Went down to Windward Mall to get a Triple Prime Bacon Cheddar Burger at Ruby Tuesday. Was seated almost immediately, which was a surprise. Guess it wasn’t very busy during the economic downturn – lots of empty tables. It took at least three minutes (probably more like five, but I don’t want it to seem like I’m exaggerating) for server first contact. She was a trainee being ghosted by an experienced server, so the fault really falls on the trainer no matter how nice she was. It is inexcusable to have that long a delay before a face-to-face with the customer. It is worse to use customer dissatisfaction as a training tool – don’t allow the customer to become unhappy then point out to your trainee, “you don’t want to do this,†instead, proactively address the customer and lead by example. I almost walked out. That whole “not busy†thing manifested itself in reduced staff, so even if it wasn’t for the trainee floor staff, the kitchen was understaffed, so food prep was slow. Continue reading ‘Customer Disservice’
Ugh. Â Snowbird left me a present too.
This time I was in a hurry, so the patch is pretty caveman.
Kirin has produced two recreations of their historical brews, one Meiji-era lager, and the other a Taisho-era Pilsner. Both have cans representative of the labelling during those respective eras. The Taisho one has the Kirin emblem that we are familiar with, but the older Meiji one has what at first appears to be a weird little dog. Both are 5% ABV, but the Taisho pilsner has rice as an adjunct as opposed to the pure malt of the Meiji brew. Both have a stronger bittering, but the Taisho pilsner has the distinct “ricey” finish common to American lagers that are adjunct-heavy – It’s not bad: It’s just not as malty. Continue reading ‘Kirin Retro Beers’
Finished packing for the most part and hunger was setting in, so I walked down to MOS Burger and tried the new Tobikiri Hamburger with cheese. Not bad. From the brief examination of the menu blurb, it might be domestic meat. The cheese is white and melty like a fluid or sauce. The meat is brushed with a teriyaki sauce before assembly. Those who know me know I don’t particularly care for teriyaki-anything, but since this sauce was more on the salty side and less on the sweet side, I could accept it. It was good overall, taste and quality wise. Since it is gettng into winter, the salad fixings are getting rather unhappy – the lettuce is pallid, and the tomatoes grainy. Value-wise, it is about on par with other midrange Japanese burgers, in other words, a bit expensive compared to what you’d get in The States, and volumetrically much smaller. I’d still get this again, though I would have preferred the cheese being less runny. Continue reading ‘Last Lunch’
The predicted snowfall for the latter part of Friday didn’t materialize until Saturday morning. I awoke to the sound of a snow blower around the corner and the guys over at Nissan shoveling snow with the big plastic scoop. In deep winter there would be the front-end loader rumbling up and down the street. In a light flurry of giant conglomerated snowflakes, we headed over to the JR Sapporo-eki to catch a bus up to Sounkyo-onsen. It wasn’t immediately clear which stop was the correct one, but we were told to wait inside instead of a the platforms. Eventually, some uniformed attendants with signage appeared and set us up with seating assignments and got us queued up for the buses. It was Saturday, so there were enough people for 1.5 buses. Occasionally, a heavy flurry of large, round conglomerated snow would beat down then stop. Continue reading ‘Sounkyo He!’
There was supposed to be some precipitation of some kind overnight on Thursday, but not a whole bunch came to pass. It was my last riding opportunity on this trip, so I bit the bullet and headed out – albeit late – for the bus terminal. I generally avoid the later buses because the subway rides over to the bus terminal get progressively more crowded as the school and work rush kicks in. At least this time I was encapsulated in schoolgirls instead of tobacco-stink oyaji on the tight train. I got my dirtbag feed bag from 7-11 – a coffee, an Aquarius, and three onigiri – and headed up to Oodori and crossed the street to the terminal. I was early, but inside was crowded, so I waited out by the platforms and watched the clockwork comings and goings of both scheduled long-haul buses and city buses. My bus arrived, and with one couple, the bus started out on the journey to Kokusai. A significant number of people got on at JR Sapporo, but other than around three or so, the remainder were Korean tourists, all reeking of the requisite tourist fare, “Ghengis Khan”, the mutton yakiniku that all local and foreign guidebooks demand of visitors to Sapporo. A note to those of you who haven’t experienced this stuff yet – go at the end of your trip, since even if you put your jacket in the plastic bags that many places provide, the stink will transfer off your clothes afterwards and you’ll end up smelling like a barbecue joint for the remainder of your trip. Continue reading ‘Hard Day’s Ride’
Ugh. Â Although it was fun at Snowbasin, I took a coreshot from running over a obscured or hidden rock.
Coreshot!
Luckily, I had the stuff to do a field repair, just had to go buy a lighter from the store.
Fixed!
Ready for action again!
So after a pretty good day at Brighton, we decided to take a visit to Park City to check out that area. Â We arrive to find that the Window price is $50, thats 30% off the regular price, what a bargain!
Well, maybe.
I guess this sign should have been a sign. Â But we came all this way, might as well check it out right?
There are only 2 lifts open, so we pick the highspeed 6-pack and take stock of the conditions
Hmm, this isnt looking so good, but we’re still optimistic, right up until we hit the top of this lift.
OMG! Â Okay, we’re here, we’ve gotta check it out. Â Yeah, this one “groomer” is made of concrete-hard icy stuff. Â No off-piste opportunity to be found.
I dont think we even needed the map at this point, there was really only one way down.
Bits of a terrain park are open too, but its fairly big stuff. Â At least these guys are having fun
After pounding the “groomers” a few times, its about time for lunch. Â I gotta say the rice with this chicken quesadilla was really really good. Â But the Draft Beer guy didnt get setup with beer yet! Â I had my hopes up after seeing his sign!
After lunch, Root decides his spine needs a rest, so goes off to look for a locker. Â I feel a disturbance in the force, and he appears shortly later exclaiming, “How much for a pack of double-a batteries?!” (as quoted from Falling Down) Apparently it cost $7 to rent a day locker!
The value for my $50 lift ticket was poor. Â Lunch was generally good, but kind of spendy, but not having the beer really puts a dent into whatever value was there. Â The $7 lockers was really over the top!
I might give Park City another chance during the prime season since the gelande seems pretty big, but the early season gets 2 out of 5 fist raising, power fighting monkeys. Â And it gets the 2 because the rice was that good.
I was debating whether to go out today or not. On the way back home from dinner at Ubusuna Okinawa Ryouri, it was raining in town, so my guess was that if the same weather system was over the entire adjacent area, there would be snow falling at Kokusai. The morning webcam check was inconclusive, and in fact showed wet roads indicating rain out at Nakayama Touge, so I was not excited. Waffling over breakfast, I decided to go for it, and it ended up being a good call.  Heading out on the expressway, the mountians above Teine were clouded in. Onze was scraped away to dirt, and Asarigawa was pretty much melted away at the bottom. Heading up the valley past the dam, there was fresh snowfall just past the first snow shed where the freezing level started. Kokusai was pretty much abandoned – heck, until the second stop, I had the bus completely to myself, aside from the driver and ticket girl! I geared up and headed out just as the ground opened. It was just under zero C at the bottom which was a good sign. Continue reading ‘Socked in in Sapporo’
No amount of running can get you on the 07:20 bus for Sapporo Kokusai when you’re still on the subway train at 07:20. Luckily there was a second bus at 08:20. I stopped by 7-11 for bevvies and second breakfast, and went over to the bus terminal to wait for the next bus. Considering how late I was, the wait wasn’t long. There was ongoing tunnel repairs along the Jouzankei route, so the early season bus was running out toward Otaru on the Sasson expressway, then heading up the back way from Asarigawa onsen. Onze was pumping out their base with snow making machines, but only had one run operational. Asarigawa ski area looked pretty good on top, but was mostly grass toward the base. This route seemed quicker than the Jouzankei route, and if I didn’t already know how close the Sapporo area snow areas were to each other, seeing them along the way would really drive this home. Continue reading ‘Hot Tuesday’