For a bit of balance, and following on from our article on blue bees the other day, let’s take a look at the other end of apiological scale.

If those gentle, quiet blue bees were old ladies on trundling mamachari, then vespa mandarinia would be helicopter gunships.

For vespa mandarinia is the giant asian hornet, and if you’ve yet to meet one, believe me, that name is no exaggeration…

(if you’re in any way phobic, leave now)

The Mainichi Daily News recently reported that Kirin will soon start selling a beer with 7% alcohol called, appropriately enough, Strong Seven.

This is both good news and bad news for Japan’s beer drinkers. Good because it’s strong, bad because, well, it’s going to suck. Granted, I haven’t actually tried Strong Seven yet (it hits stores October 22) but I can bet you it’ll taste like crap. Why? Because every Japanese beer priced below the top tier varieties (Asahi Super Dry, Yebisu, etc.—essentially the stuff you can get overseas) is undrinkable.

Strong Seven is classified as a third-category beer. According to Wikipedia, Japanese beer has three categories, largely based on the amount of malt used. The first, which is called simply “beer,” is the good stuff. What you would probably drink if you weren’t homeless or had no taste buds. Drinks in the second category, called happoshu, contain less than 67% malt. The remaining ingredients are made up of things like corn, rice, sorghum, and potato. Really. Lastly, there’s the third category, which is where our Strong Seven falls. Wikipedia says,

Since 2004, Japanese breweries have produced even lower taxed, non-malt brews made from soybeans and other ingredients which do not fit the classifications for beer or happoshu.

Soybeans? Mmm, yummy. The price of 141 yen per 350ml can and 197 yen for a 500ml can reflects this. (To compare, a 350ml can of Asahi Super Dry is more like 200 yen.)

Mainichi says that Kirin is bypassing the younger people that have been buying diet and light drinks lately and going straight for male beer drinkers aged 30-50. Get the job done without a lot of money drinkers. First beer at 7am on the morning train drinkers. Passed out in the park at noon drinkers. Alcoholics.

I’ll stick with Yebisu, thanks.

Here’s a trilogy of videos on Japanese beer - one on beer vending machines in Kyoto, another one on a draft beer vending machine in Tokyo, and a final one on historical beers - beers with labels of famous people in Japanese history with short bios.

This first video is from BusanKevin in Kyoto talking about the wonders of outdoor beer vending machines in Kyoto on a hot day:

In response, I did a video on a draft beer vending machine I discovered in a pool hall in Tokyo a few nights ago.

Taste was not too bad but it gave me a huge head of foam which is quite common anyway even with live servers:

Background music by Super Girl Juice.

Later that same night I came across some “Historalicious” Japanese beer which were beer bottles with labels depicting famous people from Japanese history. Get your drink on while learning some Japanese history with Historalicious Japanese Beer - if you can read the bloody small cursive writing on the label:

Crack open a cold one and enjoy the Japanese Beer Trilogy!

If you are planning to visit Japan during the summer season, something I actually do not recommend, I advise you to visit some of the many matsuri (祭). These festivals are celebrated with drinking, a lot of different foods, sometimes games and many of these Japanese festivals have a big fireworks show.

One of these festivals is Osaka’s ‘Yodogawa festival’. Yodogawa is Osaka’s biggest river, and as the name of the matsuri already gives away, the festival takes place on the Yodogawa riverbanks. Especially with this summerheat a splendid location. The Yodogawa fireworks show is probably one of the most popular fireworks show in Japan and definitely draws one of the largest crowds. I’m talking thousands of people, the place gets really packed. If you are not into large crowds I suggest you watch the fireworks from the Umeda Skyline building, but you’ll really miss the great atmosphere.

Since the fireworks are on the river, you’ll have a good chance to view the spectacle from both sides of the river, I do advise you to come in early for a good spot.

The result:

Just some small advice from me if you intend to visit the next Yodogawa matsuri:

- Come in early, I don’t mean 10 minutes before the start, but at least 5 hours. This will guarantee you a great spot for the show. (If you decide to watch the show from the riverbank that is).
- Bring a large plastic or cloth sheet to sit on.
- Bring food and drinks. Even though you can buy lots of oishii food and drinks at the festival, be prepared to wait in line for 10 to 20 minutes before getting served.
- Bring umbrella’s in case of rain. (This unfortunately can happen and has happened last night. We shared 1 umbrella with 4 people, didn’t ruin the show though)
- Go to the toilet beforehand. (Same as the foodstands, the waiting line for a toilet is around 10 minutes, if you have to do the big one expect to wait in line for over 20 minutes.

Of course, even without these preparations you can still enjoy though.

The temperature in my house was over 30 when I awoke, sweating and fully unrested at 7.30 this morning. We’re in for a warm one.

And if ice cream is too fattening, and solace can’t be found in only-good-for-one-glass Japanese beer, what respite is there?

One recommended way of dealing with the oppressive summer is apparently to eat unagi - eel. Eel has been marketed for centuries as a stamina food, a remedy to the sapping heat.

CScout Japan reports on a new ‘black beer’ from Miyashita Brewery, that purports to be the perfect companion to an eel supper. Not sure I’ll be trying it myself, as the brewery describes the beer as “sweet and fragrant”, but perhaps you might. (Though I particularly liked the exhortation that, translated, claims eel and black beer is “new common sense!”)

If you want to take it a step further (and if you’ve come this far, then why not?) you might actually like some eel in your drink. Check out CScout’s whole post for details.

Found at a pet shop the other day, sparkling wine for pooches.

The woman in the store confided in me that they do not sell much of the stuff.

I used to be pretty amazed to see golfers in Japan imbibing beer, sake, shochu, and whiskey early in the morning before venturing out onto the golf course, but at least the tipplers were getting some exercise in the open air.

But now the latest thing in Tokyo seems to be golf bars, which let you enjoy bashing golf balls without all of the troublesome stuff like walking and going outside.

My swing is so bad I look like a caveman killing his lunch.
- Lee Trevino

A Tokyo trucker, Masahiro Fujiwara, 47, has been arrested on charges of counterfeiting after using a colour photocopier to produce about 10 ¥10,000 notes.

His plan was to replace the bills in his wife’s purse with the fake ones, and go out drinking.

His wife, of course, had no notion that the money in her purse was fake, and spent two of the bills later. Which is when the fireworks started.

He reluctantly turned himself in to police after he was grilled by his wife, who suspected that the bills in her purse were fake, according to investigators.

Ah, the image that that sentence conjures up…

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has issued a report saying that smokers who drink two or more 180 milliliter servings of sake per day are 1.7 times more likely to develop lung cancer than smokers who drink only occasionally.

The survey found that smokers in the groups who drank two to three 180 milliliter servings or at least three 180 milliliter servings per day were 1.7 times more likely to develop lung cancer than smokers who drank less. The results showed that the more smokers drank, the high the cancer rate was.

The research team suspects that the alcohol-degrading enzymes increased the activity of carcinogens contained in cigarette smoke. The rate of developing cancer was about 1.6 times higher in the group of people who hardly ever drank compared with the group who drank occasionally, but it was thought that the non-drinkers included people who had originally had a high risk of developing lung cancer and had to give up drinking.”

It’s beer for astronauts, and Sapporo is going to brew it with barely grown in space (or at least from the lineage of space barley).

So Sapporo is going to brew about 100 bottles of the stuff which will only be available to astronauts on the space station.

The question is will NASA allow them to drink it?

And what does a hangover feel like at 0 gravity?

Mainichi Wai Wai has a report from a Japanese weekly magazine about a woman who has been arrrested for attempted murder of her future father-in-law over a misperception of his views on her upcoming marriage to his son.

[The woman] admits to the allegations, saying she attacked the old man during a drunken fit because she thought he was going to speak out against her plans to marry his son.

“Both my fiance’s parents had told me off before about how bad my housework was, so I figured they were opposed to our marriage,” [she] told the police.

Unfortunately for the suspect, though, she’d got it wrong.

“There was never anything like that,” says [the] victim, who sustained serious stab wounds but is expected to make a full recovery.

I was enthralled by the packaging of these coffee drinks and their accessibility. As usual, we have no parallel in the States. This photo was taken in some random conbini (mini-mart).

But the lawsuit begun by Starbucks to get rid of such copycat brands as “Mt. Rainier” coffee in Japan, has still obviously had little effect on the choices available to consumers.

CNN.com/Asia has a report claiming that business women in Japan are paying up to $50,000 a night to spend time with hosts that CNN referst to as “geisha guys.”

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) — At first glance, the man and woman at the nightclub look like any other couple on a date. He flirts and pours champagne. She looks at him and laughs.

Businesswomen in Japan pay up to $50,000 a night for male companionship from “hosts” like Yunosuke.

This isn’t a date, though. It’s business.

The woman, a successful executive, has joined a growing number of professional women in Japan in forking out from $1,000 to $50,000 a night for male companionship.

5 million yen per night for male companionship?

I guess it must be true. . . CNN wouldn’t post a report that is a load of BS, would it?

Thanks to John Serdy.

Japundit reader Mark Robinson has written in to let us know about his new book, titled Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook a food culture and cookbook that gets behind the counters and into the kitchens of Japan’s izakaya.

Here’s what they say about it on Amazon.

Product Description
Japanese pubs, called izakaya, are attracting growing attention in Japan and overseas. As a matter of fact, a recent article in The New York Times claimed that the izakaya is starting to shove the sushi bar off its pedestal. While Japan has many guidebooks and cookbooks, this is the first publication in English to delve into every aspect of a unique and vital cornerstone of Japanese food culture.

A venue for socializing and an increasingly innovative culinary influence, the izakaya serves mouth-watering and inexpensive small-plate cooking, along with free-flowing drinks. Readers of this essential book will be guided through the different styles of establishments and recipes that make izakaya such relaxing and appealing destinations. At the same time, they will learn to cook many delicious standards and specialties, and discover how to design a meal as the evening progresses.

Eight Tokyo pubs are introduced, ranging from those that serve the traditional Japanese comfort foods such as yakitori (barbequed chicken), to those offering highly innovative creations. Some of them have long histories; some are more recent players on the scene. All are quite familiar to the author, who has chosen them for the variety they represent: from the most venerated downtown pub to the new-style standing bar with French-influenced menu. Mark Robinson includes knowledgeable text on the social and cultural etiquette of visiting izakaya, so the book can used as a guide to entering the potentially daunting world of the pub. Besides the 60 detailed recipes, he also offers descriptions of Japanese ingredients and spices, a guide to the wide varieties of sake and other alcoholic drinks that are served, how-to advice on menu ordering, and much more.

For the home chef, the hungry gourmet, the food professional, this is more than a cookbook. It is a unique peek at an important and exciting dining and cultural phenomenon.

About the Author
Mark Robinson is an editor and journalist based in Tokyo and has contributed articles on the arts, food, and lifestyle to publications such as Nest (US), the Financial Times, The Times (UK), the Australian Financial Review Magazine and others. For Japanese national broadcaster NHK he has produced radio programs on Japanese culture, and was the deputy editor of Tokyo Journal magazine and editor of culinary magazine Eat. Photographer Masashi Kuma was nominated for a James Beard Award for Photography for his work in the Kodansha book, Kaiseki, published in 2006. His work also appears regularly in a number of periodicals, including Voce and GQ.

Once upon a time, shouchu dominated the cheap rotgut alcoholic market, and nihonshu (sake) was for more refined drunks. Then, evil foreign governments pressured Japan to accept cheap imports of Scotch whiskey, which they did. Shouchu makers, feeling threatened, decided the only way to compete was to refine the image of shouchu and make it more attractive. It worked. While Westerners are belatedly getting into “sake”, Japanese are busy sampling the regional varieties at elegant shouchu bars.

Nihonshu (sake) is sooo 1990.

However, as shouchu moved up-market to invade nihonshu territory, nihonshu has now returned the favor. They are moving down-market to invade the sparkling shouchu (chuu-hai) business - a longtime mainstay for cheap shouchu makers.

Whether this is a wise move or not will be decided tonight by the missus and me.

Kampai.

Steve Levenstein over at Inventor Spot has a hilarious post about a set of cell phone straps with figurines depicting the six stages of drunkeness.

More here. . .

Man arrested after rolling up to renew driver’s license while quaffing beer

A Fukuoka man was arrested yesterday after turning up at the Driver’s Licence Centre there “to renew a permit to drive - albeit not his own,” police said.

Shigeo Tanita, 55, apparently drove past police officers directing traffic at the centre while he was swigging from the can. Officers simply waited for him to park up and then arrested him.

If you’re looking for something a little different from a night out drinking, the Mainichi has an interesting story about “ika tokkuri” - sake cups made from dried squid.

The skins of cuttlefish caught off the Sanriku Coast are formed by hand in the shape of tokkuri (sake bottles) and then repeatedly dried in the sun. When you pour warm sake into an Ika Tokkuri, the taste of squid melts into the sake, giving it a mild taste.

A mild taste of squid, I presume that means. Not really my cup of tea, but if squid is to your taste, you can go the whole hog and eat your cup afterwards. Available only from the Kimura Shoten shop in Yamada, Iwate prefecture, ¥1,000 each.

Image: Mainichi Newspapers

One refrain we often hear from the guys here on JAPUNDIT and elsewhere that Japanese girls are just too thin. If the lithe bony bodies of young Japanese women turn you off, the Peach Girls pub may be just the thing for you!

From the relatively petite 85-kilogram Sara. . .

To the full-package 115-kilogram Kanna. . .

The buxom beauties at Peach Girls are carefully sized up and specially selected to ensure that customers always get more for their money.

Via Tokyo Times