The Wacked Ramblings of Tara Tan Kitaoka

[Captain Japan]

[floatr][/floatr]
The December issue of the Japan Edition, which I would wager is the only edition, of Travel Plan magazine has a truly bizarre lesson on eating and drinking from Tara Tan Kitaoka. Travel Plan, which features the writing of Fujimori chum Henry Scott Stokes, doesn't have a Web page so I have included the article in the next post as an image. She writes that she isn't filthy rich but it seems she is interested in those with cash. In a response to a post about Asian millionaires on Mutant Frog, she wrote (all caps hers): "PLS SEND ME ANY INFO OF ASIAN BILLION OR MILLIONARES." Metropolis tells me she runs a wine operation. But I am thinking that Michelin might have found a new employee; the article is a riot.

[Captain Japan]

[amdg]

That bib didn't work very well. I hope she knows a good dry cleaner.

[Adhesive]

That has to be self-published.

[adamukun]

Putting a face to that "WHERE ARE THE ASIAN BILLIONAIRES" comment made my day. That article is amazing though if she has spent 19 years trying to turn rich Japanese people into the most insufferable of wine snobs I can see why she might be frustrated.

Here is her picture:
http://www.kkvinarius.com/en/

Any chance of an interview feature, Captain?

[Iraira]

Another con artist who found a way to trick the gullibles out of money.

[maraboutslim]

The crazy thing is that her point is actually important. Japanese (and many other people) do seem to value fad and brand over actual quality these days. One of the ways Japanese gauge quality is by the price tag. I actually prefer an economy in which companies compete on quality, brand and fad rather than one in which they compete by lowering prices, of course (since lowering prices means cutting labor costs at home or doing the work in china or other highly exploitative societies). But in Japan it perhaps does go to far and consumers don't know if they are actually getting higher quality for that higher price.

But using poor Mr. O this way to try to make her point was lame. I bet he even paid for the meal!

[Charles]

Another con artist who found a way to trick the gullibles out of money.

Ah, but this is the art of the refined Food Critic. A meal (particularly an expensive one) always tastes better when someone else is paying for it.

[Adhesive]

The crazy thing is that her point is actually important. Japanese (and many other people) do seem to value fad and brand over actual quality these days. One of the ways Japanese gauge quality is by the price tag. I actually prefer an economy in which companies compete on quality, brand and fad rather than one in which they compete by lowering prices, of course (since lowering prices means cutting labor costs at home or doing the work in china or other highly exploitative societies). But in Japan it perhaps does go to far and consumers don't know if they are actually getting higher quality for that higher price.

But using poor Mr. O this way to try to make her point was lame. I bet he even paid for the meal!

I agree, but in this case she's talking about food and drink...something that has no objective criteria for quality. Who is to say that a person should prefer one acidic, woodsy taste from another? It is all completely subjective, and people like this hold themselves out as experts only in order to profit off of the people who are too insecure to just drink what they enjoy. If it stimulates my taste-buds in a pleasurable manner what does it matter how many hectares the grapes were grown on?