It's summer here in Japan, which means it's time for special summer products. Food in Japan is much more seasonal than anywhere else in the world, in my opinion. It's important to eat the right foods at the right time of the year in order to get the maximum taste experience. For example, one kind of fish may be caught all year round, but when it's caught in a certain month it is at its best (and accordingly, is at its most expensive price). Fruit and veges are the same. Melons, watermelons, cherries etc. have a boom towards the middle and end of summer. That's when you can find those famous $100 watermelons.

Corporations recognise the seasonal attitude Japanese have towards shopping, so they often bring out seasonal products too. The other day I dropped in at 7-11 and found that they had stocked up on new season summer drinks, so I picked out three that looked interesting.

First we have Lipton Pineapple Tea Summer Package.

Now this product is actually quite good. Generally, fruits like apples and peaches get mixed with iced tea. This is the first time I had had pineapple iced tea, and it was great. Sweet, but not too sweet. Just enough to take away the bitterness of the tea. Leaves a nice aftertaste. Two thumbs up.


Next we have Lipton Orange Mint Tea.

Lipton was looking good after their pineapple experiment, but the orange mint doesn't quite do it for me. The first half of the bottle was good. Cool, refreshing and with a minty aftertaste. But the second half of the bottle became a challenge to drink. The mint starts to overpower both the orange and the tea and you're left drinking a lukewarm, minty tea that tastes like it's been left open for a few days before drinking. Half a thumb up.



The next one is a real mystery.

Picture this: Pepsi bigwigs are sitting around a conference table in Tokyo trying to decide what their big summer product will be.

"We need a new Pepsi flavour that encapsulates summer. Something cool, something refreshing, something crisp, something that makes you want to go to the beach and party with bikini babes."

"How about Pepsi Lemon?"

"No, we've done that"

"Pepsi orange?"

"No, too boring."

"Pepsi cherry?"

"No, Coke did that."

"Pepsi Vanilla?"

"No, Coke did that too."

"Hmmm..... I've got it!"

(pause for effect)





"Pepsi Ice Cucumber!!!!"

"That's brilliant! Cucumber is cool and refreshing, just like lemons and oranges! We'll make a fortune!!"

Hmmm, where to begin. Pepsi Ice Cucumber is cool in colour (a kind of ice aquamarine) and comes in a cool bottle. The taste is... well... pretty much what you'd expect when you mix Pepsi and cucumber. It tastes cool, but has a flavour that is very hard to describe. It's not like drinking a liquid cucumber and it's not like drinking a Pepsi. It's just... odd. So odd in fact, it is actually very hard to drink. The weird thing is, it doesn't really taste bad. It just tastes unusual. It's refreshing, but at the same time kind of nasty. I'd take one sip and think "Hmm, this is good", then the next sip I'd be thinking "Hmm, this is awful". It's a very confusing drink. However, this drink does have one redeeming point. If you are really interested in understanding Japanese culture, you don't need to read thick books or talk to sociology professors. Just try some Pepsi Ice Cucumber. It's like the essence of Japan distilled in a bottle. One thumb sideways.


Finally, I thought I'd add one more product. This isn't a new product, nor is it a summer product. This came with my school lunch one day. Often school lunches come with some kind of dessert. For example, a cup of jelly, a fruit salad or a frozen yogurt are quite common desserts. However, occasionally we get a completely random item to finish the meal with. The other day we were given this...

ALMOND FISH! (even if you can't read Japanese you can probably tell it's almond fish by the picture of the almond and the fish holding hands)

Almond fish is a little packet of roasted almonds and dried tiny fish. Just what everyone needs to cleanse the palate after a delicious meal. No, thank you. Two thumbs down.

I haven't done a movie review in a while so I figure it's about time. Problem is, I've seen quite a few movies recently so I'm not really sure where to start. During winter, and to a lesser extent summer, there's really not much to do at night in a town that is so isolated. Most days I work, do some snowboarding (winter) or play some park golf or volleyball or something (summer) after school, come home, cook dinner, study, get in bed and watch a movie, go to sleep. Seeing as I have a fast internet connection with unlimited downloads, I can (in theory) download movies to watch at night. This is all theoretical, of course. I certainly don't condone movie piracy. However, theoretically, I can download movies faster than I can watch them. I can, theoretically, set up a few torrents downloading and an hour or two later I'll have two or three new movies ready to watch. Nice... Or it would be if I ever decided to participate in activities of this kind.

Anyway, during my theoretical watching of movies I've come to realise something. Most of the movies that Hollywood churns out these days are really not very good. In fact, a lot of them are completely unwatchable. They are boring, unoriginal and formulaic. Probabaly one out of every ten movies I watch would get my seal of approval. Let's say I watch 100 movies. I figure, about 10 movies will go into the "Wow, that was great" category. Probably about 25 movies will go into the "Not great, but watchable" category. About 50 will go into the "That was a waste of 2 hours of my life" category. And the remaining 15 will go into the "If you were softer I could use you for toilet paper, but seeing as you aren't I'll have to just throw you in the bin and hopefully never ever see you again" category.

Looking back, the movies I found most interesting were movies that were unusual. Movies that transcended genres (ie. not just an "action" movie or a "thriller") generally got a thumbs up. Movies with interesting stories, interesting actors, interesting locations etc. also got a thumbs up. Anything that was looked similar to a movie I had seen before generally got a thumbs down. The best movies I watched were often movies that, after reading the synopsis, I wasn't really sure I would enjoy. Anyway here are some recommendations (in no particular order) of movies that I surprisingly enjoyed watching.

"Brick" - Although it's not for everyone, I thought this movie was great. Film-noir is an interesting genre, and history has shown that you can mix film-noir with other genres to create great movies. For example, film-noir and sci-fi mix well (Bladerunner, Dark City etc.). In this movie, film-noir gets mix with high-school drama. All the noir elements are there - a brooding anti-hero, a femme fetale, a murder, a detective story, strange accomplices etc. - but it's set in a school. Amazingly, it works well. The story flows, the direction is unusual, the characters are interesting and , if you can understand what they are saying (which is hard), the dialogue is great. Not long before watching Brick I saw The Black Dahlia. Now there's an example of an utterly crap film-noir. Stupid story that is impossible to follow, ridiculous ending, and boring acting. A great example of a bad movie.

"Unknown" - This film actually had a great story. Very "Saw"-like. Five guys wake up to find themselves trapped in a warehouse. They have no memory. They can't remember who they are or why they are there. One guy is tied to a chair. One guy is shot and handcuffed to a walkway. One guy has been beaten. The other two are ok. They piece together bits of information and work out that they are all part of a kidnapping. However, no one knows who is a kidnapper and who is a kidnapee. Great idea for a movie. The acting is ok and the story plays out well, though a little predictably. However, the best part of this movie is the end. Just about every action/drama/thriller movie that comes out these days has to have some kind of twist at the end. It's mandatory. In fact, because every movie has to have a twist, the twist has become easy to spot in most movies (Oh, the good guy is really a bad guy). Because of this, many movies are starting to use the "double twist" (Oh, the good guy, who we thought was a bad guy, is now a good guy again). But even then, the double twist is starting to become easy to spot. "Unknown" goes one step further and uses the "triple twist" (Oh, the good guy, who we thought was a bad guy, is now a good guy again... no wait... he's a bad guy). The triple twist in this movie is what changes it from just an ok movie to a movie I would recommend watching.

"Black Snake Moan" - I had this movie sitting around for quite a while. Actually, I wasn't really interested in watching it. However, when I ran out of other movies to watch I thought I'd give it a go. I was glad I did. The movie is definitely strange, and at times a little hard to watch. But it's certainly original, and that's what I like about it. I also like the blues that is played throughout the movie. However, the story is so strange that I can't even explain it. If I'd turned it on half way through, I would have had no idea what was going on. Why the hell is big balding Sam Jackson singing the blues to a little white half-naked beaten-up sex-fiend who is chained to the radiator in his house? Sounds weird doesn't it, but it makes perfect sense once you watch the movie. Again, this one is not for everyone, but it's definitely original.

"Stranger Than Fiction" - Now this is definitely not the kind of movie I would usually like. Furthermore, although it's considered a "comedy" by some it's certainly not a "funny" movie. However, seeing as Will Ferrell is an interesting comedian, I thought I'd give it a go. Surprisingly, Will can actually act in more than just comedy. Anchorman, Talladega Nights etc. were funny movies, but this movie is completely different. It's much more drama than fart jokes. The story is interesting too. Will's character is your average loser with a boring job and no life. One day, he hears a voice narrating his life. It turns out that his life is being written by a famous novelist who is trying to finish her final bestseller. As she writes things, hey happen to Will in real life. With some help from Dustin Hoffman, Will finds the author and confronts her. The problem is, the author is famous for killing off all her characters at the end of each book. Oh no, what will Will do?

"Green Street Hooligans" - Another movie I put off watching because I didn't think I'd like it. It was violent, a little disturbing, a little sad, but definitely different and definitely watchable. I really don't like the hobbit guy... um... what's his name... but in this movie he's ok. It's also nice to see him beaten up a couple of times. Heh heh.

"Deja Vu" - I figured that this would be your typical Bruckheimer movie - lots of action, explosions, inspirational music playing over slow motion gunfights, as many American flags as possible - and for the most part it was. The only reason it gets a mention here is that it deals with some interesting issues involving time and time-travel. There's an especially good scene where Denzel Washington is driving a hummer while wearing special glasses that help him see the past. In one eye, he can see what's going on now, in the other, he can see what was happening four days ago. He uses this device to chase down a bad guy four days after the bad guy was on the run. Pretty cool.

"Casino Royale" - Congratulations! Someone realised that it was just silly to have Bond driving round in an invisible car chasing bad guys who are Korean but look like a ginger Brit (yes... I really didn't like Die Another Day very much). Furthermore, someone actually read one of the Bond books and decided to use ideas from the book instead of just the name. If someone had done this back when movies like Moonraker were made, the Roger Moore era might have been decent instead of laughable. Finally, someone decided to hire a real actor instead of a male model who can pull off a British accent. The result is a movie that is not only a great Bond movie, but a great movie in its own right. Watching the movie, you really get the feeling that Bond is a nasty dude who's going to kill bad guys without remorse (and maybe even enjoy it a little). The new bond (who is actually much more like the old Bond from the books) is the kind of guy who's certainly not perfect - he's going to lose sometimes, he's going to take some beatings - but when he's fired up, he's going to go nuts. He's the kind of guy that when he shoots someone and misses, you get the feeling that he missed on purpose because he wants to club them to death with his gun instead. Hopefully this trend will continue for the next movie.

"300" - This movie is far from perfect. The dialogue is average at the best of times. There is no character or plot development. The narrating is painful to listen to. However, 300 has to be one of the most visually spectacular movies of all time. It's kind of like watching a moving painting. The colours are great, the locations the were created are awesome, and some of the scenes are ridiculously cool. When the bad guys shoot about 50,000 arrows into the sky and it blots out the sun: COOL. When the Spartans are standing on the cliff in the torrential rain watching Zeus' storm destroy the ships below: COOL. When the Spartans halt the first charge of the Persians with their shields, then heave them back sending them flying into the air: COOL. The list goes on and on. During a recent awards ceremony, comedian Sarah Silverman told a pretty funny joke: "Do you know why they called the movie 300? Because on a scale of 1 to 10, that's how gay it is". While the joke is a little harsh, it does show that the movie can appeal to both sexes. Guys like it for the mindless violence, girls like it because the whole cast is a bunch of ridiculously ripped guys running around in loincloths.

And finally...

"Crank" - Now this movie is interesting. I had it on my hard disk for quite a while before I watched it. Actually, I was saving it for a time that I knew I could appreciate it. One Friday I came home after a busy, busy week of work and study. I grabbed a drink, lay down on my bed, and put on this movie. 90 minutes later, I was completely refreshed, all the stress of the week had just melted away. This great thing about this movie is that it requires absolutely no mental activity while watching it. It's basically just a bunch of crazy action scenes one after another with no break in between. There's no time-filling, there are no scenes filled with dialogue, you don't have to remember who people are and what they are doing, you just have to sit back and enjoy it. I think the best way to describe this movie is to summarise the plot: "Jason Statham, a professional assassin, wakes up to find that he has been poisoned by a competitor. In order to have a chance of survival, he has to keep his adrenalin levels as high as possible. If he doesn't, he'll die within the hour. So, to keep his adrenalin pumping he has to get into fights, steal stuff, drive like a maniac, shoot people, hump his girlfriend in the middle of a crowded city street, go skydiving with no parachute etc..." It's like Grand Theft Auto - The Movie.

Whoo... my fingers are tired.

It's been over a month since must last entry. Wooo... time really does fly when you're busy. Recently I've been busy both at work and after work. I've just finished all my assignments for uni and so I've got a month of (which is great). One of the interesting things about my course is that there is usually only one piece of major assessment per subject, with most of the assessment made up of regular short assignments. This means that the workload is spread out evenly across the semester. As long as you study regularly, there are no problems. However, if you take even a week off then everything banks up and you're in the poo. Fortunately, my job gives me enough spare time for regular study, so I'm ok (but I'm also looking forward to the break).

"It's GOLD Jerry! GOLD!"

In local news, the snow finally melted and the roads dried up, which meant it was time to get some new tires and wheels for my car. I'd spent most of winter looking around local shops and had found a nice set of used Subaru Gold 16" wheels with Michelin rubber. They were in great condition and the price was great too, so I couldn't resist buying them. Wheels are interesting because they can make an average car look great, or a great car look like crap. Among the different types of wheels, gold wheels are perhaps the most dangerous of all. For some reason, gold wheels only look good on a pimpmobile, a Subaru, and a few other cars. And even then not all models can pull them off. Why? I have no idea. But putting gold wheels on your bright red Mitsubishi Minivan is undoubtedly a quick way to a thorough beating in many parts of the world. Here are some random pictures I pulled off the net:

In this one, we can see a good example of gold wheel use. Unsurprisingly, it's a WRX.

In this example, we can see a set of gold wheels ALMOST ruining a perfectly good Lamborghini.

And in the last one, we have a set of gold wheels ruining what was perhaps the coolest car of the 80s, a Delorean.

Personally I was pretty happy with the outcome of my car. It doesn't look like a pimp mobile, it looks a little classier, but it still wouldn't look out of place tearing down a dirt road on the side of a mountain.

Before:

After:
On a bit of a downer, I broke four wheel studs getting the old wheels off. I went of to the local Subaru dealer to get a new set and, wouldn't you know it, it was the first day of their nation-wide once-a-year week long vacation. Greaaaat. This meant that I couldn't drive my car for the first half of my Golden Week holiday. The second half I got to drive my girlfriend's BMW while we went on a short holiday, so that made things a little easier. Once I got back from that trip, I went off to Subaru, spent $10 on a few small pieces of metal that were holing me back from driving my car, changed the oil (some nice, but expensive Mobil 1), and now she's purring like a kitten. Or maybe a big kitten with rabies.