I think the worst is over with the bronchitis after getting a different antibiotic. That’s over a month I’ve been out of action and off the bike with this! The lung tissues are still sensitive, so any minor irritation or reaction brings the cough back – I’m sure this will persist for a while like usual. Tomorrow I’m headed to Kyoto for some historical exploration, so I hope I survive this trip without too much trouble… It’s a short trip, so I’m not going to bother taking the laptop with me, and I don’t know if I’ll find a workstation at the hotel, so I’ll see y’all when I get back.
OK, got the counter shaft bearings changed out on the transmission, but yikes…. Finally got a complete shop press together from Blue Sky Hawaii, the China special tools place. And this piece of equipment is particularly dodgy. Ok, I concede that it worked. Barely. One point wishing I had a Lexan shield to hide behind in case bits went exploding. The thing is pretty light gauge and is made to rack. There is no way to get it to work straight. To be honest, I’m not sure it was worth the 200 plus bucks. I suppose if I think of it as how much I would have paid a shop to do the same, then ok. But the crookedness bothers me, I think I did a straighter job with my home made extracto/instalo tools I made years ago, and pressing in these bearings crooked is not good.
Had another one of those, WTH have I been doing all these years?! moments. Started on rebuilding the AE86 transmission. It’s got some decades worth of spooge accumulated all over it. I’d been poking at it with a screwdriver and spraying it with citrus degreaser every night throughout the week. Today decided to attack it, and this time I picked up nitrile gloves. Never really liked using mechanic gloves when wrenching. These nitrile ‘rubber’ gloves were one size fits most, and as such were loose on my skinny hands, but they still worked fine. And damn they keep your hands clean! No scrubbing multiple times with handcleaner and nail brush. And I’m sure much better for skin. Continue reading ‘Modern conveniences good’
A few thursdays ago, Dave got the urge for pizza. And no, we did not want to settle for the ordinary Pizza But or Papa’s. And somewhere with beer is a definite plus. Fabio brought up J.J. Dolan’s, a less than year old eatery, located downtown on the fringe of Chinatown. He’d been there, but Dave and I haven’t yet. And they got beer. So it was off to find parking in the somewhat sketchy streets of downtown after dark. Kinda wish I didn’t have my bike in my car, should have left it at w0rk. Anyway, after scrounging up $6 in loose change to feed the parking ransom, I met the boys on Bethel Street. Continue reading ‘J. J. Dolan’s – pie and suds’
More of the Hitachino Nest beers available imported, I had the white ale a couple days ago. Poured with moderate head that dissapated pretty quickly, but bubbles carry on. A cloudy light yellow. This is a white similar to Hoegarten, has added spices of corriander and orange peel. Pleasant aroma. The spices are subtler than Hoegarten, making for a nice drink. I think I like this one the best so far, 3 out of 4 lightly drunk monkeys (5% alcohol).
Red Rice Ale – specified on the label as brewed using red rice, definitely no German purity law brew here! And as such, it tastes like it. Poured with large head (think I may have pour a bit more aggresively), cloudy medium dark amber/red. Didn’t detect any really distinctive odor. Definite sweet, dangerously close to a malt liquor. Nicely controlled bitter finish, but honestly there was little that appealed to me. Not one of my faves, 2 out 4 rice fume burping monkeys (long after finishing, after taking a shower even, rice aftertaste).
Airsoft fans rejoice! Power Edge in Kaimuki just got in the new KSC Japan gas blowback H&K MP7A1 PDWs. I dropped by yesterday and Peter let me test fire it. The heft and feel is superior to the Tokyo Marui AEG version, and the lock time is much better. The perceived recoil is very nice! On firing, it is obvious that this one is packing significantly more muzzle velocity than the AEG. The construction was very nice – even the feel of the materials felt like genuine H&K. All of this comes with a bigger price tag though – just a little shy of $400 USD! This is not bad considering the current dollar-to-yen exchange rate of around 95-yen-per dollar, and the JDM MSRP of 36,540-yen. Spin by and visit Peter and Dave to check one out. They had four left yesterday…
Chris and I discussed this on our seperate drives home almost a month ago, but with the impending doom of Felicia and getting sick, I neglected to blog about it. On my way to meet the guys up at St. Louis is when I usually see all kinds of freakish and stupid krapp, usually along King Street. On the way to the last ride, I saw this fixie dude ride past with a black and white fur sporran on his drive-side hip! WTF?! I guess he needed somewhere to put his pocket goods, since there was no way to actually use the pockets in his unnaturally tight, pencil-legged, fashionably faded black jeans.
Soup curry is quite popular in Hokkaido, a viable alternative to warm the body from both within your belly, and from your tongue. The name is an appropriate descriptor, it is somewhere between a soup and stew/curry. The broth is thin like a soup, but is spiced like a curry. It’s gotten so popular that like ramen, there exists a soup curry yokocho (alley) where you can find shop right next to shop next to shop all serving soup curry. This past winter I made it to Hokkaido to ride the powder and was fortunate to have friends lead me to one soup curry joint that was quite enjoyable. 
After that experience, everytime I went food shopping I’d keep my eyes open to see if some company would create a soup curry mix just like you can get the wafu style curry roux blocks everywhere. No such luck. I chocked it up to the thought that it hadn’t gained enough mainstream popularity elsewhere in Japan to gain the attention of the food manufacturers. Until tonight. Part of the problem was I was looking for the wrong thing. Tucked out of eye level sightline on the top shelf at Marukai was this small 6 oz. jar of soup curry paste. Had to pay attention as there was no English characters, but there it was. I checked it out, pork and chicken fat were the top ingredients, how can you go wrong with that? The only thing that was holding me back was the latest best buy date looked to be 5/30/09. Three months…. The stuff is chock full of salt…. The cap wasn’t bulging…. It should be okay…. Continue reading ‘Soup Curry!’
The next selection from Kiuchi Breweries, their take on the classic weissen, wheat beer. A light amber, pours with a moderate head that quickly dissapates, and like a good weissen some sediment you should swish around the last bits to pour into glass to make it properly cloudy. There isn’t an overwhelming aroma. The prominent flavor is citrus. On the verge of being sour. You’d swear someone already squeezed a lemon into your beer. There’s some pleasant floral tones hiding under there, but you have to pay attention. Clean finish. Dare I say it, it almost doesn’t taste like beer. Flirting dangerously close to a chick beer. Good thing I had this after my soup curry meal, I’m pretty sure it would not have gone well during. 5% alcohol content, not buzz packing juice.
I would have prefered a little less sour and taste more of the grain, but this is still a good drink. I would have to interject a caution of it may not go well with some food, it worked out well for me being almost a dessert after my meal.
3 out of 4 weissen monkeys.
Last monday thoughts turned to riding St. Louis. After the recent rains followed by clear weather, figured conditions would be prime. Ckucky and JT having time on their hands had already done two Dumps runs by the time I got to the park. I’d passed one guy on a cross country rig on the road up, just a precursor of things to come. By the time I geared up and the guys were roused from their lounging on a park bench, this guy had rolled through the parking and continued up into the park. Continue reading ‘Invasive Species’
