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February 23, 2003
Hakodate beer review and boats
Hakodate beer review. With new pictures. Saturday. I'm a bit shocked. Hakodate has not only got a really good microbrewery, it has three. I'm drinking ""Hakodate Beer"" brand at the moment as I sit in the factory brew pub on the harbour downtown. The beer is ""Two Hearts"". Their valentines day brew. Only in Japan would such a beer be a bitter dark ale, almost a stout. It is a bit thin for me, as a lover of Russian Imperial Stout, but it is ideal as a summer dark, and probably more than enough for the average palate. THey have other regular brews: a weizen, alt, ale and a kolsch. I don't know what a kolsch is, but I'll look it up. I bet it is a bitter, since it has the caption, ""Enjoy its bitter and clear taste."" Versus the alt: ""Enjoy its rich and bitter taste."" They sound like imperative statements to me. And who am i to not follow orders to the letter? I'll bring home some of this, as it comes in neat, though all too small, cans. Actually they have 125mil and 3 litre sizes. If you don't already know, most of Japanese beer comes in 1 million and a half sizes from 125 mil up to 4 litres, in 250 mil increments. Just finished a wonderful ""set dinner"" of broiled Hokke (fish). When I walked by the fish market on the way down, I saw this fish for sale eve rwhere, but I don't know what the english name is. Generic Delicious Fish. Finishing off another beer too. The weizen. That's wheat beer for you unlettered in the art of zymurgy. More fruit and yeasty zip than regular beer. Also usually cloudy. THough this one seems partially filtered. I think it is the wheat proteins that make it white. Dave? Am I right? Hats off to larry (an a bonus for anyone who got the del shannon ref) for the use of an iPod. And apologies to Bernie. He and I talked about carrying music around, and I said that I didn't like having music on when walking. I was wrong. The celtic guitar music in my earphones almost completely washes out the Whitney Huston drone. Almost but not enough.. Need something more acoustically dense... Ramones: Cretin Hop. It is 4pm. I left my place at about 12:30, and walked all the way down here. Took a bit over 2 hours, about 10-12k I'm told. I was too lazy to wait for the bus, and too confused, and I did want to walk all the way down here once. Kenny and I made it half way down here a couple of weeks ago, before larry caught up with us in his SUV. I have not spent as much time down here as I thought I would. Skiing with larry ate up saturdays wonderfully. But I did make it down here a couple of times. Perhaps four. I'd probably live down here in the summer if I was in Hakodate. The old part of town is definitely big enough to keep one occupied. And if I had to have a car to live in Hokkaido at all, I'd rather be down here, and drive out than the reverse. Today's goal is shopping. The weeks' goal is to read some chapters I'm to be editing for the handbook joel and I are working on. And to get a couple of conference proposals in for the AoIR conference this coming october. Prolly do that tomorrow, that is today in terms of when I update this journal. Gak. I just remembered that I'm having trouble sending email to hotmail, fis, chass and kmdi. Though I sincerely doubt that anyone from these domains are reading my blog, aside from KAT! and Julia (sometimes juliaD). But I've talked to them enough on IMs. A big ""Hi!"" to EvaB. I finally connected with her on iChat this week. Oh, This Weizen is definitely the best glass of beer I have ever had in Japan. Bar none. The only thing that would make it better would be if it was naturally carbonated, and if it was bigger. Love to you all to whom that wouldn't be an embarassing statement to make, and a profoundly respectful ""best wishes"" to the rest of you. And we know who you all are. At least in a general statistical sense. it is now 4:17 pm, and the waiter has taken my plate and glass, and left me with a hot glass of green tea. Sweet."
Posted by jason at February 23, 2003 01:19 AM