Lost in Translation, Again

This week I was in Narita again. I made my routine trip to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Lately that has been a chocolate croissant, which is usually still warm from the oven, some sushi or tempura fish, milk tea and assorted junk food items. This time however I thought I'd look for a beer to bring back for someone I know that enjoys a good brewski. I personally do not care for beer so I am somewhat dumb when it comes to them, especially when most of the label is in Japanese. I knew two things though, 1. Fuse, (whom you might remember from my last post) likes bitter beer and 2. Strong hop flavor. So, I'm standing in the beer area and to my right there is beer, to my left there is beer. I am clearly in the beer section. I decided that I was going to try to find a very Japanese beer, i.e. one that had no English on it. I spied just what I was looking for, a bottle all in Japanese except for 2 words "hoppy beverage." Sweet, I thought, the one words I can read say that this is a hoppy beer. Great! I get two as there were 2 different types. I pay for my items and head back to the bus stop to enjoy my croissant and what turned out to be banana flavored milk, which was pretty tasty. As I am sitting there a fellow FA comes up to me and we start comparing purchases. I pull out the beers and start telling this story. By chance I happen to look at the bottle top and it says, in English: Beer Flavor. Uh-Oh, that didn't sound good. So when we got back on the bus, I asked two of our interpreters who had came to the mall too to tell me what in the world I had bought. They too were somewhat perplexed. "I think it's some type of soda," one of them said. "I think its something that you mix with a type of liquor we have here in Japan," said the other. "We are pretty sure it isn't a beer, even though it has alcohol in it, but also sugar." They had no idea what it was. So now I have two bottles of this unknown substance that I am going to cart back to the states with me. They are sitting in my kitchen, I am afraid to try one myself. Fuse seems pretty courageous, I think I'll stick with the original plan and give them to him to try. After explaining what they are of course. I couldn't be that mean. So much for foreign drinks. This weekend I go to Valencia, Spain so I think I'll be safe to bring back a bottle of wine. That can't get to confusing, can it?

Random Fact: The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835.
Random Quote: "Give me oysters and beer for dinner every day of the year, And I'll feel fine, I'll feel fine." ~ Tin Cup Chalice, Jimmy Buffett