Chimay

Today was a great day to chill out. I've spent the past week going warp speed with school and on a news reading blitz. I decided I've had enough of the news and won't be writing about it here. After all, the 3 or 4 people who actually read this blog aren't reading it for my opinion on the news, they're reading it because I live in Japan and probably want to know what I'm doing.

Ayu and I hung out with a buddy today and it was about as uneventful and relaxing as possible. My buddy picked us up at around 10ish and we went to the only place that seemed approprirate on a sunny, warm-but-not day: the liquor store.

For those who have never been to Japan, there's one rule to live by: the beer in Japan really sucks. I know what you are thinking: beer is beer right? Well, it's true. Beer in Japan is about the same as beer everywhere. It's made with barely and hops and all that good sh*t. But the problem is, there is also cheap fake beer which is made with fillers and all the stuff that could possibly be used to drive down the price of the product. What's the purpose of such a drink? Who the hell knows. Maybe it's to make the satisfaction of getting drunk not so expensive? The result of this is: super cheap fake beer (actually about the cost of American beer) and expensive real beer. An example: a fall ale here, just barely and hops, for a six pack costs about $12. Sucks eh?


Anyway, back to the story. We headed over to the liquor store and stocked up on essentials for today: beer, beer and some more beer. Along with the standard Japanese six pack (real beer mind you), we bought some English Stout, and two smaller crafted Japanese beer. As a bonus, my buddy bought me a huge bottle of Chimay from Belgium. For those unfamiliar with beer, Belgian beer is perhaps the holy grail of beer. It's sweet, it's bitter and it packs one hell of a punch. Make it two punches. Actually, two punches with a sucker punch thrown in.

We gathered the essentials, went back to my buddies house and then hopped over to the store to get some chili ingredients. Beer. Chili. Sunny weather. Early Japanese autumn. What could make the day better?


The answer is quite simple. MUSIC. I started learning guitar about a year ago. It's been pretty much an addiction since I first put one in my hands. I bought a Yamaha to begin with, and thanks to being spoiled by playing a few nice guitars, after about 6 months, the Yamaha didn't cut it anymore. I had to buy something else. I opted to buy a Japanese made guitar, being in Japan and all. I think there were two main benefits to this. The first being it's hand made. The second, it's made here, so it's probably less expensive than any import Gibson on Martin or any other non-Japanese brand.



So we passed the day with beer, chili, youtube and guitar playing. The stars were indeed aligned and all was good with the universe. Here are a couple of pictures to provide you with some visuals for today.


To my 3 or 4 readers, I hope you have a great day/evening where ever you are and I hope the stars stay aligned for you as they were for me today.