So the adventure continues....

This Thanksgiving I went to Japan on a whim.  I must say that going to Japan by oneself and not knowing a lick of Japanese wasn’t the smartest thing to do.  The target destination was a place called Fuefuki in Yamanashi prefecture.   A town in the middle to the world renown Japanese grape region.   How did I pick this region??  Friend I met on Guam was working there so figured I’d go visit. 

Grape vineyard in the center of town

Grapes on the vine

OK, some background info on Fuefuki it looks like a nice inland valley that in my opinion could have been a swap at one time (lots of water/storm drains everywhere).   I think in the late sixties bubbling hot water came up thru da ground so now the place is a mecca of Japanese bathhouses along with being the fruit including wine grape region of Japan.  





Well apparently the same weekend as the US Thanksgiving Holiday was some Japanese national holiday..long story short, all of the hotels were booked for the weekend….fuck it I went anyway.  Wine country why not?  It was beautiful the weather was like August at home but dryer.

Getting there was easy.  I had a Delta ticket that was due to expire on the 31^st of Nov.  so I used it.  Business class to Japan, Oh yeah Baby!  The sad part is I don’t/can’t drink like I used to so the few glasses of champagne didn’t make the upgrade worth it.  At the airport, everybody speaks plausible English so finding the right bus line to Fuefuki was easy.   You could also take the train, but the trip has about 4 transfers with a few minutes between to find the right train.  I figured bus - no transfer - straight trip.  So far easy Parcheesi.  I passed thru the Yasmanashi Tunnel about a week before it collapsed whew!

So my friend meets me at the bus station and takes me to this hotel that at least has a room for Thursday and as luck would have it there was a cancellation..wooo hooo.  Lodging was solved for the four days I was there.  The next day I set out to explore.  It was pretty cool though I didn’t do any bathhouses…hello I don’t even enjoy hot tubs and sitting around with a bunch of men in sulfur fumed water just wasn’t interesting.  This place was clean.  Guam is dirty. Why so many Japanese tourist go to Guam is beyond me.

Trip Highlights

1. Went to this family restaurant and ordered from the pictures what I thought was chicken.  What I got was the cartilage tips at the end of chicken breast.  It was weird, they had a sliver of meat and chicken skin.  The order was about ten 1-1/2” pieces.  The place had little inset gas-fired hibachi’s that let you cook the food.  This is easy -  I cooked those bad boys till they were crunchy, then shootz it was all good.

2. Shopping hmmm, well Japan was a little colder than Guam and I needed a jacket/coat.  So I hit the mall and a few clothing stores hoping to find some warmth.  Damn I’m not the biggest dude but the XL, and XXL’s where too small??  I guess I didn’t see the big and tall store.  Neway, I find a vest that is tight but hell, it’s a down vest on sale a size XXL.  A bit later, back at the hotel I notice the snaps and zipper are on the wrong side.  Apparently I have a woman’s XXL (hey it was on the men’s rack, how am I s’posed to know?).  I swear to God I didn’t see any Japanese women that weekend that would even remotely be a XXL.  Thinking about it I’m not sure I have ever seen a size XXL? 

3.       Fuefuki has a bargirl Karaoke district which isn't much different than what is in Guam.  It is funny the places in Asia that I have been, there are always no local women.  I must go to the "non-local" places.  This one  joint had a high yen “bingo” game in the back?  I think the term bingo was lost in translation.   OK so the next night I went looking for a Jazz club and saw this club called “Night and Day” a piano bar.  Can’t go wrong with that, Cole Porter and Frank Sinatra right?   It was cool owned by this older Japanese guy ….that spoke English yea!  Lol he made me sing a karaoke song (nope no jazz slightly misleading) I selected Johnny Cash, but when  Helen Reddy “I Am Woman Hear Me Roar” came up Tak throws me the mic and says sing while he accompanied me on the piano.  Needless to say, I have a new song in my karaoke repertoire.  They were great ppl, warned me to be careful walking home and then sent a bottle of local wine to the Hotel. 

Ok so it is time to leave and catch the bus back to Narita.  That was the most difficult part of the trip.  We go to the train station and ask about bus tickets because it is also a bus stop.  No luck at the train station info booth.  No English but my friend knows Japanese so we get a number to call for the bus line.  He he I call the number later and we communicate only just enough for me to understand that the woman on the other end of the phone cannot speak English. 

OK no problem I got this.  Next step Google translate Bus to Narita and ask the desk clerk to help.  


Done! I have reservations but no ticket.  With a reservation, you have to go to the convenience store with a ticket kiosk.  



I handed the clerk the paper with reservation confirmation number for him to operate the kiosk (which is all in Japanese)  after the BAS vs BUS spelling incident I finally have a ticket.  With ticket in hand the Bus/Plane trip back to Guam was without incident.

GM#2 - Another try at the ginger martini

So the other day I’m at the California Grocery store (Guam is funny the Korean Grocery store is called California ?) and saw these awesome humongous ginger roots. Yes indeed!! This is an omen to have another try at ginger martinis. Honestly, what else do you do with ginger roots that big? Anyhoo G-Daddy buys two big ass roots of ginger.

This time is going to be different. I’m gonna do it right.

Step two Grab some cheap rum, Virgin Island rum from St. Croix. No good dark rum on Guam, but last time that made the martini’s too dark. This time we are going for appearance, presentation, and taste. Gez, I just can’t do white rum it has no flavor.

Step three. Get a juicer, ain’t none of this silver bullet pint sized food processor action like last time. I borrow a juicer from a friend of a friend and proceed to burn the unit up. Hmm… I guess ginger was a bit dense for that juicer, seriously what a major mess. The feeder housing dropped into the grinding wheel and then plastic shavings got all into the juice. Then, I tried to use coffee filters to strain the slurry, the fines in the mix just clogged the coffee filter. Note from attempt GM #1. I did look for cheesecloth lol saw it the next day at the store, have now for GM#3

Repeat step three. This time I don’t full around - I buy a juicer. None of this Hamilton Beach plastic crap. I go with the Jack LeLanne’s Power Juicer Pro with special extraction technology, designed for performance and taste “as seen on TV”. This baby is stainless steel construction with a way better/bigger motor, and yes I did peal the ginger first. Holy cow!! The juicer 2000 did the trick. I’m all for high extraction technology.

Yield, three potion bottles of ginger syrup. That seems to be the default value. Kmart had the really cool stopper bottles. Last time I had to drink three bottles of sake for the bottles.

I also used white sugar, but I didn’t simmer the mixture for very long, just enough to dissolve the sugar. Mistake I had semi-sweet ginger juice but, not ginger syrup.

Mixology

Equal parts ginger syrup and rum. Mix in shaker filled with ice and serve in chilled martini glasses. The result was mixed (lol yes I was being punny). I personally thought the drink was too gingery, that in itself wasn’t a bad thing. Next time though I think I’ll rim the glasses with sugar. Still can get the color looking like something you really want to drink. The muddy browny yellow just isn’t that appealing. Need to get the MIHOTT opinion on that.

Conclusion, drinkable but nobody asked for another.