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Got this on the 60th floor observasion platform of the Sunshine 60 building.

It cost me 6$ for a 330ml bottle. It is a real bottle though. With a cap and everything! First one I’ve seen.

The label is really neat. It looks like what would happen if Ralph Steadman drew anime.

I have no idea what it’s called. All I know is it was Micro Brewery Corporation… which is an interesting concept. Apparently Kuma Zakura primarily makes Sake and this is a bit of a departure for them.

Expectations are high! Let the bottle opener fly!

Oh lucky; it’s dark. Nice colour, head looks dense but not guiness-wannabe dense.

First sip: smell is genuinely intriguing. Taste is… subtle, porterish again.

Very subtle. This is “The Hop” all over again! I think there might be a good beer in there. It’s just speaking very quitly. The strongest smell is faintly Caramelly and hits just after the initial tasting.

hmm. I seem to have run out of things to say already.

It is a pretty beer. It’s ‘easy to drink’ for those who think that is somehow valuable.

Well. The beer is gone and “Cats: the movie” (not based on teh musical but based on the mamal) is on. So I guess this review is over.

To anyone who has used it before I’m sure that is clear. It is always offering new and immaginative arguments to support this position.

In this particular case it lost a long, elaborate, and wonderfully written review of Premium Yebisu: The Hop.

You can imagine from the name of this beer how great the review was.

Ah well. Your loss.

The dark beer of Sapporo’s Yebisu label. I actually had one of these last night but I wasn’t doing beer reviews last night so I decided to take a 5$ bullet for the cause. Also, as it is the only dark beer I have been able to find in either of the two countries I have been living in for the past 6 months, I gots ta have more.

The happy fisherman is back. The label also assures us that he was “born 1887”. Keep on truckin’ little Yebisu fisherman. Other than the fisherman the all-black label contains informative and italicized text, to whit: this black beer has malt in good balance and a hearty roasted flavor (one wonders if they’re going after the oft courted malt crowd).

Lets see what this plucky milleni-generian can do! first sip: mmm that’s more like it. You can taste the beer before it even gets to your lips. The aroma alone will fill your stomach more than that last 20$ sashimi plate.

They don’t call it a porter. They seem to feel ‘premium black beer’ about sums it up. But this is a textbook porter. Enough carbonation and hopps to make sure you aren’t in doubt you’re drinking a beer and enough rich caramely malts to let you know you still have some tastebuds left. The two participants both hang around long enough to have a hearty punch up over who gets to define the aftertaste and you are left holding both their girlfriends.

This one pull alone contains more raw experience then a whole can of “The Hop”.

The thing is, I don’t actually like porters. They’re over carbonated and the hop-malt contest is missplaced. I just want the malt to win. My favorite porters are the ones where the brewer invites mr. alcohol to play. He inevitably picks malt’s side and they’re left partying while over-carbonation tries to console his well defeated partner.

Mr. Alcohol is at this party. You can hear him hollering over the sterio. But his heart just isn’t in it. He’s giving someting like 5%. If he were giving more like 7 things would start to get really fun.

As it is I have to rank this beer my favorite of Japan. I would like to compare it to Chang of which I have often said: “It’s a really bad beer. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t the best beer in Thailand”. I’m just not sure premium Yebisu has the pluck and vigour of chang. With a lack of charm it’s going to have to do things the hard way: it has to get by on it’s merits.

Time for bed. Good food and lots of not sleeping makes it come easily.

THoughts tonight are mostly of Koh Phangan. Looking at the pictures of Songkran I can’t believe that was two days ago. This place is so different.

I wonder when the idea that not living in the tropics is ‘rediculous’ will wear off. It’s so cold here and there is such a shocking lack of beaches. I assume in a while I’ll get used to living in temperate countries again. Or mabey I’ll just become one of those many many farangs who consider Phangan their second home. Or mabey I’ll want to be one of the farangs who makes it their first home. I’m surprised how much Phangan fit, or possibly defined, my view of the ideal life.

But then half of me has always pulled towards beach and sun and the other half has pulled towards gargoyledom (in the snow crash sense of the word). That’s why I’ll never be a really good geek. I spend too much time outside.

Mabey in Tokyo the gargoyle side will get a chance to shine. It better hurry up though before we move down south to the tropical islands that make up that southern bit of Japan noone pays any attention to.

In the mean time I’m left constantly marveling at the differences. Like no more spray hoses in the bathroom. Back to the barbary and waste of dry wiping.

At least as countries get colder the beer gets better.

update on malt’s: it’s mostly a kilkenny wannabe which is a guiness wannabe for the ‘guiness is too dark for me’ crowd. And I dislike guiness to begin with (they substitute ‘creaminess’ for flavor and advertising for aftertaste). Dark times when I find it easy to enjoy such a beer.

But then I had a Traquair Jackobite Ale (thanks mum and dad!) less than 24 hours ago so everything is bound to pale pale pale in comparison.

We crashed after we got in and slept most of the day.. seem to both be coming down with something – maybe you’ll see us donning white face masks soon. Didn’t manage to connect with Pierre but we met our landlord Mr Shrek, who is a nice guy and forgiving of our total lack of Japanese vocab. We’ve got him and one other couple for roommates right now, and two more people are moving in soon. After a nap we were thinking a little more clearly and…

I totally love this place!!! Our room in the Shrek Watta house is much larger than expected, with tatami floors, paper screen divider to the “semi-outside” area, then sliding door to a nice balcony. Two beds (soon to be one kingsize one), desk with two chairs, several low tables and a comfy beanbag chair. Every wall is sectioned into sliding storage areas; such a good design. The house itself is the 3rd and 4th floor of an apartment building and is kind of warren-like (a style I really like); a sort of mishmash of bits and angles with eight private rooms at various points. The shared livingroom is big and bright, with a library of anime and Kurasawa films from previous guests. Full kitchen and even a shared computer. Have I mentioned how incredibly good the wifi net connection is? All signs point to W00t.

We took a walk around the neighborhood. We’re right in the middle of a busy 2 block radius of restaurants, stores and real estate companies. There are coffee and drink vending machines on every corner, convienience store next door and a pachinko parlour just around the bend. NO CARS! The streets are narrow and filled with bikes and pedestrians. Yes, I could really live in this neighbourhood.

So we went for dinner which was also awesome. People have no hesitation at speaking Japanese to us which is so good, we’re totally going to learn the language in no time. So far we’ve got about as much as we knew in Thai, which is a good start at least. The food was so excellent, we were both rolling our eyes in constant total bliss. We’d really missed the subtle flavours, and this restaurant (just a minute’s walk away) was at least as good as any Japanese restaurant in Victoria. Also, about the same price – 4,000yen = $40cad to stuff ourselves full of (omg delish with fish) tempura, agedashi tofu, teriyaki fish, egg rolls and beer. Coupled with our $750 a month rent I think we could even afford to live here.

We stopped by the convienience store and bought some snacks and beer (Malt’s All Malt Beer). The beer came with a little package of nuts and the french consumme flavoured pringles came with a little keychain of the pringles guy in a french outfit. Gimicks YAY! Seems like the exact opposite of simple beach life but so far we’re grooving to the change.

PS: Malt’s is a good beer! We’ll let you know if we still think so after our beerbuds finish recovering from six months of Chang.