Some of the little things about visiting Japan amuse me the most. As an example, while browsing a store on Sunday we came across Diet Beer:
And the fact that Budwiser is an import in Japan, and therefore more desirable by some, takes a bit of getting used to as well.
All in all, I had a good trip. I'll surely have more to say about it in the next few days.
Posted by jzawodn at March 08, 2005 02:53 AM
Actually, diet beer exists here, only we call it "Light" instead of diet. So it's not _that_ unusual, except in translation.
Any more pics?
Looking to see if they stocked any real beer (South Africa has real beer, what you yanks drink is cheap beer flavoured water) ;)
I was in a little cafe in Hokkaido when I saw a small glass case proudly displaying imported US beers, the centerpiece was a can of Hamm's Beer. I thought they went out of business years ago. Hamm's used to be popular in my hometown since it was the cheapest beer around and sold well to the college students. I decided to order one, it was skunked.
Its amazing how many people don't know the difference between "beer" and "ale". Going by that standard, only Ireland has beer. Rest are all fruity ales.
Hi Jeremy --
actually, you'd be surprised how many of the import beers are considered nasty cheap swill back home, just like Bud. In particular, no self-respecting Aussie would go near Fosters if they had a choice in the matter!
(ok, maybe I'm displaying my anti-Bud bias there.)
Response to first comment: "Diet" is an actual brand of beer. Lucy Liu is their spokesperson, too.
Response to post: If you thought "Diet" beer was bad, you should see the "Fiber" brand.
Regarding "imported" beers:
When I was too young to drink, growing up halfway between NY and Philadelphia, Coors had this big mystique because it wasn't available on the east coast (because it's not pasteurized, so it has to be refrigerated, and I guess they couldn't reliably keep it cold on that long a trip?). People would bring cases back from vacation, and once in a while you'd see a liquor store put up a hand-written sign for a few days: "We have Coors".
Then I moved to California, and discovered that in the Western US, Coors was considered barely a step above generic beer.
Sapporo is good bet for a Japanese beer, but a nice Boddingtons or Newcastle Brown is guaranteed to hit the spot.
J, be careful with that overseas American beer (I cannot talk about the non-American stuff). A lot of it has a healthy dose of formaldehyde to keep it from spoiling. The sudden switch from in-country beer to their out-of-country version can leave you with a very nasty preservative hangover after as few as two beers in an afternoon.
Anjan wrote "Its amazing how many people don't know the difference between "beer" and "ale". Going by that standard, only Ireland has beer. Rest are all fruity ales."
This is totally wrong. I can't be bothered explaining in detail. Anyway, beer is a catch all term, and is further classified into lagers and ales. Every beer is either a lager or an ale. Every lager (or ale) is also a beer. Why do some people persist in posting nonsense?
Every country, it seems, has their Export Beer which nobody in the country who has the slightest inkling of what quality beer is will touch; Foster's, Steinlager, Budweiser etc. Frankly I'm of the opinion (widely held) that American beer is largely rubbish - coloured, low-alcohol water in my experience.
Germans are the kings of beer. The stuff they have over there drinks like water, you can get gallons of it down, it doesnt bloat you, you dont get a hangover (thanks to the German Purity Law of 1516) and once you've had draught of that stuff a few times everything else tastes like disinfectant.
"diet" beer is probably similar to low-carb beer. ever heard of Pure Blonde? that's a low-carb "diet" beer.
"light" beer on the other hand is "light" because it has less alcohol content in it, not because it is in any way better for your diet. :)
