October 16, 2012

With a guest in town this weekend, did a lot of city driving and this morning it felt as if everything became clear....like in the NFL when a rookie finally gets the hang of it and everything just slows down.  Feel that I can navigate this dump to perfection and am now King of the Road.

Have a mess of pictures backed-up, so am gonna clean up that folder a bit today.  First up...a few from the Costco.

It's been since college that I had a bit of the Hairy Crabs.  These were on special this week as it is the time of year when these type of crabs are pregnant.  The populace don't eat the crab meat but prefer to eat the eggs only.  A quick dip in boiling water, scoop em out and enjoy.  Wonder what miraculous health benefit they ascribe to them.  Next up...Jew's Ear

Took some of these photos with the iPhone and can't get it to rotate properly, and it cut off the view of the product on this one.  I wouldn't put it past them to actually eat the ears of a Jew, but these are mushrooms that are popular here.  Are supposed to be good for sore throats, blood flow, etc...good for what ails ya. They call them Jew's ear after Judas, who hung himself after the betrayal of Jesus and the ears are supposed to be what remains of his returned spirit.  More ghost stories...I ain't afraid of no ghosts. 

As previously mentioned, they typically have alcoholic samples at the Costco, and with this being October, they were promoting some local brand of German bier complete with Chinese in lederhosen

They just don't fill 'em out as Teutonically as one would hope for.  And no trip to the Costco would be complete without your mode of transportation being by scooter. 

You would not believe the quantity  of Costco sized products they can balance on the scooter.  And you have to love the fact they have a designated handicap scooter parking spot. 

Goofiness in advertising is certainly not limited to the Costco.  Saw this one evening at our local Japanese department store.

She was trying to entice you into buying cosmetics or something...looked like a really big pot scrubber.  Might not have been so bad had it not been for her long stick legs that were so transparent, you could see every blue blood vessel.  Capital "S" Sexy.

There is a pathological tendency to over package purchases.  In some cases, it makes sense...like when you buy a bag of cookies, they are further broken down inside into multiple mini-packages.  Due to the high humidity, this helps when you want to eat just a few and the rest can stay fresh.  But at other times, you can feel the Earth actually warming as they are working on your purchase.  I've become fond of the Japanese coffee joint around the corner as they make a nice latte...even better than the Starbucks two doors down.  It comes in a paper bag and here are the contents.

Along with the latte, there is a pack of sugar, stir stick, napkin and plastic holder to keep it upright.  They also put a piece of tape over the Solo lid to keep it on the cup, but inevitably cover up the carburetor so that you have to peel it off anyway.  I've since trained them to just give me the cup, but imagine this times every cup of coffee sold. 

Loved this sign at the local Biergarten.

Have to admire that the vomitorium is unisex, and that the woman is bald, so you don't need to hold her hair back while she spews.  Could not help thinking of the food poisoning scene from Bridesmaids. 

On Sunday's at the kid's school, they rent it out to the Filipino Christians...last weekend saw the annual B-ball for Jesus tournament.

Finally, have had this one floating around for a while.

Took this one at the zoo a while back and think it really highlights the difference in cultures.  In the back of the mind of most Westerners, we know that the food in front of us has a history that we'd rather not know about.  In the Eastern cultures, they teach the youth about every gory detail of the food chain.