Sapporo アイスラガー Beer

Today I bought a case of a new “limited edition for 2010” beer by Sapporo Breweries.

It’s called 「サッポロアイスラガー」 (“Sapporo Ice Lager“).

I couldn't resist a "ice" lager beer with polar bears on the can...it gives an image of being a real cold beer---perfect now that the weather is so hot!

Technically it’s not a “beer”, per se…but a 「発泡酒」 (low-malt beer).
Actually I prefer 発泡酒 (low-malt beer) because it tastes the same as beer but it’s cheaper in Japan because it doesn’t have the high beer tax added to it’s price.
So, beer or 発泡酒 (low-malt beer)…I enjoy drinking both but I usually buy 発泡酒 (low-malt beer) because of the price difference.

Anyways, I knew about this 「サッポロアイスラガー」 (“Sapporo Ice Lager“) beer before I bought it because of the funny TV commercial with two polar bears complaining about the heat and looking for something cold to drink.
Here it is:

The zoo…

As I mentioned in the post I wrote this morning (Click here to see it), the 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) offered free admission today. So my wife and daughters went there (I couldn’t go because I had to work…but they invited our eight-year-old niece who lives not too far from us to join them).

We expected it would be crowded there today, but it wasn’t too bad…probably because it was rainy for the past two days. But the weather was fine today.
They had a good time.

As I wasn’t there, my wife and daughters took all of these pictures.

Here’s the 北極熊 (Polar Bear):

And they happened to get to the アザラシ (sea lions) just in time to see two of them fighting:

The ゴリラ (gorilla) was wearing a tarp like a blanket.
Here he was picking his nose:

Another shot of him:

This is a バク (Tapir):

The Petting zoo portion of 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) has 鶏のメス (chickens), 鶏のオス (roosters), ヤギ (goats), 羊 (sheep), アヒル (ducks), and ネズミ (mice) (there used to be 豚 (pigs) there..but, it seems, they’ve been moved):

I like サイ (rhinoceros):

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上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) is Japan’s first zoo. It opened on March 20, 1882.
It used to have パンダ (pandas), but the last one died in April 2008. China offered to lease more pandas to the zoo, but the Tokyo government decided the price was too steep. (You can read my post about the panda’s passing by clicking here.)