Archive for the 'rant' Category

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Geico bao

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The heck flavor is that bao sitting in this box from Chun Wah Kam noodle factory?!

Not Even Phonetic

Horrible!  I cringe, sensibilities offended, every time I hear Andou Yuuko’s rendition of Aloha ‘Oe.  I have no idea what went wrong, but she’s pronouncing it “aloha o-wee” instead of “aloha oy“.  It’s not like the “oy” sound doesn’t exist in Nihongo (“oi”), and I hope it’s not like she never heard the song performed in its native ‘olelo Hawai’i previous to doing her recording.  I could almost imagine the producer or whoever did the lyric translation saying, “sing it o-wee… why? Because I said so,” like how native English speakers who do bit parts on Japanese movies have to read the script verbatim no matter how gramatically wrong the lines are.  We can’t really blame her though, until Americans learn to say “Tokyo” with less than three syllables.  I think this is a theme song for a current movie or drama…

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Hare

Of course the weekend is epic weather when no one’s available to ride and I hurt my hand.

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Fort Ruger Pathway

Today, Saturday, I lounged around all beginning of the day, the forecast earlier had called for dire rains, which only so far showed up as showers last night, and Kona winds today. Finally the bug in my brain to go ride my bike took hold. I needed to go buy some more of that gold Plastidip, and Dad needed some weed trimmer line, so I decided I’ll go ride to the Ace Hardware in Kaimuki. It was past 3PM but I figured I could be back within two hours so I pulled out the metallic rootbeer Santa Cruze. It kinda got pushed off to the side with the arrival of the Yeti, but it made a good cross country cruiser with the lighter weight and the layback sesatpost fixed the riding position. Continue reading ‘Fort Ruger Pathway’

Dojjiko

Man, my hands are looking like the anime trope of the dojjiko girl after cooking her first dinner for the dude. I cut my left thumb pretty good washing dishes a few days ago. A sake/shot glass tipped over in the sink. It looked fine but when I started scrubbing it I felt a odd sensation in my left hand, and then the glass split in two. It then stung and started bleeding. Flooded it with povidone iodine and washed it out then applied a pad with pressure. It’s actually closed up quite fast, I don’t really need all that dressing you see in the pic, but I was up in the ceiling of Ala Moana food court pulling cable today so that with nitrile gloves was more than a good idea. My right hand I did today loading the trunk for afore mentioned cable pull. Jammed my finger strait into a sheet metal edge in the trunk if the FR-S, partially split the nail. Good thing I brought along two gloves!

Cup Noodle King Seafood Noodle

This thing looks like an oversized prop to make normally sized people look like Hobbits or children. Of course when you see something like this in the convenience store, you have to try it! According to the manufacturer’s website, the 568 calorie “King” versions are almost double the 328 calorie regular version. With the increase in size comes an increase in water to be added, up to half a liter versus the 300 or so needed for the standard. The wait time remains the same. Taste-wise, it’s as good (or as bad, if you will) as the regular version. According to the website, the toppings were supposed to be kanikama (artificial crab) and other fish paste products, squid, cabbage, green onion, and egg. There was flat, white stuff that looked like squid, but I think it was the inner leaves of the kanikama. The only chewy squid-like substance had the purple outer skin of octopus, and I had a piece that I swear had a tentacle sucker. Maybe squid and octopus are lumped together for allergy labeling purposes. The nostalgic thing for me was the foamy dehydrated dried egg that disappeared from the USDM versions of cup noodle to be replaced with corn of the same color in the late 1980’s. The website further states that the soup base is pork, asari, and oyster based. I guess I’m a fan of all ramen, including cup-instant and semi-instant. Of course these aren’t as good as something from a good shop, but they all have their place. Even the nastiest instant ramen will bring back some dirtbag college memory. Nasty this one isn’t. It is one of the better cup ramen that I have had. There was a spicy curry one that I had once that tasted better, but had soup that was unappealingly thick. Go relive your misspent youth and get full at the same time!

Three out of four grunge-monkeys

Recommended

226-yen

More pictures after the break

Continue reading ‘Cup Noodle King Seafood Noodle’

Mandarake

Found the relocated Sapporo Mandarake.  They’re in the Norbessa building with the big ferris wheel on top.  The new shop space is much larger, but it didn’t seem like there was a whole lot more content.  Surprisingly, I didn’t find any unusual figures or arcane DVD’s or manga to add to my collection. Figure-wise, there seemed to be a lot more of the second-tier game prize figures than before.  There were a disturbing number of very graphic, uncensored dakimakura covers.  …Oh, and someone bought the 1:1 scale Kokonoe Rin figure.

Koku no Blend

Darn.   Looking through my pictures, I must have forgotten to take pictures of the Suntory Premium Malts Koku no Blend half-and-half I had earlier.  Guess I’ll have to drink another!

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More Things I Didn’t See in Japan

Went all the way to Obama, but didn’t see the Obama castle ruins, Myoutsuu-ji, Wakasa hiko-jinja, and Wakasa kokubun-ji.  Wakasa hiko-jinja was along the way to Mantoku-ji and Jinguu-ji which I did see, but time ran out.

Went all the way to Kyoto, but didn’t get to Rokudo Sannou-ji to see Yajirou’s well.

Went all the way to the Osaka Aquarium and didn’t see a giant isopod.

Floorplan from Heck

Well, at least some of these rooms suck a heck of a lot more than others!  This is a good example of terrible 1970’s Japanese commercial architecture.  There was a onsen on the top floor, but it was for men only.  There was a tiny women’s onsen, but you had to go to the front desk and leave a deposit for the key.  The design was awful from the outside too.