Study in Economics

 This past week I had the opportunity to visit the Seattle area and made a stop at Whole Foods where I saw this particular beer from Japan.

The beer on the left is Aooni, a craft beer from Yo-Ho brewery in Nagano.  At Whole foods it was on sale for $4.99, which on this day was approximately 815 Yen.  

A few days later in Japan, the same beer was available at a grocery store for 288 Yen or about $1.92.

I was surprised just how expensive everything in the US was, $4.99 was a lot for a can of beer but it was not really priced that much above other local Seattle brands like Rainier or Fremont.  Not sure this post really has a point, but the cost of beer is like the early 2000's in the US.  You can't really compare the cost of Asahi or Sapporo because those beers in the US don't come from Japan.  They are made in Canada or somewhere else.  But this Aooni in the US and Japan comes from the same brewery. 

Anyway, Aooni is a good IPA, if you are in the US and near a Whole Foods, try it out. 

Four Summits

 Summer 2023, I had the opportunity to summit 4 mountains in Japan. 

1st mountain was Yurugi-san, 604m. 

Second mountain was Fujisahgatake, 941.9m

Third mountain was Akausagi, this mountain was the most difficult to reach, you really need a car to get here.  1628m

The last mountain was Hakusan. 2702.2m.  Hakusan is one of three holy mountains which include Take-san and Fuji.   Our plan is to summit the remaining two mountains, next summer will focus on Fuji Gotemba trail. 

Each summit was unique, amazing and beautiful, but Hakusan was very special.  It was a two day hike with camping one night. 

Fuji, the 5th station from Tokyo, the path you will probably take, is always over crowded.  The best trail is Gotemba because it's normally not backed up.  But if you can, hike Hakusan.  Compared to Fuji, it's less crowed and the 'nature' as you assent is more interesting.  Fuji is basically rocks, Haku is a forest most of the route.