Japan - Chunky Cola

Cola Up, a new drink that I've been seeing around Japan. A soda that you can chew. Instead of the normal liquid you'd expect in a can of soda, it's a chunky jelly. Not bad, but kind of strange. I've also seen it in Grape and Almond Jelly flavors.

Canada - Momentum Ski Camp - Day 2

Day two of ski camp and the digger were still working on the jumps, so it was mostly rails again.

Sequence of Jeff hitting the Up/Down rail

During the sumer, one of the things Whistler is known for is their downhill mountain bike park. Jeff and I start riding downhill mountain bikes a couple of years ago when we were at ski camp and every year we're spending more and more of the time we're not skiing in the bike park. We'll ski until early afternoon, then switch our ski gear for mountain biking gear and hit the bike park. Jeff's gotten so into downhill mountain biking that he's bought his own bike.

Jeff hitting one of the wall rides on Crank it Up

I like to try some of the local food when I travel and in Canada it was Poutine, french fries topped with cheese curd and then covered with gravy. It was good and not as scary was raw horse or fugu.

Poutine

Singapore - Food Republic

Food Republic is a themed food court chain based in Singapore.

Food Republic in the VivoCity Mall

Panorama of Food Republic

Dinner - Seafood Soup

Singapore - Din Tai Fung

Awesome dumplings. There was a Din Tai Fung restaurant next to my hotel. It was't really a goal, but I've now eaten at Din Tai Fung in four different countries.

Singapore - Mashed Potatos

Interesting Mashed Potato machine in a 7-Eleven.

Japan - Crab Ramen

I love crab legs, but the crab ramen was really kind of dull.

Japan - Lunch

Here's a lunch I had at a Japanese restaurant in Tokyo. It was really good, but the one thing that's a bit strange is the food in the lower left corner, it's raw chicken.

Japan - Fugu!

Fugu (Puffer-fish) is a Japanese delicacy that can be served a number of ways. What makes Fugu interesting is that the fish contains lethal amounts of poison and if prepared incorrectly can result in death to the person eating it. The poison is a very potent neurotoxin that paralyzes the muscles of the body while the person remains fully conscious and eventually they die from asphyxiation.

Because of the danger, chefs have to be licensed to prepare and sell Fugu.

I was actually a little disappointed by the Fugu. I expected a fish that could kill me would have a very exciting taste, but it was actually very mild and a bit boring.

Japan - Shakey's Pizza

When I was a little kid I loved to go to Shakey's Pizza. So when I saw a Shakey's in Japan I had to try it out. Even better was that it was an all you can eat buffet, which in Japan is strangely called a Viking Dinner. Lot's of interesting pizza.

Ham and Potato, Ham and Calamari, Sausage and Corn

Brownie and Marshmallow, Fruit and Corn Flakes, Tuna and Corn, Chicken Nuggets

Ham and Corn, Ham and Corn with White Sause, Brownie Marshmallow

Japan - Big American Texas Burger

Japanese McDonald's were having a special series of hamburgers called Big American Burgers. There were four different hamburgers and each hamburger was on sale for a month. While I was in Japan last month for the Hokkaido Photo Workshop, they were selling the Texas Burger, so I had to give one a try. As you can see from the photo, the reality vs. advertising was just a tiny, tiny bit different.

Japan - Tokyo Disneyland Food

Crab Meat Pizza at Tokyo Disneyland. Pretty good!

Japan - Hot Dog

I'm pretty brave about trying new and different food and I have eaten many strange things while traveling in Japan and Asia. But one thing that I saw a lot of, but was never brave enough to try were these strange hot dogs that you could find at the convenient stores. The must be popular because every convenient store has them. One part of what scares me about them is that they are not refrigerated, they're stored out on the shelves with the breads and other pastries.

Japan - Energy Drinks

Energy frinks seem to be pretty popular in Japan. Every convenient store has a big rack of dozens of different kinds of energy drinks.

Display rack at a convenient store.

Since they are so popular, I thought I should give one a try. I have to say that it was impressively bad tasting.

I was walking around one day and spotted this recycling bin in front of someone's house. This guy seems to be living entirely off of energy drinks.

Japan - Hamburger

Here's some strange food I found at a convenient store in Kyoto. It's hamburgers, what's strange is that they are setting out on a shelf in a non-refrigerated area.

Japan - Food

Sashimi

Snails

Fish

Japan - Food

In Tokyo Station and the surrounding area there's hundreds of restaurants, everything from quick to fancy. I was at one of the restaurant and this is what we ordered.

Fried octopus on a stick.

Tuna

Eggplant

Fish and mushrooms.

The main dish, crab legs!

Japan - UFO Ramen

Japan in preparing for the upcoming alien invasion by making food specially for our new alien overlords.

Japan - Ham Sandwich

I was taking the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) back to Tokyo and wanted to get something to eat, so I bought a ham sandwich from the food cart. This is my sad, mostly meatless sandwich.

Where's the Wendy's lady when you need her? "Where's the Beef!" except in this case it's where's the Ham!

Where's the meat!

Hong Kong - Food

Taiwan - Food

Taiwan has lots of really delicious food to eat. Here's a few photos of some of the strange, interesting and sometimes kind of scary foods that I tried while in Taiwan.

And if anyone is interested, no, I did not eat the stinky tofu. I don't care what what people say, anything that smells that bad can not be good for you.

Beef Noodle Soup.

The white stuff is Tofu. The green black thing is a hundred year old egg, which is an egg that has been soaked in evil. Actually, it's egg that has been soaked for weeks or months in a mud like mixture, which sounds almost as bad as being soaked in evil.

Dumplings

Fried Mushrooms.

Shrimp, Bamboo, Noodle Soup, Noodles, and the really unpleasant looking one in front is Pork, which was pretty good.

Frog

Meat Filled Bun.

I have no idea, but I was told that it was a really famous dish.