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At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

japantimes.co.jp

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Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#61

Post by dfxm12 »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #55
dfxm12 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps we just value it less here in North America. I can't speak for Canada or Mexico, but due to so many benefits being tied to full time employment in the US and a general lack of any kind of social safety net, you have to already be independently wealthy or willing to be a starving artist to do something like that - invest a lot of time into learning a craft that probably won't payoff for decades (if at all). Al…

> due to so many benefits being tied to full time employment in the US and a general lack of any kind of social safety net, you have to already be independently wealthy or willing to be a starving artist to do something like that Something that is kind of wild about the USA is that for as much as the culture seems to value entrepeneurship, the political and economic system is designed to stifle it and discourage peop…

It's just dishonesty from politicians. You'll see legislation passed under the guise helping "family farms", but in reality, these subsidies help big ag and hurt the smaller operations: https://www.johnlocke.org/farming-subsidies-disproportionate...

I'm sure it's similar across sectors. Tech startups are what they are thanks to private venture capital.

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#62

Post by klausa »

hospitalJail wrote: post #4

Japan's obsession with tradition gives me real Europe vibes. The people selling it praise it, the people nearby have pride. I eat it and after all the hype, am disappointed. If I try really really hard, I can trick my brain into thinking its worthwhile. (I did just spend a bunch of money, traveled across the world, I should be able to enjoy this more than something I grow in my garden.. right?) I'd love blind taste t…

It's almost like things like food and drinks are incredibly subjective, and things that are highly praised by some won't be enjoyable for others.

It's fine to admit to yourself you didn't like something that was hyped.

But "worthwhile" can mean so many things! If you're going to place X to try "the best Y", with that as your only goal, you're almost always going to be disappointed. Did you try something _new_? Was it _interesting_ in some ways? Was the _experience_ around it nice? Did you learn something about your preferences for Y in the process?

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#63

Post by dan_quixote »

taeric wrote: post #11
hospitalJail wrote: post #4

Japan's obsession with tradition gives me real Europe vibes. The people selling it praise it, the people nearby have pride. I eat it and after all the hype, am disappointed. If I try really really hard, I can trick my brain into thinking its worthwhile. (I did just spend a bunch of money, traveled across the world, I should be able to enjoy this more than something I grow in my garden.. right?) I'd love blind taste t…

I hate to push the idea of experience, but you can try that next time. That is, don't try and take in the taste individually. Look around and experience everything with you and try to imprint some of that into tasting it. Close your eyes and set the idea that it was all a part of it. Then, later, if you can get back to this specific taste, it can help remind you in very physical ways of being there and having that ex…

I'd like to extrapolate this further.

Don't make yourself independent from the experience. If you're already enjoying yourself, you will enjoy the taste (of whatever is in debate) even more. You will associate the taste with the story of its creation as well as your personal experience. Aim for the memorable experience with family/friends over consuming "the best" (sometimes it can be the same thing!) and you will enjoy it far more often. It took a long time to convince my ever-optimization-focused brain to choose this path.

And a corollary to this argument is to never look down on someone for enjoying something you don't like - they simply found a way to experience joy where you didn't.

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#64

Post by jamal-kumar »

rcme wrote: post #6
hospitalJail wrote: post #4

Japan's obsession with tradition gives me real Europe vibes. The people selling it praise it, the people nearby have pride. I eat it and after all the hype, am disappointed. If I try really really hard, I can trick my brain into thinking its worthwhile. (I did just spend a bunch of money, traveled across the world, I should be able to enjoy this more than something I grow in my garden.. right?) I'd love blind taste t…

Children have horribly underdeveloped palates. Generally novices in anything, food or otherwise, have trouble appreciating the nuances that make something beautiful.

They're also famously bad at tasting wine

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#65

Post by sithadmin »

asciimike wrote: post #44
f6v wrote: post #3

> Carefully, the chief viticulture engineer of Iwanohara Vineyard, Japan’s oldest operating winery, inspects each of the 5,500 grape vines that make up Iwanohara’s six hectares in Kitagata, Niigata Prefecture. > So far, Wada has found three bugs after two hours of work. The midday sun beats down, and beads of sweat pool on his neck. Iwanohara focuses on using as few pesticides as possible, an approach that means Wada…

Drops of God is fun and educational, as is Bartender ( https://mangakakalot.com/read-in2uo158504890455 ). I also enjoyed Oishinbo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oishinbo ), though admittedly the non-food part of the plot gets a bit stale/one-uppey.

If you like Oishinbo, try Souta no Houcho (Sota's Knife). Bambino! and Bambino! Secondo are also decent.

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#66

Post by Baeocystin »

nitwit005 wrote: post #47
taeric wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to push the idea of experience, but you can try that next time. That is, don't try and take in the taste individually. Look around and experience everything with you and try to imprint some of that into tasting it. Close your eyes and set the idea that it was all a part of it. Then, later, if you can get back to this specific taste, it can help remind you in very physical ways of being there and having that ex…

You seem to be describing a way to lie to yourself about the taste.

I think of it more as paying closer attention to certain facets of the experience, and less to others. It's not a lie- those elements are present, to greater or lesser degrees. Nothing is being spun from whole cloth.

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#67

Post by DropInIn »

rcme wrote: post #6
hospitalJail wrote: post #4

Japan's obsession with tradition gives me real Europe vibes. The people selling it praise it, the people nearby have pride. I eat it and after all the hype, am disappointed. If I try really really hard, I can trick my brain into thinking its worthwhile. (I did just spend a bunch of money, traveled across the world, I should be able to enjoy this more than something I grow in my garden.. right?) I'd love blind taste t…

Children have horribly underdeveloped palates. Generally novices in anything, food or otherwise, have trouble appreciating the nuances that make something beautiful.

They may be underdeveloped but they are also significantly more sensitive to various flavours than adults

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/ja...

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#68

Post by atleastoptimal »

Japan's MO seems to be extreme attention to detail on labor intensive high end luxury products. This translated into good transfer learning towards industrialization after WW2 but now has stagnated its potential by focusing on optimizing local maxima. It's aims fail to see the forest for the trees.

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#69

Post by GordonS »

dylan604 wrote: post #51
GordonS wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus, everything would be beige.

i'm pretty sure that not once ever have i heard a kid say their favorite color is beige. from kid's, i'd expect everything to be bright colors.

Given the comment I was replying to, I thought it would be obvious that my comment was in the context of food.

At least IME, some kids will only eat beige food (fries/chips, battered/breaded meat/fish etc).

Re: At Japan’s first winery, the country’s oldest grape lives on

#70

Post by badpun »

gottorf wrote: post #34
swexbe wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, shipping by boat has been more cost effective since the beginning of history. The furthest you can get from the ocean in Japan is like a full days walk.

> shipping by boat has been more cost effective since the beginning of history I've read that before the Transcontinental Railroad, it was cheaper and faster to get to San Francisco from a port in China than from St. Louis.

Similarly, people who wanted to join the 1849 San Francisco gold rush, but were on the East Coast, took boats which sailed all the way around South America to reach SF the fastest.
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