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Getting Started
Elapsed Time: zero

Today's post is a followup to “Last Chance For the All-You-Can-Feast Beer/BBQ at the Hotel Avanshell Kyoto” from the other day. Anthony and I went again last night, and in the interest of science and to record history for posterity, I documented everything that I ate or drank with grainy iPhone snaps.

昨夜、ホテルアバンシェル京都の焼き肉食べ放題に行きました。 めっちゃ食べて、めっちゃ飲んで、めっちゃ楽しかった。すべての飲食物は撮影して(iPhoneで、御免)、この記事で見せます。80キロ192センチの私は５キロアップしました！

As I mentioned in “Going Max Cliché While Learning About Off-Camera Flash” a month and a half ago, I've been getting into pretty good shape (and even compared to that post, I am in much better shape today) and one of the methods that seems to be working for me is that I generally avoid carbs. But especially today, beer is one carb I'll allow myself. 🙂

The first snap above shows my first beer (Asahi Super Dry) and the first plate of raw boneless beef rib. The amount of beef would be, at most restaurants, considered portions for three or four people. In what has become my general approach to eating, I'm allowed to have as much of anything as I want so long as it's not carbs, so over the last few months I've been eating a lot of meat, so this falls in line with that.

The restaurant allows you two hours ... for the purposes of this photo log, I'm starting the clock at zero (0h 0m) with the photo above.

Eleven minutes later...

Beer #2
Elapsed Time: 0h 11m

One needs refreshment after a long hot day, so the first beer goes quickly. Beer #2 is Asahi Black, representing the other half of the total beer selection on offer.

Plate #2
Elapsed Time: 0h 23m

Plate #3
Elapsed Time: 0h 39m

Beer #2.5
Elapsed Time: 0h 42m

The keg had run out while pouring this one, but I was happy to take it as is. Sometimes I ask for just a half glass anyway, so that I'm more apt to finish it while still cold.

Beer #3.5
Elapsed Time: 0h 59m

At the half way mark, I've had 3½ beers and in Japanese-restaurant portions, enough beef for about 10 people. 😀

Plate #4
Elapsed Time: 1h 4m

Beer #4.5
Elapsed Time: 1h 24m

I'm generally a “lightweight” when it comes to drinking, so I don't tend to drink all that much, and even as recently as the start of the summer would have forced myself to stop after two or three because that's all I could handle. But oddly, now that my diet and body has changed drastically, I seem quite able to handle much more in stride. Very odd considering that I weigh so much less than before.

Of course, being able to handle it is one thing, and having it be good for you is quite another, so I definitely don't want to make a habit of drinking this much, but again, this was a research project for my blog so it was my duty to see the event through to the end.

Plate #5
Elapsed Time: 1h 37m

Lively
Elapsed Time: 1h 45m

Beer #5.5
Elapsed Time: 1h 48m

The lady in line in front of me for beer ordered a half-n-half (half dark, half normal), so I did the same. Looks the same as the dark beer by itself, which really isn't all that dark to begin with.

And that wrapped it up.

Water #1
Elapsed Time: 2h 6m

After we got home (taxi, of course), I thought I should increase the non-alcohol liquids in me, so I drank quite a bit of Caffeine-Free Diet Coke while I worked on my plugins. This is not marketed in my part of the country, but it's quite cheap to have shipped, so I buy it by the case at Amazon.co.jp. I went through nine cases during the summer, allowing me to avoid the temptation to drink calories. I just received another shipment the other day, so I'm stocked through to the end of the year.

Anyway, despite all the beef, all the beer, the water, and all the Coke, I didn't feel bloated and my new bought-in-Japan jeans (for the first time buying off-the-rack pants in Japan) still fit nicely, despite being the same waist size that I wore in high school almost 30 years ago. Very weird... as if my legs had been hollow.

As a lark, I stepped on the scale. With jeans and shirt, I was 85.9kg (189.4lb). Earlier in the afternoon, after my workout and fresh out of the shower, I had been 79.8kg (176lb), which is, frankly, a ridiculously low weight for my 192cm (6'3½) height if my build were normal, but it's all muscle and no fat these days, so I'm happy with it. Anyway, that's a lot of beef and beverage, more than 10 pounds even after discounting the weight of the clothes. I have no way to explain how this is possible... I feel like I'm inhabiting someone else's body. Sometimes I wonder whether the “someone else's body” I'm inhabiting at the moment is even human.

I woke this morning at 6:45am and felt just dandy. And, unusual for me, slightly hungry. I might have an avocado as a snack if the feeling persists.

Oh, and I must admit to a certain amount of sandbagging with the photos of the beef... normally I would put much more on each plate, using fewer plates, but in an effort to make the total amount seem even more disgustingly excessive than it actually was, I showed some purposeful restraint at each trip to the grilling bar. 🙂

And finally, as a geeky side note, here's how I got the elapsed-time captions on all the photos:

% exiftool -T -filename -d %s -DateTimeOriginal *.jpg                                 \
       | perl -ne '($F, $T) = split;                                                  \
                   $D = $T-($START||=$T);                                             \
                   printf("exiftool -Description=\"Elapsed Time: %dh %dm\" %s\n",     \
                           int($D/3600), int(($D%3600)/60), $F)'                      \
       | sh -s

It's ugly, but that's fine for a one-time type-on-the-command-line thing like this.

Can't wait for Sunday, the final day the beer garden will be open. Already have my reservation.