I smell Spring!

I'm rockin' my Peter Parker Swag.

It's still cold up here in the mountains, but today was so sunny I couldn't help but feel that spring is on the way. For my money, spring in Japan is just about as good as it gets. The cherry blossoms are in bloom, everyone is ready to shake off the winter chills, and of course---us teachers have spring break. Does it get any better?

I'm going to be posting some pics from the Tokyo trip, but I'll start with some beer news. In Toyohashi I found that Sapporo and Royce Chocolate's Chocolat Brewery (the bitter version) is back and this time in conbinis. I bought a few last weekend, and while it is chocolaty, it's not because they put a ton of roasted malts in there. It's worth it to try a few, but don't expect it to be top of you favorite beer list. It looks like this year that a new 'sweet' version is available on the net only....

I also drank a few Halida beers from Vietnam this past weekend. These only served to cement my opinion that most beer from Southeast Asia tastes......

bad.


SO, back to Tokyo! Of course last week we started off the trip with a trip to the Harajuku Taproom, where a few good brews were had. I didn't care for the Kiwi Real Ale (forgot the real name) but there were several others available that I enjoyed thoroughly. The highlight of the night might have been when Chuwy cracked open a bottle of his homebrew!

A little of Chuwy's homegrown!

We also hit up the Aldgate where as usual, the beers were good. I had the Baren Alt and of course the lady had the Preston Stout. I'm not sure what the Preston beer folks are doing...but I like it. Both the Stout and the IPA were in top quality.



I've got a busy week ahead, but I'm planning on doing some good posts to get some conversation fired up here again. Also, anyone out there planning on hitting the Real Ale Festival? I could do it...and might be tempted to take a vacation day just for such a special occasion.

Readers will be glad to know that I found a ton of old pics on the girl's computer last weekend. You are going to enjoy seeing the Country Boys in some new, but classic shots!

Hope your Mondays are going well.....