warm reflections from a bygone jazz era

dudes. unbelievable. this guy has been collecting whiskey for almost 40 years. he plays only classic jazz. his bar snack are raisins wrapped in butter. it makes sense to me. and here is a bottle of twenty year pappy van winkle bourbon which he paid 600 dollars for. it was amazing. sorry i was a little blurry . people come from all over japan to visit him. the amber house, right here in mito. we listened to the horace silver trio and the john coltrane quartet live in tokyo.

i know i dont deserve it but i got reservations to sushi mizutani in tokyo. some guy at work knows a guy. some say the best in tokyo i.e. the world.

BUCHO SAN!!!!

This is Jack Burton in the Porkchop Express and I'm talkin' to whoever's listening out there.
All I know is that this Lo Pan character comes out of thin air in the middle of a goddamn alley, while his buddies are flying around on wires cutting everybody to shreds, and he just STANDS there, waiting for me to drive my truck straight through him, with LIGHT coming out of his mouth?

Here it is folks

sorry, cant get the picture the right way. maybe youse can figure it out. theres a bunch of drunk businessmen outside yelling bonsai. i might have to break out the nunchucks and show em some real chuck norris

shit. beautiful 20 hectoliter dme brewery, easy mash out, my view from the bottling line, miyata san putting champagne yeast into oak barrels of xtra high, and the beginning of cherry blossom season in the middle of the brewery complex. take that.

EARTHQUAKE

MY CAPLOCK IS BROKEN. IM MORE OF A LOWER CASE GUY. ANYWAY, I WAS SITTING IN THE LUCHROOM EATING MY SQUID YAKI SOBA, MINDING MY OWN BEESWAX, WHEN THE ROOM STARTS SHAKING LIKE CRAZY. IT WAS KIND OF STORMY OUTSIDE AND AT FIRST I THOUGHT IT WAS THUNDER, BUT NOPE A REAL HONEST TO GOODNESS EARTHQUAKE. IT WAS ONLY LIKE TEN SECONDS, BUT IT WAS KIND OF COOL.

godzilla about town...

coming soon. i guarantee this placed will get scorched by the time im done with it. had a good food day in tokyo yesterday. first off its really fucking confusing trying to walk around. there was not one street sign in english, its all japanese character lettering. somehow i always manage. had my first yakitori(grilled chicken over charcoal on a stick) and found amazing pizza, some of the best ive ever had. oh and i had a couple 9 dollar pints of beer. nothing funny about that.

JOY and PAIN....like SUNSHINE and RAIN

i guess i shouldn't have eaten those chicken enchiladas or drank all that beer. i barely remember eating that mc pork sandwich late night. my brain is on fire. i have tomorrow off and will be going to tokyo. finally. the bossman makes john myerow(tria owner) look like mother teresa. and i really like john. anyway, i think taka-san(brewmaster) and garret oliver should get together, they have a lot in common, if you know what i mean.

I'm dying! No you're not...But you are gonna have to stick your head between your legs to tell the time.

the horse(i cant remember the japanese word) is served with a raw garlic puree, ginger puree(lower left hand corner) and raw onions in the back. if you notice on the soba picture, the small green root and the grater, its fresh wasabi that you grate yourself. similar but more subtle than the horseradish version, the flavor and aroma actually dissapates after ten minutes or so. oh, and i pale in comparison to charles bronson in Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects. im far too pretty

horse, tempura, soba and me

Hold on to the night, hold on to the memories

The guys took me out for a birthday celebration at a raman house. It was really f-n good. Great drink food.
I never figured I would make it to 31. I always thought that I would get hit by a car or something tragic, some result of my own stupidity. Either way I feel really lucky and am pretty happy with things.
That being said, there is no way in hell, that I can stay at this brewery for another month. I bottled again today from 8 till 5, and then cleaned kegs from 5 till 8:30. The main bottling guy quit today because of an argument with bucho-san(the owner), or the bastard as everyone seems to call him. I think I can afford to stay in a hostel for a couple of weeks before my brother comes.

ps　　I had a special birthday celebration with myself this morning when　I woke up.

Picture pages, Picture pages

I have a couple good pics, but the damn computer is in Japanese. Give me another week or so to translate. Tonight, monkfish liver, kind of like foie gras. Duck sashimi. And only 12 hours of bottling. Im dying. I guess were all widdling away at something.

P.S. Japanese women have no idea how administer oral sex according to the documentary that I saw in my hotel room last night.

coldest regards, joey

Catch a cannonball now t'take me down the line

Bottling beer. Sneaking beers. Eating traditional Japanese dinners. Yesterday, horse sashimi. Soba noodles. Fermented soybeans(fucking nasty). Asahi draft. Asahi Super Dry bottles. Cigarettes called Hope. Miso soup three times a day(good). Bento boxes for lunch(each time is a suprise). My first fresh wasabi. Went to the onsen(natural hot spring bath), I was the youngest person by at least 35 years, the guy next to me was putting on his diaper. Saw a play about a samauri and his girlfriend or something? I can't wait to get out of this town to see Japan. I miss America a little bit. Although it's really not that different, in my opinion.
I want to make a pizza.

wanted to make amends with the feelings of the last post....

before i get on the drink horse, but thats always a little late. my spirits are high even in the intense gloom of the brewing sweatshop. im making very nice with the brewing staff, who are of course amazing. by the way, the word nice i hate, its just so lite sounding, and people throw it around like everdayday wasted time. but the dudes, at hitachino, are truly nice. kind and funny and giving in every sense.

here's the lowdown

turns out i'm working for a company that gives it's workers no vacation, and a mandatory 6 day work week. i'm pretty sure this is what guam's like. a couple of guys are getting ready to quit. there is no love for a brewer in this world, especially for all the hard work and pleasure they give.

anyway, i found a couple of decent bars to hang in, but this might be my first friday night that i have to stay in in my life, due to my 6am wake up call. what the fuck.
i'll get some pictures on here when i find a decent computer. i haven't seen shit yet, anyway.

and by the way, japanese men get a bad rap, they don't have small penises. taka-san(brewmaster) showed me his today and it's bigger than mine.

My luggage is lost in translation

I've already brewed two batches of beer, a ginger ale and my first non alcohol beer. No one really speaks English, which is good, because no one bothers me. Extremely kind people, who brew very nice beer. I can't wait to put on fresh underwear. Now I know what it's like to pack light. Food is good. gotta get back to my brew, jaa soro-soro shitsuree-shimasu bitches

i need to talk to myself right now

excuse me my luncheon is getting rained on the beer is extra malty because its old digital conversation makes lonely seem amusing off anew off again the dark side seems light we pull ourselves out after we fall in we always fall in get up and make it again there are no lies in love pure