New License Acquired

After a bit of waiting around and 2 trips I now have a bona fide Japanese driving license. I get to drive around with a funny yellow and green "new driver" sticker on my car. It's not such a problem as I don't have a car.
In other news it was my birthday yesterday and Gareth very kindly bough me a spangly new compact camera, so I've been playing with that all day. Tomorrow is my first proper (ie expensive) Japanese lesson and I haven't done my homework. Oops.

Shikoku here we come

Just a quick post to say that we've just finished moving and now we're off to sunny Shikoku to see the sights of the smallest big bit of Japan. More posts from the road I hope, depends if we can get the camera and computer to talk to one another.

Oyasumi!

Predictably the only photo to make it out of the Izakaya alive was this one, showing Gareth and I rather drunk. G hd lots of fun ordering differently coloured drinks whilst I was the life and soul of the party.
If anyone ever offers you sake and warm water, decline: it mings.
We were celebrating Gareth's birthday (誕生日), he's 28 no matter what age he tells you, and there was much merryment and an international game of football at 2am in Fukiage park.

Kirin Grand Ale

This came in a very fancy box with the glass you can see in the picture included.
It's not really all that grand, but it's pretty nice if you chill it down. It's not quite as fizzy as most Japanese beer, in some ways almost like a bad pint of Boddies.
I take pride in the backdrop of the picture since I had polished off all that Asahi on the same night :)
If you click here you can see a picture of me and my Ichinomiya kids. It's about half way down. There's a better one on Flickr/Facebook for those blessed individuals.
Tomorrow is Friday which means lots of real work :( But then it's Satuday and I have a date with the Shinchan Izakaya, I will try to get decent pictures this time.

Kirin Grand Ale 6% 330ml

All Malt - you'd better believe it

So, Suntory Malts Beer, what can I say?
It was quite malty as I remember. The can has a wierd texture too, which was it's main selling point.
I've been spending far too much time and money lately persuing a hangover.
Today we went to Softbank and managed to get Gareth's line rental reduced from 4500 to 980 yen a month. It seemsw that to get anything explained in this country you have to ask 3 times. Sigh.
Suntory Malts Beer - strange can, boring beer.

Kirin Ichiban Draft

Gareth was ill today, so I had to go to Handa(半田) school and work his shift. To make up for it he bought me a fancy pressurised beer dispensing doodah (see picture) which holds a massive three pints of beer and gives good head (fnarr fnarr). The brew is Kirin Ichiban which is rather a good one, it's a pity I have lots of work to do tomorrow, but I dare say I can manage to finish it. I'm washing it down with half a tiny pizza and some Darkplace.

Yebisu and Bintang - Double Trouble

It's a nice green can, that has to be a good start. I was drawn to this by the promise of hops galore, and I have to say that it failed to deliver. Perhaps I've been spoiled by the proper amount of hops in real decent beers (Japanese brewers take note). Yebisu green is OK, but not worth the 200+ Yen price tag.

On the right we have a prime example of Bintang: Bali's best beer. It was as tasty and refreshing as I remember, but perhaps the 730 Yen that I paid for it was influencing my tastebuds. Even in tourist gouging Bali that would buy 7 bottles. The price one pays for import beer in Japan it seems. (I havn't found any Newcastle Brown here yet - thankfully). It was accompanied by much more reasonably priced burritos which went down a treat. Before that we had massive Yakitori sticks in Osu Kannon, which is like a big bohemian market just out from the centre of the city. You can buy all sorts of clothes and food and stuff. If it were Britain it would be full of stupid Vegan shops and lesbians, but in Japan it's all about MEAT and guys who all look and act really gay. Now I've fixed my bike I'm going to head to an izakaya on Saturday for more tasteage,