I found this beer, which is from Kirin and called something like Brau Master, in a little convenience store that I stopped at on the way home from out of town because I was hungry and wanted something I could eat in the car (not the beer). Anyway, it actually has German on it, which is both the first time I've ever seen German anything in Japan and a sure mark of quality in a beer, or so I am led to believe. It was pretty good.
This is Kirin something or other. It's a premium beer that I only found in a supermarket about 40 minutes from here. It was a little pricer than other Kirin, but totally worth it for one bottle. Delicious.
Here's a new version of a beer I'd already had. The old version was alright, and this version was pretty much the same, as I recall. I don't actually know what is different. I took all these pictures over the course of a couple weeks, and I don't feel like going through the bottles and cans (I can only recycle these things once a month) to read the names. Also, I don't remember how they really tasted, just kind of vaguely if they were good or not.
That bottle of orange crap, if you can't read it, says Campari. The front of the bottle leads me to believe it is some sort of Italian stuff because it says Milan and Italy on it. The back label, which is in Japanese, claims that it was made in France, though, and imported via Osaka. Nowhere does it say what it is supposed to taste like. There are two suggestions on the back for cocktails, however. One is Campari and soda, one is Campari and orange juice. Of course, both recipes just say 30 ml of Campari and a suitable amount, 適量, of the other ingredient. Incredibly helpful. After experimentation, I found that the suitable amount is "as much as possible" in order to kill the atrocious taste of Campari. It basically tastes like nothing at first, but leaves a distinct bitter, unpleasant aftertaste.
Since soda water has no flavor, that made for a particularly bad cocktail. I tried Coke Zero (to watch my girlish figure), which did an ok job of masking the aftertaste, but still left me feeling like I had been drinking New Coke with Rust. That metal bottle/can with the little blue dude on it should be familiar to people who frequent Japanese vending machines and/or McDonald's. It's the orange version of Qoo (pronounced ku-), which is some sort of partial juice concoction that would no doubt fail in markets not comprised of people who like yogurt and chunks of aloe in their drinks. I basically didn't want to buy 1.5 liters of orange juice, so I settled for this, instead. It actually worked the best, so if I ever mistakenly buy Campari again, I will be sure to wash it down with 20% actual fruit juice goodness.
I was at a kindergarten today, and we made some Japanese food, but when I have pictures of that, I'll post more about it.
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