2015-03-27: Vibrant Flavours

Marlboro have something here called IQOS. It appeared to be some new electronic cigarette. Somehow I managed to inform the guy behind the counter that I wanted to have a look at it. Seems interesting. It uses actual tobacco (unlike electronic cigarettes) but the tobacco comes in little capsules like ecigs.

Coffee Boss has always had a pipe as long as I have known him

The tobacco is heated (not burned) to much lower temperatures than a cigarette and the nicotine apparently is produced without the nasty things. They throw some glycol in there to get "smoke". Apparently it is undergoing testing to see if it does actually fall into the "less harmful" category and is the Phillip Morris big play into the brave new world of cigarette replacement ideas.
You can only buy them in Nagoya and some place in Italy.

I guess they are testing Tommy Lee Jones and his robot as the new Coffee Boss. Maybe he will get an electronic pipe.

This is because Nagoya has traditionally been a test market for Japan as it sits sort of in the middle of the dominant consumer styles. My interpretation of the conversation is that the people living here are open to new ideas more-so than say Kyoto people but aren't slaves to fashion like Tokyo inhabitants (although that could be me ascribing meaning to statements which didn't necessarily have them).
As a result Nagoya has the people and infrastructure for multinationals market testing as well. That is cool.

This is a plastic version of the thing I bought Ewa thinking it was a salad. I should have noticed it had microwave instructions on it. It is still in the fridge. Ewa is not a good test market person!

There is a Denny's down the road, might go see if they have any market testing products. Although I don't know what they have normally so I guess that doesn't work. We were going to go to the Denny's at some point because Jon Stewart always makes fun of them for no reason. Watching The Daily Show last night I realised it is actually Arby's he makes fun of for no reason. I don't know if there is an Arby's in Nagoya. Maybe we go to Denny's and complain how Arby's sucks?

I don't have a clue how to use the fancy bits

I have my new keyboard amongst all my new computer purchases. I cant touch type but I do type at reasonable speeds. This keyboard is a japanese keyboard, I didn't even think of that when buying it. I only really cared if there was a gap between F4 and F5 as I use F5 all the time while watching output and when the gap is in the wrong place I get very annoyed.
About 20 or thirty keys do different things to what the printing on the key says. I have to just trust my instincts for which key to push. I am not the kind of person that should trust their instincts as a rule.

Food & Beverage Review: Yuko's Home Cooked Korean

We are bad people and have been eating way too much food from convenience stores and bars. I maintain that they are not bars, they are Izakaya and so might be healthy food, you never know.

Shiny Shiso Sake

Yuko has offered to cook us dinner and I am too sensible (and well barbered) to argue with two Ladies. Actually I was pretty interested to see what normal people eat as we are probably getting a pretty skewed vision of Japan.

I thought the little boxy house down the bottom looked way Polish, turns out it is a police station

The Japanese happily grab any decent food from the neighbouring countries and adapt it to their own tastes and ingredients. Ramen after all is a Chinese noodle. I think Japanese culture has a touch (well maybe more than a touch) of OCD about things and they take the ideas and, where an Antipodean chef might adjust Thai a little and call it a day, the Japanese work on it 'til it is wildly popular then industrialise the hell out of it.

At least one of us dressed up and accessorised for the occasion

As a result things like Japanese curry is easily available in Australian supermarkets. If this happens to the Japanese version of Korean soup cooked at the table I can only say the Australians will be happier.

You just can't walk into a room with this type of thing and not be happy

You start with a broth which comes in several flavours, I think it is powdered. At a pinch I think a beef stock would cover it as it seems fairly sweet. Then add kimchi, mushrooms, broccolini (the one with the yellow flowers), I think there were random other vegetables in there, cabbage which has minced beef sandwiched between the leaves, chicken meatballs and these brilliant little potato starch based noodles which are all knotted up into a little ball, kind of like when you buy shoe laces. Yuko says they have no flavour and no food value but they have better texture than styrofoam. I like them, they get coated in the soup and are fun to crunch away at.

Correct Time Per Section Of The Pot

 All of these are added at the table and everyone knows I love participation food. When it is ready you grab around in different areas of the pot for tasty things to eat. I needed to be reminded of the different parts of the pot bit of that concept as I found a rich vein of good stuff and mined it heartily.

That looks like a deep vein of broccolini right there cap'n, shall we dig?

Then after you have eaten all the stuff you do it again. I have a suspicion Yuko cooks like me and like every Polish Grandmother. We all make vast amounts of food and it is tasty and tempts our guests into suicide via ingestion of good stuff.
In theory you then move on to making rice balls in the broth but we had three issues with that phase.

1. Everyone was full of food
2. The booze was finished
3. Ewa might have got all Polish and thought the broth was to be drank like Polish soup

Rating: 9/10 (I can only hope more people try and like this and the broth gets exported on a massive scale)

Conrad and I ran off to the supermarket to grab supplies.

Fortunately the one thing I wanted was in English. It's like they knew I was soming!

Conrad is a fellow Naginata person and I think the martial arts training has warped his brain. He tolerates my behaviour with scarcely an eyelid batted. When I started acting coquettishly at the self checkout he just said I was "a good guy but an awful tourist".

I was just being a rebel is all. And I didn't have a handbag so what choice did I have?

We spent a bit of time in the booze aisle looking for things and I noticed that fucking Yellowtail is here as well. I do not particularly approve of this. I don't even really class myself as Australian anymore and still find it offensive that this could be the first impression someone gets of the country. If Japan declares war on Australia in about 30 years it will be because some 15 yr old Japanese kid got drunk on that stuff today and held a grudge. And I wouldn't blame him.

Free Curry with Beer. Kicks the crap out of any marketing scheme I have ever seen before.

Walking back I discovered I do not hear Japanese bicycles. Normally I am pretty good at hearing things but I thing this whole "where bikes can be and where they can't" being clearly signposted and clearly ignored has messed me up.

I can only really remember one thing at a time "do you want the same label or the same size? I will get one right"

We made it back without breaking anything and were welcomed by happy and pretty Ladies.