experience from this beer, particularly since it was labelled a “pilsner”. I was disappointed. Perhaps I should have been expecting something more from the “deep ocean seawater” also called out on the bottle labelling of this rather watery beer. This is another case like the Otaru Bakushu beers where you can start out with premium ingredients and still produce an unremarkable beer. The initial pour and good head excited me, but the first sip fell flat. There was a good carbonation dry bite, but as that faded out, it was replaced with neither a malty richness nor a hoppy bitterness. There was a faint flowery hop aroma if I tried really hard to detect it, but it was otherwise a rather bland beer. I guess I should be glad that it was mild and easily drinkable, as opposed to being strongly flavored in a negative way. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Iwanai Ji-biiru Lager’