New blogging baby woo woo!

So the adventure has begun. As of this writing I am in Nagano, Japan. There's just one issue.

Computer access. Y'know, such things are hard to get here when Internet is so rare. Although I'm staying with a host family, they only have one computer and no wifi, so even the remote chance to use it is close to nothing.

Furthermore, most places have little to zero Internet, as I've stated many times I'm sure.

Though I decided to bring my laptop with me on this 4 week travel fiesta, it's usability has drasticly dropped. We all love the Internet amirite?

So how in the world am I writing this blog without a computer?

All I can say is, iPhone apps kick major major butt.

In fact I'm kind of shocked with myself for not purchasing this app sooner. I want to blog on a far more frequent basis, but posting at a computer takes time and editing, so I completely unintentionally prevented myself from being more frequent in logging my life here.

Well that should all change now! Yesssss win!

Today I went to Zenkouji, the legendary temple of Nagano. It's massive, but ironicly enough, the thing I remember most isn't just the temple (which I've seen three times and it is QUITE remarkable), but one of the shops towards the enterance that sells miso ice cream.

Yes, miso flavored soft ice cream.

It was gooooood. Creamy, sweet, kinda tangy, buttery, weird.

Take a note from the Japanese eccentric tastes my chef friends!

I'm lookin' at you Vince and Glenn!

It's a "Whale" of a Time!

I have seen the mountain top.

And it is a glorious deep red flesh that permiates the soul. Whale meat.

Well not really... it's kind of "meh".

Actually, to be honest I wasn't even initially planning on making a blog about this food. I do too much food stuff as is I bet, and honestly, there wasn't much to report.

But what about the ethics of whaling? The taste? Is it worth it? Isn't it toxic?

So let's discuss.

 

Delightfully Deep Color eh? All for about 4 bucks.

I'm not really sure where to begin on this one. I think for starters I'll just summarize the taste; I'm sure some people are curious, and I am a connoisseur of this stuff after all. The best way I could explain it (and in retrospect it makes sense) is if someone took the flavor of beef, that deep, iron like, somewhat metalic, bold and rich flavor, and mixed it with the texture of a soft raw fish, like tuna. It's surprisingly lean tasting, again, tuna comes to mind on the mouth feel, but I couldn't help feeling like on the nose especially, this steak thing was wafting up. 

Though to be fair, the taste was somewhat masked by the small dollop of grated ginger on each piece. But that's what I felt it was like. Steak + tuna = whale.

It makes sense because mammals have blood, and aquatic animals have softer flesh. When you don't have to fight gravity, your muscles don't need to do as much work.

I'm pretty sure that's true. I read it somewhere.

Anyways!

Why is the idea of eating whale so perposterous to the majority of American consumers? It really IS just hard to say that whale consumption is "bad" or "wrong" for me (Yes, I am covering both right/wrong and good/bad here, I'm not an ethics phd people!). I'll list out the points I'm sure to come across in this stance. I'll try to cover them as best I can.

For those who don't want to read this extremely lengthy paper, skip to the bottom

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1. Whales are cuuuuute, how can you eat those things?? / Animal death is cruel!
- I really don't feel like covering this one, but I suppose I have to.  If you don't like animals dying, that's fine. But I love cow and chicken and pig and fish; I don't plan on stopping myself from eating their deliciousness. We are always cruel to animals in their death, because our conception of killing is cruel. If that is what you think, by all means believe it, but to me, the death of an animal is normal. It happens all the time.

(Yes this is the naturalistic fallacy)

The point I'm trying to make is that this claim is not an ethical claim but a claim of personal preference disguised as one. It's like if I hate cargo shorts and so I tell everyone not to wear them, this doesn't make the cargo shorts wearing act wrong: it's just a preference. Untill there is some actual proof that cruelty against animals is wrong (good luck with that), this claim has no weight in the debate of whale consumption.

I'm so sure I'm going to get flack for this stance.

Anyways.

2. Whale is highly toxic. 
- I'd like to bring a study in to cover this one briefly. 

http://luna.pos.to/whale/jwa_v22_freeman.html

I'll just quote:

         "...two distinguished University of California cancer experts, Dr. Bruce Ames and Dr. Lois Gold, observe that a cup of coffee contains over one thousand chemicals, of which more than half of those tested cause cancer in laboratory animals."

In short, while mercury contamination in whales is certainly a possibility, the amount of whale consumed as well as the frequency of consumption also comes into play. Conversely, people drink coffee substantially in America, but the lack of bans on coffee suggests a sort of hypocrisy if we argue that whale consumption is bad. Why ban one before the other when the other is possibly more dangerous? What about tobacco? Alcohol? There are plenty other far more consumed products that do harm to us in very empirically tested ways; a bit of whale is certainly not comparible.

In fact that study up there suggests that the toxic nature of whales itself is debatable.

NEXT.

3. Whales are an important part of the aquatic environment, killing whales hurts the cycle.
- I really hate to pull out the "we do worse stuff" claim again, but this is an environmental claim. We dump insane amounts of toxic waste into the ocean, deforest huge masses of land each day, and you mean to tell me that killing whales has a higher priority in being banned?

Furthermore, in some instances, whale killing is done on ACCIDENT by shipping crews.  The WWF even admits this!
            "In fact, ship strikes are to blame for 90 percent of Northern right whale deaths for which the cause is known" 
http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/threats/shipping/ 

So I just can't take this claim seriously either. Why is a full ban necessary? What about restrictions that allow sustainability instead? I have no problem with the idea of conserving the environment, but this does not require a full on ban. This claim is merely suggesting over farming should be stopped, which I can agree with. Saying that over farming is bad does not mean consumption is also bad.

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This is turning into a paper of a blog, so I'll just say this.

I don't see what the big fuss is all about. Just some environmental/animal rights shenanigans. 

And yet, if you must know, despite my clear adamant defense of whale consumption, I doubt I'm gonna eat it any time soon.

I mean it tastes ALRIGHT. Too expensive in my opinion. I could buy a huge salmon steak for that price. (or 8 nigiri pieces at toppi kaiten zushi, delish!)

New Vlog: Snow Festival

You guys know the drill! Do it upppp.





If the embed is messed up, click the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rs3mvLCXg4

End of Semester

Man... those finals were rough.

So the first semester of Hokkaido adventure time has ended. And thus begins my amazingly obscene long spring break. Just under 2 months really...

What is Mike planning to do in such a long time?

TRAVEL YOU FOOLS. TRAVEL.

I have been blessed with a scholarship this year, which, when combined with my hilariously minuscule dormitory costs (about 100 USD per month, utilities included), has allowed me a rather ample amount of funding for adventure. Aside from the HD camera I bought, I haven't really spent any money on anything besides food and train tickets. No clothes, no weird trinkets, nothing.

So... with money in hand, I figure now, with all the immense freetime I have on spring break, I can regain my tourist role in society, and see more of this gloriously unique country.

Here I will be announcing my VERY TENTATIVE schedule for the spring break vacation.

Feb 18th-22nd, Nagano. My host family is amazing!!!!
Feb 23rd - 28th, Other Honshu adventures. Osaka, maybe Koyasan, Nara, etc.
March 1st-8th: Okinawa. Beaching it UP
March 9th - 14th: Back to Honshu for more adventure, A brief stay in Nagoya is in the works?
March 15-17: Tokyo. Gotta love Tokyo
March 18th: Fly back to Sapporo


Yes, I am going to Okinawa. I am PUMPED.

Along the way I plan on doing TONS of media content. I've been avoiding video editing because it just takes so long! HD is a lot of data to transfer to a video editing program, and each video, shockingly, takes a good 3-4 hours to fully complete. So obviously... I'm making these videos as a labor of love.

Cause I love you guys!

And of course, I'm really looking to well document what I've done here.

Speaking of video blogs... get ready for a new one soon!

Can I get some feedback on those please? FORREAL! Ideas?

Man I am not used to this freetime...

Up up and awayyyyy.

Vlog: Jacksonville Burger

I am a fool who does "Coming of Age Day" in the most American tradition I know: eating burgers.

Check the vid!

For some reason the video doesn't fit into the screen... hmmmm.

Click the link for a direct youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5sOrV1Wy-k

Japanese Cheetos

Who doesn't know what Cheetos are?

The puffed crispy strips of delightful nuclear orange cheesy powdery goodness, every kid in America has had a cheeto before. And everyone knows exactly how they taste. Salty crunchy, and artificially cheesy.

But alas, perhaps in an attempt to market to different tastes, cheetos, do exist here, but they taste different.

That's right, they taste different.

And no, I don't mean they sell "roasted corn" flavor here and Cheese flavor there (which they do). I mean that A cheese flavored cheeto from Japan tastes COMPLETELY different from a Cheeto from America.

I mean dang they aren't even the same color!

But Alas, as I mentioned before, they have other flavors besides cheese. Perhaps one of the most shocking is "Coffee Nougat flavor". Tirol, a chocolate company, teamed up with Cheetos to make this "collaborative effort"

Aka, a chocolate covered cheeto.

I am an adventurer, and so when I noticed the package labeled "Tirol x Cheetos", I simply HAD to purchase it.

Ohhhhh delightful.

Upon opening the package I was surprised to find that the cheeto itself was rather... boring looking. It almost looked like it just had Dusty Chocolate powder on it.

I mean really Fritos, what a lame looking snack!

But how'd it turn out?? That's the important question!

Kinda tasty actually. Think chocolate pretzel, but more crunchy, less salty, and a bit of coffee on the coating. Also Chocolate. And a cheeto. Wow.

Super surreal though. What a ridiculous snack.


...


What the... soy flour mochi flavored chocolate covered?? TIROL YOU MONSTERS!!!

(I wish there was a better translation for that...)

Japanese Snow

Okay look look, I'm tired of this.

In Sapporo, it snows. ALL THE TIME.

I love snow, I love snow a lot. But I have one problem, my fluffy friend.

When you pack that snow down, over and over again by, say, the feet of a thousand rushing around college kids, things tend to become less fluffy and much more... icy.

Normally where I come from, the good ol US of A, this isn't a problem, since we have the beloved idea of shoveling the sidewalk. Then the way is clear, and walking is lovely. Nice, pretty, beautiful tufts of snow on the lawns, the trees, etc.

BUT IN SAPPORO, OH NO NO NO, shoveling the sidewalk DOES NOT EXIST.

I don't really have much to say about this one, except the ice is PACKED on, usually around a foot high at this point. The only time you see cleared sidewalks is when a company pumps hot water underneath the concrete to melt the stuff away via pipes built there, but if people don't have that, then they're just too lazy to clear it, and you get slick icy sidewalks. No salt, no shoveling, nothing.

They barely even clear the streets! I've seen cars skid EVERYWHERE.

The closest remedy you'll see is perhaps, some kind soul will sprinkle charcoal on the ground to embed itself in that caked-on mess of ice, providing a bit of traction.

But that's it.

Blows my mind really. I mean in America there'd be people suing as far as the eye can see with such a situation.

Last year over 1000 people slipped and had to go to the hospital in Sapporo ALONE. And not ONE of them sued?

WHAT A COUNTRY!

Time for some noodles...