The meeting of the Big man aka Carmichael san
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2006
1
36
52
Trip End
Ongoing
Izumo -Shi,
Japan
Saturday, December 9, 2006
For those of you who have no idea what Ewan is doing in a remote part of Japan, Ewan is teaching english to school kids.
Right Ewan advised me that there were literally 10s of diffferent beers to try out so as the trooper I am a wee trip to the supermarket had supplied me with most of them.
Incase anyone thinks I'm some sort of alky these trials happened over a course of a few hours : ) No Japanese people were abused during them either.
Beer trials :
Sapporo Draft One: 5.0 % weak, watery and tastes like dishwater rinsed out of a tea towel.
Big Front Door
Shirokirin: 5.0% not as watery as Draft One basically dishwater, just not rinsed out a tea towel.Gokunam: joint strongest at 5.5% still watery though effectively Japans answer to wife beater. Good if you fancy a fight later on.
Yebisu Premium: 5.0% still watery kinda like a watery Tennents.
Namakuro: 5.5% a beery 70 shilling taste. Best of a bad bunch.
A lot of the above beers are actually called brews because they use a different percentage of hops. I'm not going to go into the technical differences. Lesson is if in Japan and it don't say beer. stay away.
We headed to one of Ewan's school for the day (he teaches at six!!)-and had a pretty sureal time. Made buckwheat noodles (local speciality dish) with some of the locals and Primary 1 & 2, then had lunch with kids (lunch is brought to them in their class and they eat there), taught some english with Ewan (things which spring to mind, played the alphabet game, 'head shoulders knees and toes', and practiced the usual my name is) then played badminton and basketball) basically a usual day for the big man.
Cool Statue near Izumo-Shi
Great thing about a wee town, cheap prices. In Izumo-shi I had the cheapest sushi ever, each sushi piece off the rotating belt 50p absolute magic.
We did a few temples in the local area and a castle in Matsui (think that's how its spelt) all in all not a bad wee place Ewan is living in. Before we set of to Hiroshima Ewans fellow JET (Japanese English Teaching) collegue went out for a few drinks. (All you can drink in two hours for about 20 quid - can't actually remember the price) then a good three hours of Karaoke. Not a bad wee night.
I'll head for Hiroshima with a couple of facts that I picked up.
1) - Kirin is Japanese for Giraffe.
2) - Yebisu is the name of a Japanese god. (for those of you with a memory it is also the name of a beer) The Japanese have over 2 million gods in their pantheon. Every year they make a pilgramage to Izimo Temple. So leave their respective temples and head down. Yebisu doesn't hear the calling for the pilgramage so stays in his temple. So he is available to worship during this period. Aye its a bit of trivia but I found it interesting. It also explains why the Japanese ring a bell when worshiping. They are ringing it to get the gods attention incase he is having a kip or at the back of the temple doing the garden.
Safe Travels
Shaun
