A mixed message

At the supermarket today, I went over to the beer section to see if any new beers had popped up or were on sale. I was particularly looking to sample a few micro-brewery type beers after reading about them in a local magazine.

I was in luck. I spotted two beers from the lovely town of Karuizawa on the border of Nagano and Gunma. They were both, funnily enough, Belgian White beers.

I grabbed one and then was reaching for the other (the picture), called Suiyoubi no Neko (Wednesday's Cat).

"これが　おおいしい　よ" (Kore ga ooishii yo - This one's delicious!"

I turned around to the voice beside me, and life turned into slow motion. Beside me was a man in his late 60's or more, wearing a white undershirt with a v-shaped sweat patch, scruffy hair, a 2 week whisker growth, big bulging eyes and a massive open-mouthed toothless smile. I lie, there were two or three teeth in uneven spaces.

Despite his friendly demeanour and good advice (he probably was a really nice guy), I couldn't help thinking if this was a good idea. Will I... turn out like this guy... if I drink this? Am I going to lose my teeth if I drink it? This was all going through my head in the space of half a second, which felt like a minute. I guess it was because I had only just come from the dentist.

Nice guy... and he was right. It was delicious.