SKE48 promotion at Family Mart (News)

The truth is that I didn't know what SKE48 was until I stumbled across this news. I could guess based on the existence of AKB48, that it was a group of girls who were being presented as "idols". They're part of the obvious factory-production line of cute girls that are rotated in and out of these groups to appeal to the new breed of Japanese male. You know, the herbivorous type (soshoku danshi) that doesn't date or have sex with real people.

This campaign will include various Family Mart sweets that include chilled desserts and baked goods. There is also a chance to win prizes including what is talked of as a "toy". Given the type of person who is attracted to these groups, I'm wondering exactly what sort of "toy" is involved and whether it requires a bicycle pump to inflate or a battery to assist it in its functionality.

Note that I tend to focus on specific snack news rather than something more general like this, but I loved this picture because it shows the typical proper exchange of business cards in Japan. It's a good capturing of a moment which I relate to well.

Family Mart Banana Chocolate Double Roll Cake (product information)

Image courtesy of Family Mart.

This is a new sweet being offered by Family Mart that is made up of a combination of chocolate cake, vanilla cake and banana cream. It can be yours if you live within traveling distance of a Family Mart in the Okinawa or Hokkaido area and have 157 yen (about $1.60) burning a whole in your pocket and a yen (no pun intended) for a carb and sugar bomb.

It may seem rather unassuming, but, when I saw this picture, I thought, "you're getting very sleepy". Either this is meant to be a delicious Swiss-cake-roll-type treat from Family Mart or an implement of potential evil with which you can hypnotize people and convince them to do your bidding. Perhaps the people at Family Mart would say, "why can't it be both?" Indeed.

Calpis Baked Goods (product announcement)

Image courtesy of Family Mart.

I remain a Calpis virgin, despite my many years in Japan. However, I would have surrendered this status if these things had been available during my time there. I probably would have gone for the Calpis tart (top left) for certain and the cream bread (bottom left). However, I probably wouldn't go for the sponge cake (top right) and definitely wouldn't have touched the "cup jelly" (gelatin).

The tart and sponge cake cost 110 yen ($1.10). The jelly is, for reasons I can't imagine, 158 yen ($1.58) and the cream bread is 137 yen ($1.37). If you can get past the name which sounds like bovine urine, you can enjoy them from Family Mart convenience stores. (All jokes aside, Calpis is supposed to taste like yogurt and I'm sure is pretty tasty.)

Family Mart Bububu Curry (product information)

People love to show rarely eaten and even more rarely offered food monstrosities in the U.S. and say, "this is why Americans are fat!" They hold up these foods as if they were commonplace in the Western diet. Similarly, we often see weird Japanese food that is quite uncommon offered as an indication that those wacky Japanese are so strange from the rest of the world.

I say this because I want to be sure that my offering this picture and information is not misconstrued as saying this food is common in Japan in any way, but it is, nonetheless, being marketed by convenience store "Family Mart". The item pictured above is a curry which features bacon, sausage and lunch meat. As a serving suggestion, crushed potato chips are placed on top of it. The information on the left tells you that the chips are not included, but this curry dish is only 530 yen ($5.30), so you can probably afford to buy a bag of chips for 100 yen ($1.00) and perform a do-it-yourself garnish.

I had to search a little hard to find out how many calories are in this. Without the chips, it's 1400 calories, so this is really good if you plan on skipping dinner or have to run a marathon. 

Tirol Black Coffee and Bear Chocolate (product info.)

Tirol is turning into the king (or queen, if we want to not be gender biases here) of cooperative endeavors with other manufacturers. For a company that sells chocolates for 40 yen (about 40 cents) each as their signature product, this feels weird. It's like the people who make RC Cola or Mallow Cups engaging in joint ventures with Starbucks or Pillsbury. And I realize that many of my readers aren't American, nearly 50 years old, and familiar with old-fashioned and regional products. Just think of whatever dinky small-time product you grew up with starting to penetrate multiple markets by making new and marginally related food-stuffs with bigger name businesses.

The concept of this coffee is rather cute, though not exactly unique. The coffee is just cold black coffee, but it's supposedly designed to be better when enjoyed with a Tirol chocolate. If you don't want to buy a separate chocolate, they have you covered because they put one under the lid (look carefully at the picture above and you'll see a square of "Milk" chocolate under it. The types of candy vary. I've seen some with almond chocolates under them, too. This is being sold at Family Mart for 165 yen ($1.65). My guess is that this is all novelty value over quality, but I can't deny it's a cute concept.

Speaking of cute, Tirol is also released a new chocolate called "Tirol Kuma" (bear). It's condensed milk chocolate with freeze-dried red beans, fruit-flavored jelly, and dried pineapple. It sounds dreadful, to be honest, but if I find one at an Asian market, I'll probably buy it.

Tirol Pastries at Family Mart

Chocolate bread with "milk" and chocolate filling.  All images from Family Mart's web site.

There are a lot of experiences that I can have in America which mirror those I had in Japan, but one thing I can't have are convenience store (konbini) exclusives. I doubt that such short-lived offerings will ever make the trip to these shores. I can't say that is an enormous disappointment, but I would have tried one of these Tirol shelf-stable pastries that are being sold at Family Mart convenience stores.

Bread with kinako (toasted soy flour) cream and kinako chocolate cream.

Tirol seems to be stepping up the marriage of their chocolate-based concepts to others. For those who don't click on the link, Tirol is know for making little blocks of chocolate with various types of fillings. Their product line tends to be limited to chocolates and generally does not extend to pastries. This is a little like a Snickers or Milky Way pastry, only, you know, with a lot less sugar and a lot more bread.

White chocolate bread with cookie, "milk whipped cream" and cream filling. 

If you look at the illustrations (you can load a larger image if you click and open it in a new tab or window), you can't help but see that the filling sits at the bottom of the hollow spot in the center and doesn't really fill the space. These are clearly the typical "konbini" pastry which are mostly a large bit of bland bread or cake with a proportionally small amount of filling. This fulfills the tastes of Japanese consumers, who prefer their food bland and not terribly sweet. It was the sort of thing that I got used to, but never did much for me. That being said, I would buy the kinako one if I were still living in Tokyo, because I'm that big a sucker for anything kinako and I'd love to compare it to the Tirol kinako candy that I love so much. 

If you've given this a try, please comment and let me know how it lived up (or down) to expectations.