Back, at least for awhile...

Why is he so sad when he has a beer? (Maneki neko statue at a Japanese grocery in San Francisco's Japantown)

It's been two years and eight months since I walked away from my Japan blogs. I'm not sure that I am back "for good" or on nearly as consistent a basis as before, but I am sure that there are some experiences I want to share both with any of my readers who may check in from time to time and for the sake of my deeply exploring and remembering my own experiences. I continue to believe that my writing, photographing, and talking in detail helps me remember and be more present with even the smallest of experiences.

Before I get to the purpose of this particular post, I'll say that my life has been very chaotic since returning to the U.S. and one of the reasons I think I'm ready to come back to writing here is that things finally settled down about a year and a half ago. I'm very poor at making long stories short. In fact, my greatest strength and weakness is at making short stories longer than necessary, but I'll try not to belabor my short history since leaving Japan.

My husband and I moved seven times in the five years that we have been back in the United States. This was after having lived in Tokyo for 23 years and not having moved once. We aren't the sort of people who are comfortable with such upheaval and it was very stressful. We also found our support systems limited for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I have no family and few friends on the West Coast to assist in things like moving. Since I was born in the Northeast, this is no shock. What few friends I had from a brief stint of living in the Bay Area from 1988-1989 had largely moved or (sadly) passed away.

During our five years back, we have not only experienced what people call "reverse culture shock," but also the sense that we'd dropped out of time for over two decades and popped back up into a new "America." While we rode the wave of change in Japan, we were oblivious to how Americans had changed, and boy howdy, had they changed. What is more, it was not pretty from our perspective. This difficulty was coupled with the loss of our Japanese working life and a great deal of economic upheaval which left investing in such trivialities as Japanese snacks a very stressful endeavor. I rarely made enough money from blogging to cover the cost of my snacks in Japan, and they are greatly more expensive here in the U.S. Buying such things only compounded my sense that we were blowing our hard-earned savings to no economic advantage and I found it hard to enjoy the expeiences.

Fortunately, my husband's career change is now complete and our situation is stabilized. I am now in a position to indulge a bit and consider finding new avenues to access an old love - Japanese food. I also feel that I'm now in a similar position to a lot of my readers in this regard as many of them have no access to local shops for Japanese food either. That being said, there are definitely more trivial Japanese food items in stores than expected, even in relatively isolated and rural places. Speaking of which, I am now living in a very remote place in Northern California. Few people have less access than me so, if I can find ways to buy Japanese treats from where I am and share them, almost anyone can have the foods I am reviewing.

So, I am back for a bit, and I have a pile of things to review, though I'm not likely to ever review with the same frequency I once did so expect things to be sporadic. If you have an RSS reader (I use Feedly now that Google Reader has gone the way of the dodo), I'd suggest subscribing to get notifications of new posts without having to check back for new content. My hope is to got into a scheduled situation again at some point (maybe posting once a week on the same day), but I'm not sure yet how that will go. I have also re-enabled commenting on this blog and I'm leaving it wide open now, but if my stalkers decide that's an invitation to harrass me again (because they hate me, but can't help but hang on my every word), then I may have to narrow privileges. We'll see how it goes.

Please note that cleaning up the blog will take awhile. I've got to review a lot of links that are dead and delete them from the sidebars. I'll also have to tweak formatting over time. I'm not as young as I used to be and I seem to be busier than ever despite being a homemaker now (you wouldn't believe how much and what I cook now, but we also now live in a house instead of an apartment which means more work caring for it). Be patient. I'm getting really old now. ;-)

Changes to My Blogs

I've been blogging regularly and steadily on both of my blogs since each one's inception. Both were created to serve several purposes from the outset. One was to bookmark experiences regarding life in Japan so that I could remember them as well as share my perspective on things both trivial and important with others. Another was to set myself a task such that I would develop my writing skills in different directions by focusing on a particular niche (Japanese snacks) or a particular style (short form for 1000 Things About Japan). Still another was in hopes of generating some income for my writing work. Despite my spotty proof-reading, I do put a lot of time and energy into my blogs.

I have realized two of my three goals. For various reasons, I make nearly nothing from my blogs despite having a pretty decent readership that has continued to grow at a slow pace. This is disappointing, but not the primary reason for the changes that are to come.

For some time, I've been writing a book. It's well over 100 pages now, but I keep having problems finishing it. The primary reason for this is that I tell myself each week that I'll do my eight blog posts (five for Japanese Snack Reviews and three for 1000 Things About Japan) and then I'll work on my book. All of my energy and time is taken by the blogs such that there is not enough left for the book and I have decided that has to change.

I've always been the sort of person who believes in structure and discipline. One of the reasons that my posting is regular is that I think that you have to set a goal and stick with it in order to make sure you achieve it. On 1000 Things About Japan, I met that goal awhile back when I hit 500 "Won't Miss" and 500 "Will Miss" posts, but I kept going and added in other content. On this blog, my goal was the number and type of posts and I've steadily stuck with each of my goals for a long time. It is time for my goals to change to getting the books I want to write finished instead of writing a certain number of blog posts each week for each blog.

In terms of what this means, I'll say first what it does not mean. It does not mean these blogs are ending or dying. I will continue to post, but I will be posting like most other bloggers do from now on. That is, these blogs will be second or third in my writing priorities rather than occupy first place as they have for so long. I will blog essentially when I feel like it rather than according to a self-imposed rigorous schedule.

For my kind and faithful readers, this means you'll have to track changes in some way rather than know when something new will be here. I recommend using an RSS reader (like Feedly) as it will automatically notify you of new content when it arrives, but you could simply pop in occasionally to see if anything has been posted. My best guess is that you'll see at least one post per week, but I can't say now as I haven't yet embarked on this new path.

As a postscript, I have to also say that this sort of change was inevitable since I knew at some point that I'd have to start leaving my connection to Japan behind and focus on making new and different ones. That connection will always be there as I spent so much of my adult life there, but it will fade. I love to write, so I will continue to do so, but it will likely branch into other areas rather than be monopolized by all things Japan. I hope you'll stick with me and read when I have something to say. I appreciate all of the kindness and support I've been shown over the years and look forward to continuing to offer something to those who enjoy my writing, albeit on a less frequent basis.

Blog Changes (and the death of Google Reader)

Here kitty, kitty...

When I left Japan, I wasn't sure what would become of this blog in particular. For one thing, I didn't know what my access to Japanese snacks would be like. I knew I might be able to find a few things here and there, and had hoped to make some connections to sellers who might shower me with freebies to promote their services (ahem, that did not happen), but my crystal ball as to the future was very foggy.

Now that I've been in Northern California for about 8 months, I know that this is a pretty good place to be to review Japanese (and other Asian) snacks. While they're not exactly sold in every market, there are plenty of markets that sell a variety of food items. That being said, it's not quite the same as actually being in Japan from certain viewpoints.

The main area of difference for me isn't access because there were always many more things than I could possibly sample and review in Tokyo. Having a wealth of options didn't mean more posts because there was only so much time I had to devote to blogging. In fact, even with my more limited (but still very wide) access, there is more stuff available than I could possibly review so I'm not exactly hurting for things to try.

The point which has changed the most has been my ability to size up the snack market in Japan. While I used to be able to stroll through markets or convenience stores and see the new releases and inventory at a glance, I have had to work rather harder at that since returning. It has taken me awhile to get up to speed in this regard, but I've got my finger a bit more on the pulse at this point in time and it's actually a lot of fun tracking new releases through the means I currently have available. It's changed how I blog in a way which makes the experience fresher for me and creates new challenges.

Because of this new way of dealing with following what's out there, there is every chance that more "bonus" posts will be showing up more often. It's not out of the question that I'll be posting something every weekday at times. There will always be the three scheduled posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but those of you who are using bookmarks may want to also pop buy on Tuesdays and Thursdays from now to see if there are extra posts. I do anticipate more of that sort of thing in the future.

The frequency of posts leads me to the topic of Google Reader's imminent demise. If you are tracking my blog's updates via RSS using said interface, I hope you will migrate my feed to another reader or bookmark the page. My concern, as I'm sure is the concern of many bloggers, is that the death of Reader will mean a great loss of regular readers. Clearly, having more readers encourages me to continue the blogs and to build the content more, so I kindly ask that you find a new way to keep me in the rotation if you're a user of Google Reader (as I am) as this blog isn't going away any time soon and I'm quite diligent about posting at least 3 times a week on the days previously mentioned. Hopefully, you'll find that you'll be getting even more for your money in the future. ;-)

As always, my thanks for continuing to read this blog.

Winner of Tokyo Regional KitKats Contest

Kitty-chan Christmas buckets for the kiddies in Japan, because a plastic bin full of cheap treats is what all the letters to Santa are asking for.

Merry Christmas to all of my readers! I wish that I could give everyone a prize as a demonstration of the spirit of the holiday, but, alas, I have but one gift to give.

The winner was chosen by a random number generator (no favoritism here!) and it is brit_brat100. Please contact me at orchidsixtyfour@gmail.com about sending your prize to you. Congratulations!

Thanks to all of my readers for their entries, and, of course, for reading! Happy holiday!

What the future holds

This is the current availability of Japanese snacks at my present location, and what a sad lot it is!

When I left Japan, there were a lot of question marks about the future of this blog. I knew that I wanted to continue, but I wasn't sure in what capacity I could. One thing is for certain and that is that I can't post about the same types of snacks that I did when I actually resided in Tokyo. If that sounds like a lament, it's not. In fact, it's actually a good thing from my perspective.

The truth is that, after years of buying snacks, I was starting to feel fairly bored by a lot of what was on offer. Yes, there was the occasional rather extreme weirdness which was a stand-out like the twice-a-year odd Pepsi or Coke and the very rare strange KitKat which was actually "strange" and not just typical for Japan and therefore more curious to outsiders. While I would have never ran out of things to review, there was absolutely starting to be a real sense of "sameness" in what I could get my hands on, particularly as the seasonal repeats kept getting trotted out again and again. I could only review so many wasabi sembei, green tea sweets, or kinako candies before it felt old hat. My hat was looking pretty beat up by the time I left. 

If you want to know how boring it can get, check out the Onion's AV Club's occasional review of Japanese snacks. The "European Cheese" KitKat that I reviewed in November 2010 showed up on their rotation on March 26, 2012. That's a bit past the sell-by date. ;-) They don't even really want them. They just review what J-Box sends them for free because it's there. Their enthusiasm is so weak that they wait months (or years) to review limited edition items such that they are no longer available by the time the reviews appear. And these people have far less to be jaded about than I do as these are actual novelties to them. 

That is not to say that I no longer have an interest in Japanese snacks. That would be very far from the truth, but after awhile, having full access starts to mean less and less. I'm still interested in such snacks, but I don't think that only those things which can be had in Japan are of value for me to try. There are Japanese-style (and imported) items in America to be tried and comparisons to be made about the difference between what is offered in each country. Years of eating everything (and nearly anything) have given me a perspective that I could never have acquired otherwise. As one of my kind commenters suggested, there is also the potential for me to approach American snacks from the perspective of someone who hasn't had them for a long time and is well-acclimated to a different taste and presentation. The truth is that this idea was already on my mind because things are definitely not as expected on that front. 

Another point is that one thing which consistently nagged at me as I went about my business of snacking and reviewing was the way in which dumb people were occasionally writing to me and asking me to sell them snacks (as they thought I sold what I reviewed for reasons that mystify me) and lovely people with much better reading comprehension skills who were interested in the snacks I wrote about asked me how they might acquire such rarities. From where I was, I was in no position to know how one could get such things from outside of Japan. From where I am now (which is somewhere in the San Juan Islands), I can only access what everyone else can through the same means that they have. 

So, the state of the blog is that things will have to change, but I hope to largely maintain the focus on Japanese food, and snacks in particular. I still have a backlog of reviews of things I had in Japan as well as a stash of things that I brought with me. The reviews of uniquely Japanese things that can be bought only in Japan aren't drying up (and are unlikely to go away entirely for various reasons, least of which that I still have connections in Japan). Eventually though, my stash will be tapped out, but that's okay. Part of what I did was eat the food and talk about how it tasted, but I also simply let people know what was out there and what it was all about. That is something I can continue to do through product release information. I will be incorporating posts which talk about what is out in Japan, even if I personally can't buy such items. Frankly speaking, I don't know that this is incredibly different for my readers, particularly when they couldn't acquire those items anyway. If it sounds interesting and you're going to Japan, it doesn't matter if I put it in my mouth and told you if I liked it because each person's sense of taste is different. It mainly matters that you know enough to look for it and have some idea of where to find it. 

Right now, my access to everything, and I mean everything,  including all sorts of American products, is limited by my location. I also do not have a permanent address and will be a nomad until around October. That means that I can't really set up a connection with importers without switching addresses 4 times in less than 6 months. Eventually, I will make such connections, and I will definitely gain better access to stores with imports, but, for now, I'm going to have to go with what I have. I hope my readers will bear with me as this blog finds a new footing. I'm looking forward to the new challenge and focus. Thanks for reading.

Sonton Peanut Soft

This review marks a personal first for me; it is the first time I've gone into a store to buy something and found myself crying in the snack aisle. No, there hasn't been a marked increase in the price of chocolate (yet) nor did they take away some much-loved snack. If you read my other blog first, you may already know why. I stood in front of the shelf with rows of sleeved Bourbon petit snacks and saw the kinako wafers (which are heavenly) and thought about the fact that my days of being able to casually peruse and purchase such snacks are now greatly numbered. That's right, gentle readers, I'm leaving Japan.

A deeper explanation is on my 1000 Things blog, but the bottom line is that my husband and I are going on March 29 and don't anticipate returning. Of course, "never say never" is a very good motto, but our plans are not to return. For my other blog, this doesn't mean much as memories are as good as being here in constructing those posts. For this blog, the future is quite a bit more difficult to predict as I peer into my Japan-related crystal ball. I'd like to continue sampling and writing about Japanese snacks, but I have no way of knowing at this time what the availability of such things will be upon my return. This is, in large part, because I'm not even sure where I'll be living beyond the state I ultimately plan to be in (California).

Chances are that I will be making some connections to importers once I am settled. Immediately after I return, my address will not be known since where I reside depends on things I can't be certain of yet (like what university my husband enters). At the very least, I should be able to answer questions about how to get snacks outside of Japan more effectively once I am in a position of having to do so myself. At the very worst, well, I guess I won't be able to carry on with this blog at all, but I'm going to try and think positive. I hope to carry on and hope that, if there is a hiatus while I pull my new life together, that my readers will be patient with me. In the meantime, here's the actual review:

Awhile back, I negatively reviewed something called "Peanut Cream" by Sonton. I wanted to give one of the Peanut Soft versions sold in many Japanese markets a try, but I wanted to try a different brand as one of the commenters mentioned that Sonton was the worst. Unfortunately, my local market only stocked this brand in peanut flavor so I paid my 268 yen ($3.52) and decided to take my chances. 

These tubs of softly whipped cream come in a variety of flavors and right next to this one was a peanut/kinako combo that I nearly bought instead of the straight up peanut variety. I decided that I'd rather go for something that my husband might be willing to eat as well because I've got two months left in Japan and 190 grams (6.7 oz.) of this is a bit much for one person to polish off in a short time, especially when each tablespoon is packing 95 calories. That makes it slightly more energy dense than peanut butter and the ingredients make it a lot less healthy. The primary components of this "peanut soft" are peanut butter, sugar, and shortening. This is junk food pure and simple.

As for how it tastes... Well, it's heaven on a spoon. It's sweet, soft, light, and has a nice peanut flavor. It's like peanut butter that is actually "buttery". The fatty texture on the tongue is most gratifying and the sweetness just a nudge away from cloying. The good part about it is that you don't have to use a lot to be satisfied. The bad part is that it's so good that you may want to be gluttonous about it. This is a treat to be enjoyed in moderation, rather like Nutella in terms of how controlled you are about eating it, not so much in terms of flavor.

Sometimes you can buy bread in bakeries in Japan that are spread with peanut cream and this is what they are spread with. I've had such bread given to me before and it is wickedly awesome. I don't buy it myself usually, but now I know that I can "make it" any time if I have a tub of this around. If you see it and want to indulge and throw caution about nutrition to the wind, I can't recommend this highly enough. 

Finding a new footing

When I started this blog, I was working about 10 hours a week in my home and there were days when I had many hours of free time. That situation has since changed. As some of my readers may recall, I mentioned that I had to take on more work as a result of earthquake-related earnings changes. Two days a week, I now work full-time outside of my apartment and three days a week I have a consolidated home working schedule. That means that I'm now working closer to 25 hours and have commute time on two days of the week which I did not have when I started blogging.

I've been doing 10 posts a week between my two blogs for quite awhile and it has become clear to me as of late that this is a pace I cannot keep up with my increased workload. I don't have time to properly research some posts and I certainly don't have the time for creative composition, editing, or proof-reading. I've felt recently that my work is getting sloppier and I feel rushed.

Because of this, I've decided that I need to change my posting schedule. I'm very reluctant to scale back, but it's clear that I can't keep up this pace. I'm going to try and continue to do 5 posts a week at 1000 Things About Japan because those posts are shorter, but I need to reduce posts here down to 3 days. I'll be posting reviews on Monday and Friday and random pictures on Wednesday. This situation may or may not be permanent. My hope is that I'll find a new footing once I get a breather from the current hectic pace. I may find that I can do more than 3 posts a week or that I may find some other type of content that is appropriate on other days but less time-consuming.

I'm very sorry to reduce the posting frequency because I really do enjoy writing this blog and reviewing various foods. I also very, very much appreciate all of my readers and want to keep doing what I can to entertain them. I'm sure some folks will be disappointed, and I regret that.

Because I won't be posting as often, I'm going to throw the option open for guest posting. If you've got a Japanese snack you've sampled and would like to write about, I invite you to make your voice heard here. I can't offer you cash, because frankly you'd laugh at the 35 cents per post that I could pay (that's what ads pays me for my work). I can say that you can link to your own blog and possibly improve your readership by showing your stuff on this blog. Anyone who is interested can e-mail me at orchidsixtyfour@gmail.com. I'll e-mail guidelines if you contact me.

Thanks for reading!

The Situation Now in Tokyo

I'm not inclined to make posts about the earthquake, tsunami, or the nuclear situation because I'm not an authority on such matters, but I have been asked about what is really happening and have found that there is a massive amount of misinformation spreading in the West regarding how bad it is. One bit of grim irony is that those of us who are potentially in more immediate danger as we are within a few hundred miles of the reactors are spending more time reassuring people who are across the ocean than they are supporting us.

First of all, Tokyo is relatively safe at this time in regards to radiation exposure. There is more radiation than normal in the atmosphere, but as things currently stand, you would almost certainly receive more radiation from actually getting on a plane and flying home than you would by remaining in Tokyo. Radiation exposure is something that occurs in our lives all of the time but we never question it because it isn't occurring within the framework of a crisis. I've read that radiation levels at one point today in Tokyo were 100x "normal", but that if you go to a hot spring (onsen) and sit in the bath, you're receiving 200x the normal level of radiation from that experience.

So, looking at the information that is being spread isn't enough. You also have to view it in context. We get radiation by flying on planes, getting medical treatment, or scans at the airport. Normal radiation levels are very low so discussing how much greater the levels are without looking at total radiation exposure numbers is misleading and potentially inflammatory. One of the things which is very useful is not to simply read the news, but to access sources which will provide you with context.

One of my major sources, aside from the Japanese news, is to follow TimeOutTokyo on Twitter. There are also several other people on Twitter who are  not alarmist and are providing good contextual information. They include: gakuranman and martynwilliams. There are others who are tweeting good information, but these three are my major sources. They're all working very hard to be level, legible, and to do proper research such that whatever information comes out can be properly understood.

I strongly encourage people not to trust Western news sources like CNN or the Huffington Post. These sources are alarmist, inflammatory, and focusing intensely on only the worst situations and the worst case scenarios. Obviously, there has been devastation in some areas, largely from tsunami, and there is great danger in the area near the reactors in Fukushima, but those areas have been evacuated. The people who are at great risk right now are the 50 TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) employees who are remaining at the reactors trying to get the situation under control. These are the people who are risking their lives and all of the panic being displayed by people who are too far away to be meaningfully affected strikes me as disrespectful to these men (who I greatly fear may die from doing their job in the service of saving others).

If you are an ocean apart, there is virtually no chance you're going to be adversely affected by the crisis in Japan. Snopes has actually put up an article refuting some of the wild rumors about the radiation traveling over the Pacific. People who are on the West Coast of the U.S. who are buying Potassium Iodide tablets or considering evacuating are showing a level of paranoia and panic which is absurd.

All of this being said, I am not an expert on anything regarding these issues, but I have digested information as it has been offered and have been the beneficiary of good efforts on the part of rational people who labor despite the stress we all feel to keep calm and be mature and logical. I can also tell you that I lived in western Pennsylvania during the Three Mile Island crisis in 1979 there and that the distance I lived from there was slightly closer (about 10 miles/16 km.) than the distance I currently am from the Fukushima reactors. Obviously, the circumstances are not exactly the same, but they have similarities. I have suffered no ill effects from whatever exposure occurred at that time and I've had 32 years for something to develop. I think that, unless something catastrophic occurs, there is little chance that those of us far from the reactors will suffer from the limited exposure we're experiencing.

The truth of the matter is that those outside of the most tsunami devastated areas and who are not close to the reactors are currently not in danger of anything besides our own fear and panic consuming us. Right now, that really is "the enemy" (to reference a cliche). That being said, I'm stressed daily because my life is currently far from normal. Though my blog posts continue to go up as usual, that is only because I post from a buffer of posts written at least a week ago on the snack blog and from a two-month buffer on the 1000 Things blog. This is actually the first post I have composed since the quake. The other posts are just going up on schedule from work I did before the crisis.

Frankly, at the moment, we're all dealing with stressful but non-lethal consequences. My husband hasn't worked since the quake and I've lost a week's worth of freelance work. If we don't work, we don't get paid. There have been aftershocks going on, some quite strong, and there have been  other earthquakes with different epicenters (two in the last 16 hours). Under normal circumstances, these would be troubling, but we're all dealing with a sort of post-traumatic stress because the big earthquake started slow and built up over a long time so even small quakes bring back the fear that another very bad experience may be coming. Beyond that, and I plan to post about this on Friday, people are hoarding and panic-buying so there are constant reminders that we're in a state of fear and crisis when one ventures out to any shop. Public transportation is slowly returning to normal service levels, but still disrupted. Every time there is a strong aftershock or a new quake, I worry that normality is being pushed further away. So, I am stressed, but safe.

In no way am I fishing for sympathy about my circumstances as I think compared to people who have really suffered (and there have been many who lost homes, were injured, lost family, and endured far greater trauma), what I'm dealing with is trivial. I mention these things in order to provide context for the following request: I beg my readers not to send me e-mail or comment on other posts trying to "refute" what I say or point out other news sources that offer alternative views. There is too much information out there and much of it is bad and I do not have the energy to deal with all of it. I'm making this post because I've essentially been asked enough times to say something that I've decided that I will. I don't want to get into pointless debates with people about anything I have asserted here because I'm not in a place emotionally to tolerate it. I have to focus all of my energy on dealing with everything that keeps coming my way and hand-holding family and friends who mean well but are constantly being spooked by misinformation broadcast abroad.

I'm closing comments on this post only, but please don't interpret that as a snub of my kind readers who have shown such concern for me. I sincerely appreciate the people who care about my well-being and have expressed such kind sentiments, but right now I have to close the door on possible argumentative and alarmist voices because I have enough to handle.

Update: There are also good posts on the situation on AltJapan. They are under "Should I Stay or Should I Go."

After the Quake (I'm OK)

A liquor shop which we walked by after the quake. It smelled intensely of beer because of broken bottles. They were trying to clean it up and pushing liquor soaked water out the door in addition to discarding damaged bottles and their boxes in a pile in front of the store.

First of all, thanks to the folks who have expressed concern about my well-being after the quake. As I type this, we're still experiencing aftershocks and I'm developing some post-traumatic stress. The quakes were strong, long, and scary, but my husband and I are okay. Things fell from shelves in our apartment, and my husband's work canceled the rest of the day's work because of the transportation disruption, but so far things are okay and I hope we have seen the last of it (save the aftershocks which seem endless). The hardest hit areas were coastal ones due to tsunami and some areas with fires. Fortunately, Tokyo seemed pretty well prepared for this and was far enough from the epicenter that damage wasn't as bad as it might have been.

I am truly grateful to those who felt concern for my well-being. I'm sure that all of us are hoping the best for those who have been harmed and that the damage and deaths are at a minimum. I feel deeply for those who have seen some pretty devastating damage and sad at seeing the news coverage of the hard-hit areas. I hope all of my readers who live in Japan have been as lucky as me and have also come out unscathed.

A Poll (Special Saturday Post)

Some of my readers may have already noticed that I have put up a poll on the right side of the blog. If you have a moment, I'd appreciate any replies you'd care to give or comments you'd care to leave on the subject.

The reason for this poll is that I'd like to widen the scope of what I've been reviewing to some extent. There are sometimes foods that I buy and consume that I could review which I do not review because they aren't the sorts of things that most of my readers (who are not living in Japan) can find from their respective locations.

Mainly, I've been avoiding reviewing things like packaged pastries or traditional sweets which are sold relatively fresh (with expiration dates that are within a few weeks) and unlikely to be exported. Though I will occasionally review such things, my main focus has generally been on the sort of packaged food with longevity that may be sold by various exporters of Asian food.

The poll asks if readers are looking to be informed so they can make purchases because this has been my default assumption for the most part. However, I've started to wonder if the main reason people read is simply curiosity about Japanese food or food in general and that the ability to actually purchase the foods I review is of far lesser importance to my readers than I have imagined. If the poll reveals that few people actually use this blog as a resource for information on purchases, chances are I will expand to covering more of the types of foods that are unlikely to be available via exporters or Asian food selling agents.

Changing the scope of the blog to encompass more fresh foods wouldn't affect the general composition of the blog dramatically. Certainly, I would not avoid reviewing the popular items like KitKats, oddball Coke and Pepsi releases, etc. It would, however, cut down on the number of similar products that get reviewed (like the number of variations on flavor themes like sweet potato, chestnut, chocolate, banana Country Ma'am flavors). Frankly, I think that expansion would be good from the viewpoint of not repeating reviews of so many of the same products in their various incarnations. Again though, I'll sample what I want to sample. I'm looking to the poll's results more with an eye toward what I will actually take the time to write reviews of.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you care to give me. I really appreciate all of the people who follow this blog and read it regularly. The fact that it keeps growing (slowly, but surely) is very encouraging to me. At the moment, I'm averaging about 1,100 independent visitors per day (and heading toward 800 subscribers via RSS), and that makes me very happy indeed. Thank you for your support and readership!

Variety Friday: Eating Outside the Box and Dagashi

Part of the dagashi bins at a local convenience store. It includes asparagus bicsuits, Heart Chiple, fake potato snacks, and mini KitKats. Everything is 30 yen (35 cents). Click this smaller picture to see a bigger one with more detail.

Yesterday completed my "two weeks of weird", and I want to thank everyone who took the time to comment and enter the contest. I will be announcing the winner tomorrow on a special Saturday posting. Note that I didn't reply to any of the comments because any comment I write messes up picking a random numbered comment as the winner. I really enjoyed all of your answers!

The two weeks of weird was motivated by something I have started to notice as a result of blogging about Japanese snacks for a few years now. That is that there are patterns of release and limits to the variations in the types of snacks being put out with few exceptions. Things like the very obscure Pepsi or Coke releases happen only once or twice a year, so that sort of weirdness is infrequent. While Japanese KitKat variations are released at regular intervals, most of them are variations on the same themes and truly interesting ones come about no more than a handful of times per year. Most of what is "new" is actually what is old being repackaged or folded into new presentations. 

As autumn rolls around (by calendar if not by weather), I'm seeing a repeat of all of the same themes: sweet potato, marron (chestnut), and chocolates which are too easily melted in warmer weather as well as the reintroduction of some snacks that were temporarily gone and are making a return. Though I love a lot of the flavors (especially at this time of year), there is only so much to say about sampling the umpteeth sweet potato chocolate or cookie.

I chose the "weirdness" theme to force myself to sample food that is "outside the box" for me. It's all of the things that I've been seeing for decades now but passing by on my way to the more familiar territory of salted snacks, soft drinks, chocolates and cookies. While I can't say it's been a "good time", I can say that I'm glad I did it and that it has been educational both as a writer about Japanese snack foods and as a person who wants a more rounded understanding of culture and tastes in the country in which I currently reside.

One of the things I've learned is that a lot of the foods I've sampled which are for children fall under the category of "dagashi". These are cheaply made foods which used to be greatly more popular when children had less money than they do these days. Most of them sell for 20-30 yen (23-35 cents), and they are usually very poor nutritionally and aren't expected to be enjoyed by adults. Many Japanese people have a sense of nostalgia about them much in the way Americans of my generation (born in the mid 60's) may feel about penny candy. There's a very good multi-part article on dagashi here. Though I probably won't dive so deeply into these offerings again, I will try to sample them on occasion in the future just to keep expanding my experience base.

Thanks to everyone who read, and especially to those who took part in the contest!

Quick Mention: This blog was reviewed

Just a quick mention that this blog was reviewed at the Japan Blog Review. It's an interesting site that will introduce those interested in Japan blogs to more of the same so you might want to give it a look.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Posting Frequency Changes

Starting today, posting on this blog (and its companion blog, 1000 Things About Japan) will be made on weekdays (Monday through Friday) only. The random pictures will be moved to Wednesdays rather than Saturdays. I'm reducing posting frequency because there are other priorities that I have to deal with in my life, and can't continue to be a one-woman-content-generating machine at the current level. I enjoy blogging immensely, but I really need to put more time into study (both language and GRE prep) as well as other activities.

I'm sorry if this is disappointing news to all of my kind readers. I really appreciate all of the support I'm given.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

Variety Friday: I deal in junk food

 Meiji assortments with a Pokemon theme.

When I first started this blog, my priorities were rather different than they are a year and a half down the road. Initially, I was merely interested in sampling and talking about as many items as I could. The basic idea was to share experiences and in doing so to encourage me to try many more things than I might otherwise try.

As time has gone by, the way in which I regard things and subsequently the manner in which I rate them has changed. One of the points about being a reviewer of anything is that the bar on what you consider worth repeating keeps inching higher and higher relative to average people who aren't sampling all of the time. Rather notoriously, this happens to professional film reviewers who will often rate a film more highly because it is novel rather than conventionally enjoyable.

This tendency to keep expecting more or desiring something which is different means that I might rate something more harshly or easily than someone else because our comparative experiences are different. Sampling one weird Japanese KitKat can be an exciting and interesting experience. Sampling fifty of them makes you regard the fifty-first one rather differently than the second one. In fact, Japanese KitKats in particular are a serious challenge because there is only so much that can be done with a chocolate wafer bar before it degrades into utter novelty with no sensory value whatsoever.

One of the things I've realized is that the chances that I will buy anything again are getting slimmer and slimmer as time goes by. There are favorites (the best of the best, as it were, and I'll do a post about those some time) that I have purchased again and again, but there's only so much I can consume before expiration dates become an issue. My ratings system, which is based on the idea of "would definitely buy again" (very happy), "may buy again" (happy), "probably won't" (indifferent), "likely won't" (unhappy) and "definitely won't" is becoming more of a theoretical reality rather than an actual one. In essence, the ratings are about a willingness to purchase again more than the likelihood that I would do so.

A display of sembei which includes a seafood variety (left) and wasabi kaki no tane (right).

Since each reviewer has their own criteria for how they rate items, I felt that it may be valuable in understanding my current ratings and opinions if I were to offer mine at present. Here are the factors that go into how food is currently rated:

Calories:

This is actually a very high priority for me these days. When I started this blog, I was posting less frequently and therefore sampled fewer snacks. I had time to finish off things and I wasn't so worried about how much I ate. The truth is that at present I have a "calorie cap" on what I'll "spend" on snacking on junk, and something which is highly caloric or only available in large sizes is less likely to be reviewed. I place a high value on portions and being able to consume a small amount of something with ease. Anything that will require me to eat more than 200 calories per day to consume a reasonable sample will decrease the chances of my purchasing it. The "calorie cap" is one of the reasons that I sample so few cakes and baked items since most of the cakes in Japan are super carb and fat bombs despite not being very sweet. The "average" cake at a convenience store is between 350-400 calories. A lot of them are closer to 500.

If something is densely caloric and not all that tasty, I'll rate it lower because I'm always thinking about the cost of the calories relative to the sensory pleasure I receive. If the pleasure is too little for the calories, I lower the rating. If the calories are low and the pleasure is modest, I increase the rating. This is how something like an Oshidori milk cake, at a mere 25 calories per stick, earns a "happy" rating rather than "indifferent". It's a good amount of sweet for a low price even if it doesn't blow the lid off my flavor meter.

And, believe it or not, I've lost weight since starting this blog. One might think I'd be gaining, but it's a bit like the person who works in the chocolate factory losing her insatiable desire for candy. I haven't lost my taste for snacks at all, but my appetite for such things is measurably lower. Rest assured, I still enjoy sampling foods immensely, but my appreciation is achieved with the consumption of quite modest quantities.

Cost:

I make very little money from blogging. It doesn't even come close to paying for the food I buy for review. I'm sure that is no surprise to anyone, especially people who also blog. I also do not get food for free to review. Everything you see reviewed here was paid for with my own hard-earned yen unless it is a food gift (a rare, but not unheard of, situation). That means that I'm going to factor how much something costs when I offer a rating. This can be seen as "value" for pleasure. If something is cheap and moderately pleasurable, it'll get a better rating than if it is expensive and moderately pleasurable.

Size: 

I hate to buy huge portions of anything because I have so many new things I'd like to sample and it will sometimes take a week (or more) to get through even an average-sized package of snacks. If I can buy a single portion, chances are that I'll be more inclined to try a particular snack. That being said, if a food is compelling enough, I'll buy a large quantity if I have no other option and then give away the items that I can't possibly eat before the expiration date rolls around.

A display of "grandma's snacks" at a local market. It includes sweet potato candies which I've previously reviewed (top shelf, center) and butter candies as well as macarons and "Trappist cookies", which are a popular type of cookie in Japan made by Trappist monks.

Nutrition:

Let's face it, I deal in junk food. I'm not making any pretext about what I write about being good for you. That being said, if some snack has something to offer in the way of nutrition, I'm more likely to give it a better review than if something is pure trash, though being trash that is tasty won't bring a rating down. The truth is that outside of what you see reviewed here, I eat very little in the way of unhealthy or packaged/prepared food. Not only do I not eat anything that can be considered junk outside of this blog's fodder, but I cook almost every meal myself. I make my whole wheat bread, my own vegetable soups, and work hard to balance nutrition between protein, carbohydrates and fats. I'm much more likely to eat a nice sweet, perfectly grown carrot than a potato chip on a given day.

So, I am wary of nutrition when I review foods, and one of the reasons I can do this blog and not feel terrible about what I'm consuming is that I'm so attentive to my diet in every other way. It's rather ironic that my diet has improved as a result of writing a junk food blog because it has made me lose a lot of the impulsive cravings and desires for such foods (as I have such foods so frequently) and it has pushed me to work that much harder to prepare the rest of my meals such that they are much healthier.

One of the reasons that each blogger rates the same foods differently is that we all have our different priorities in addition to our varying senses of taste and differently experienced palates. No one is ever going to rate a food the way you would, and some people are going to hate what you love or vice versa. It's not an indictment of their tastes or yours; it's just a reflection of the subjective nature of reviews and the reviewers' priorities. These are mine, and I hope explaining them adds some value to the way in which my ratings are received.

As always, thanks to my wonderful readers who follow this blog regularly and make continuing to do it worthwhile. It's continued growth keeps me at this. :-)

Of Links and Trojans

Recently, I was informed via e-mail that one of the sites I'd linked to at the side was causing trojans to be downloaded. I'm very sorry that this may have affected some readers. When I am made aware of a new site, I check it and read it myself, but I don't link to every site every day (as that'd leave no time for writing posts!) so I don't always know immediately that something bad may be happening. Also, I use a Macintosh for web surfing (and Windows PC for gaming, I'm dual platform), and such problems often don't manifest on the Mac. (That's not a "pro Mac" statement. I like both of my platforms just fine. It's just an explanation of why I may not catch a problem immediately.)

If you discover a problem with a link, please e-mail me (contact information at the side) the link or leave a message telling me which link it is and politely let me know about the issue. I will investigate it on both platforms and remove any bad links. I do occasionally run the entire list of links to make sure they're not dead, though, again, I usually do this on a Macintosh. However, after this incident, I will run them on my Windows machine as well.

As for the links in question, they belonged to "Snackity Snack" and "Heat and Eat Reviews". Both sites used to be ran by the same person and I suspect that something has happened since she stopped updating them. Either someone has hacked her accounts (as she had some angry fans after ceasing to update without announcing that fact) or she has sold the domains off to someone else and they have placed something malicious into the code. At any rate, I have removed those links though it is a bit of a shame because the archived reviews were still of interest.

For the record, I would never knowingly link to a site which would damage my readers' computers. If this sort of thing happens, it has developed after I have linked to something. I get no benefits (no payment) from linking to other people's review blogs other than trying to be a "good citizen" in the reviewing community and spreading the word about related sites and have no incentive to link to a "bad" site.

As always, thanks to everyone who follows my blog. I really appreciate the support and it encourages me to continue!

Guest Post on Food In Real Life

This is another round of shameless self-promotion. You may feel free to metaphorically pelt me with rotten fruit for doing this, but don't try it literally. The Japanese don't take kindly to things like that.

I did a guest post on the blog Food in Real Life. It's a site that is dedicated to comparing how food is presenting in advertising and packaging, and how it appears in real life. I subscribe to it via RSS, and recommend others give it a look as well. My guest picture and descriptions are here.

Japan Times profile of this blog

This comes under the heading of "shameless self-promotion". The Japan Times interviewed me and has published a profile of me and both of my blogs (both this one and my 1000 Things About Japan blog). If you're interested, you can read it on the Japan Times web site here.

A Few Milestones, and Thanks to the Readers

No, I am not reviewing the snack pasta, but I thought the idea was funny enough to take a picture.

There are a few milestones that this blog has reached or will soon reach and I wanted to thank my readers for their support. Recently, I reached 100 followers on Blogger and my subscription via RSS is days away from reaching 300 (currently, it's at 296 and that number goes up rather steadily as of February 23, I hit the 300 mark!). Also, my average number of visitors as represented by independent IP addresses is now about 450 per day; that is quite good considering the fact that that number represents individuals, not page views, and the fact that I don't post on weekends. For a blog as "young" as this one (and considering that I'm hardly great at marketing my blog), these are nice numbers.

Seeing these numbers increase steadily encourages me to continue. This blog is fun to do, but it is also a lot of work to keep at it on a regular basis. I really appreciate everyone who follows me and takes time from their day to read or even just come and check out the pictures. I especially appreciate the people who have their own sites who link to mine. Thanks so much to everyone for your kindness!

Gokaku KitKat Mug Winner Pics

For anyone who'd like to see the happy winner with her mug, Rene has posted some pictures on her site.

Frankly, I'm shocked at how badly beat up the box was when it arrived. It was perfect and pristine when I sent it off (and brand new so it should have had the molecular integrity to hold up under normal postal stress). And I was glad that I went bonkers with the bubble wrap to protect the mug!

Contest Reminder (1 week left)

This is just a quick (and brief) reminder that the contest to win the Japanese KitKat 5-sided mug has one week left at this point. I've gotten some super entries so far, but there is time left for others to get a chance.

Details of how to enter the contest are here.

Thanks for reading!