Random Picture #194

Merry Christmas to my readers. I hope you're all enjoying your holiday.

If you were in Japan, you could be leaving Santa a little treat. He wouldn't eat it, of course, but he'd feed it to his reindeer - at least that's what the illustration on the bag seems to be telling us. These are "choco daifuku" or chocolate-filled rice cake. These shelf-stable versions of daifuku tend to be a little disappointing, especially if they are designed for kids. The rice cake can sometimes be a bit touch or stale, so, despite the adorable holiday-themed packaging, I didn't opt to buy such a large amount for reviewing. I had other plans for my holiday nosh, as you'll see by Friday's review. ;-)

Kanro Mojilu Halloween Candy (product information)

Image courtesy of Kanro.

I witnessed the "growth" of Halloween as a holiday in Japan during my years there. Like most foreign holidays, they didn't simply adopt it wholesale, but adapted it to their own sensibilities. Kids don't trick or treat at private homes, but some merchants or shotengai (shopping streets) will hold a special event in which kids can visit shops and get treats or participate in "stamp rallies" (getting a special stamp from various merchants to fill in a booklet or page). 

As the years went by, I saw more and more in the way of Halloween candy and decorations and confectioners got increasingly creative and involved. It started with imported candy or snacks with a Halloween motif, then Japanese snacks had a modest Halloween look and feel, and now there are things which are completely specialized for the holiday. To that end, you can't go any further than the Kanro Mojilu candies.

These packages, which contain bits of hard candy, spell out words in English and include punctuation. Incidentally, "mojilu" almost certainly is the katakana way of saying "module" as in, each letter is a module you can use to build messages. 

One point about this which I'm a little confused about is that this candy does not appear on Kanro's web site (I searched using their search engine as well as hopping around looking for it) and my information says that it's limited to 500 units. I can't believe they're only selling 500 of these, but I guess it's possible. I was released on October 10 and if any of my readers in Japan have seen it on shelves, please let me know. It's possible that this is simply a promotional item that will be distributed to shops and not for sale. Unfortunately, the information I found was pretty vague. This would be a pretty cool find if they are so limited.

Tirol Christmas House and Cup (product information)

All images are from Tirol's web site. 

Tis the season to buy disposable Christmas decorations, and Tirol has a real cute one for those who are good with their hands. If you buy one of their boxes with multiple candies, you can assemble it into a two-story house with Christmas tree, fireplace, and Santa sneaking out after leaving huge gift-wrapped chocolates (half the size of your tree) to enjoy on Christmas day.

For the time being, you can watch a video showing you how to manipulate the box on Tirol's web site. Since the video is on the home page, there's every chance it'll vanish shortly after Christmas when it will be replaced. I'm not sure what they'll replace it with, but if it follows a new year's theme, it'll be a tiny apartment in which a family is gathered around the table eating sembei and soba while watching the New Year's song contest. 

The chocolate "presents" are premium versions (larger chocolates with more layers of varied candy) strawberry shortcake, chocolate gateau, and cheesecake flavors. All in all, a pretty uninspiring collection of flavors as the first and last are likely to taste pretty bad if my experiences with such things are telling. I'd be especially frightened of the horribleness of the cheesecake flavor as it's likely to taste of the pungent flavors of Gouda or cheddar rather than cream cheese. 

In addition to this holiday offering, there is a Christmas cup with regular (smaller, less sophisticated chocolates). It's far less inspiring on the flavor front, but contains a lot of "safer" bets like the "biscuit", almond, and coffee chocolates which are part of most mixes which are not premium. The Christmas flavors (shown in the lower left in the picture above) are kinako mochi and a white chocolate version of the standard milk chocolate biscuit (which is just chocolate around a bland little bit of cookie). 

The boxed specialty Tirol options usually show up at Japanese markets in California sooner or later, though this one may not since it has a time limit based on the holiday theme. They're also very overpriced with most boxes of 10 candies costing around $10. Considering such boxes cost 200-300 yen ($2.37-$3.60)  in Japan, this is a pretty hefty mark-up, even for an import. I might buy this in Japan to review the flavors (even though I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like two of them), but I almost certainly wouldn't buy it here at a place like Nijiya. 

It's a little late in the game, but you can get a cute wallpaper with a Christmas illustration for the time being. It'll change as soon as the month ends, but you can grab a new one for the next month when this one goes away.

As a little reminder to readers who may have missed it, or to those who haven't gotten around to entering, I'm offering a box of the current Tokyo regional KitKats (rum raisin) as a contest prize. You can read about it and enter here. The contest ends on Christmas day 2012, so enter early, but only once, please. Also, please remember that comments are moderated so there is a delay between your making the comment and it being posted. Many people are submitting comments two or three times because they are not showing up immediately. Rest assured that your comment will be posted and it is not necessary to submit multiple times. 

Krispy Kreme Japan Christmas Offerings (product info.)

All images from Krispy Kreme Japan's site.

I was never gaga about Krispy Kreme in Japan, and it is of limited interest to me here in the U.S. The only thing that has me visiting them here at home is the fact that they appear to be the only donut shop among the myriads of donut shops my husband has investigated since our return that sells a whipped cream filled donut. Okay, it's not actually "cream", it's "creme", which means it's spun corn oil (like the filling of the currently unavailable Twinkie). Nonetheless, it is the closest I can come to the angel cream donut that I so loved and occasionally partook of from Mister Donut in Japan. It's not nearly as good as the Japanese one, and is nearly twice as caloric due to size and heavy external glazing, but it's better than nothing.

At any rate, Krispy Kreme Japan offered a steady stream of seasonal donuts. All of them pretty much were boring attempts to redress the standard basic donut with different decorations. I would look at Krispy Kreme America's offerings and actually feel they were doing more imaginative things. This year, I actually have a chance to sample what is here rather than what is "there" (Japan). In the U.S., there is a gingerbread donut, a snowman which is a regular raised donut with snowman decorations, and a red velvet cake donut. My husband tried the gingerbread one, and while tasty, it was a bit dry. The rest we took a pass on because neither of us is crazy for red velvet cake and painting a snowman design on a regular donut seems no better than having said type of donut.

By comparison, in Japan, there are more seasonal offerings:

By far, the one I'd be most interested in is the mont blanc (chestnut paste/cream) one. I'd be more impressed by it if it didn't so clearly look like their standard raised donut with a moderate (though certainly more than modest) amount of chestnut cream. If I were still working in Shinjuku, I'd pick one of these up for a try. Note that I think this flavor has far less to do with Christmas than the seasonal introduction of chestnut sweets each winter. Consider this more of a pagan donut than a Christmas one.

And, equally by far, the one I'd be least interested in would be the strawberry cheesecake one. This is because artificial strawberry isn't my idea of a good time. I have no idea what this has to do with the holidays, but it could have a vague relationship with the standard Japanese Christmas cake. That's a vanilla cake with whipped cream frosting and strawberries on it. Yeah, I know, it's pretty tenuous. OKay, let's just say they don't have much in the way of imagination and everyone seems to default to strawberry when all else fails.

The real holiday deal comes through with a snowman of their own. That smile and a dollop of brown good dripping from his frosty bottom may make it look like he's got a bit of a case of holiday diarrhea going on, but he's filled with chocolate. The American snowman is just full of more donut, so kudos to the Japanese for issuing a festive snowman full of delicious brown stuff.

The thing which is most interesting to me is that the first 20,000 purchasers of a holiday dozen were/will be given candles. Each shop has a limited number and the Shinjuku Southern Terrace branch ran out pretty fast. Others may or may not still have some by the time this post appears, depending on supply and demand. The web site calls them "party candles", because nothing livens up your Christmas like candles and donuts. They go well with the Kentucky Fried Chicken that you'll surely be enjoying for the holiday.

Fujiya Halloween Goodies (product info.)

Click to load the full-sized version. All images are from Fujiya's web site.

When it comes to Halloween, Japan churns out all of the adorableness without any of the pesky trick or treat aspects. No one will come to your door and beg for candy. No one will egg your house or toilet paper your bushes, but you can still go out and find some of the most kawaii (cute) Halloween kit in the world. I've been keeping an eye on such things, while the rest of the world has been preoccupied with Burger King's pumpkin and black burgers. I'm probably jaded, but the thrill of, "oh, look, Burger King has piled some new weird crap on a burger," doesn't thrill me like it once did. It's not like every other country doesn't do the same thing, but somehow Japan seems to be a stronger focal point for such attention. A Belgian fast food place made a black burger to tie in with Star Wars, and the world's blogs weren't wetting their pants over it. I guess black food dye is less exciting than squid ink.

Before I get into talking about all of the nifty stuff that Fujiya is selling at present, I'd like to mention that this is a holiday which the Japanese are slowly transforming into one of their own. Instead of kids going door-to-door and pestering their neighbors, something which is really outside of their cultural norms, they are increasingly setting up a holiday in which kids can go to the shopping streets (shotengai) and get goodies from participating merchants. This provides a promotional opportunity as well as ensures that not innocent people are bothered by strangely dressed children in their genkan.

As for the Fujiya offerings, most of it is the same sort of deal that other snack makers are doing. That is, they offer the same basic foodstuffs, but wrapped in a Halloween motif. The difference with Fujiya is that their packaging is going an extra mile in some cases. It's not only a Halloween design on the plastic bag, at least in some cases. Some of it has nifty keepsakes which would make adorable souvenirs of Japan or lasting decorations to add to ones collection of plastic skulls and grave markers.

One of the coolest of such items is a Halloween bandana that encloses "Milky" candies. Fujiya recommends you use it to wrap gifts (like a furoshiki) or even use it as a napkin. The candy really isn't the best. I felt rather indifferent about it as it seemed like any old taffy-style candy, but I'd probably buy a bag of it just to get the cute bandana. This is 500 yen ($6.26), and yes, I realize that sounds expensive for a printed piece of fabric and a bag of taffy.

The Peko pumpkin, which is a little tin sphere which has Peko chan's face on it on one side and a jack-o-lantern on the other, is probably one of the least imaginative options, but I find the styling of the faces uniquely Japanese. The pumpkin face is so cute and joyful that you know that it had to have originated in a country in which people don't find being  happy to be uncool.

There is also a pretty cute mug that you can buy "purin" (pudding/flan) in. When I was living in Japan, the one thing I never had a shortage of was coffee cups. People seem to think that I'm clumsily breaking them right and left or they were utterly lacking in imagination and lazily just kept plying me with mugs. Even Peko Chan kitted out as a cute witch with a lolling tongue wouldn't get me to purchase this, but I have to admit that I'd be tempted as it would be a really nifty souvenir. For 390 yen ($4.88), it's a little pricey for pudding, but the mug is earthenware and probably a shade nicer than 100-yen-shop finds.

Finally, among the items I'm spotlighting, these a pretty nifty tin. Inside of it are milky candies, Country Ma'am cookies, lollipops, and Heart chocolates. I'm not sure how big the pail is, but it'd make an adorable trick-or-treat tin for a small kid, provided that kid was more interested in looking cute than collecting tons of loot. If you happen to be in Japan as a tourist right now, and this is actually a good time to be in Tokyo because the weather would have finally mellowed out from the hideous summer, these things would be much better than your average crap in the airport as souvenirs to take home.

For those who are interested in a cute wallpaper of Peko chan made up in a Halloween motif, you can download one in various sizes here. There are also seasonal calendar wallpapers on this page.

Random Picture #112

Image pinched from Domino's Japan's web site. 

I used to teach a lesson about holidays to my student during which I taught them the term "Hallmark Holiday". The awesome thing for Japanese companies is that they not only had their own versions of these types of holidays, but also were continuously folding in more Western holidays. The potential for profit would bring a tear to the eye of a Ferengi (if you're not dorky enough for that reference and too lazy to read the Wikipedia page I've linked to, substitute "capitalist pig" for "Ferengi"). In my last several years in Japan, I had noticed that there was an effort being made to insinuate Easter as a holiday into Japanese culture. I'm sure that it will eventually be just as successful as Valentine's Day as the year's go by, as a hollow mockery of a holiday that gets people to open their wallets even though their hearts are empty.

Mother's day is the next Hallmark Holiday on the horizon and Domino's Japan has an unimaginative offering for those who prefer to phone in their gift and have it delivered to mom's doorstep. They're selling a small heart-shaped pizza with a simple topping of tomato sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella for 1300 yen ($16.29). The size isn't given, but it says that this is good as 1 or 2 servings so it must be pretty small. I guess that it would be considerate of Mom's health not to feed her too much pizza.

Random Weekend Picture 2

A display of special doll festival (March 3) "Koala's March" cookies at a high class supermarket called "Queen's Isetan". This variety shows their mascot in prince and princess garb. The cookies are strawberry and vanilla flavored.

Doll Festival Corn Puff Snack

March 3 is the date of the "Doll Festival" holiday in Japan. In keeping with my efforts to sample more food associated with special days in Japan, I picked up this bag of corn puff snacks for 98 yen ($1.08) at a local green grocer. I've seen these types of puffs everywhere in different packaging, and I'd be very surprised if there was a significant difference between brands. They all look the same.

The Doll Festival, or 雛祭り, Hina-matsuri, in Japanese, is an old festival which has little real meaning these days. Mainly, people with daughters put up a large display of dolls that represent a royal court. That's the reason the bag of corn puffs pictured above has an elaborately dressed couple. They represent the emperor and empress dolls in the display.

The dolls used to have a spiritual meaning, but these days they're like Christmas trees in that there was an original meaning that is no longer considered or even known by most people. I've talked to students about the dolls they had in their displays when they were little girls and they told me that they were pretty, but they weren't allowed to touch them or play with them. The dolls are generally quite expensive and some of them are passed down from generation to generation. Depending on the type of dolls and how elaborate the display, they can cost well over 100,000 yen ($1,108).

There are a wide variety of sweets associated with the holiday, but the most common consumer ones that are sold in markets and convenience stores are the type of corn puff I'm reviewing and a block of tightly pressed little balls (made with rice, I believe). They're like a uniform popcorn ball made with tiny peas instead of popcorn. I've had the little bricks of compressed rice and I do like them. They are available year-round, but the Doll Festival version is pink, white, and green. The kind that you can buy any time are less pretty, but taste the same. I hope to review them some time in the future.


These little puffs are varied in size. The little ones are like a slightly inflated grain of rice. All of them are the same. The ingredients list includes sugar, flour, rice, and corn grits. There were 70 grams (2.5 oz.) in the bag that I bought. I think it might be about two and a half cups if you measured it out. Unfortunately, there was no nutrition information so I can't say how many calories they contain.

These don't smell like much of anything, though there is a vaguely cereal-like scent. This isn't surprising since these puffs are essentially a version on a corn-based kid's cereal. They're not quite as crisp or sweet as something like Corn Pops, but the flavor is so similar that you could probably eat these with milk and think you were having breakfast on a Saturday morning in your childhood.

If you're the type of person who likes eating crunchy sugar cereals dry out of the box (and who isn't), then you're likely to enjoy these. They're not exactly the same as the stuff back home (assuming you grew up where I did - I can't speak for cereal in other countries), but they're very close. These are good and I enjoyed them, but I have to imagine you could put away a lot of it mindlessly and pack in the calories. You'll enjoy it, but your waist might not.

Aero Setsubun Black Soy Chocolate Bar

The Aero black soy bar is Nestle Japan's second entry in the Setsubun marketing game.The red devil on the soy bean KitKat has been given a color job and been symbolically castrated by having his horns removed. This might be a girl demon. I'm not up on gender identification of devil and demon sorts.

I found this bar side-by-side with the Setsubun KitKat at Family Mart convenience store. Both bars are pretty much the same size, about 14 x 3 x 2 cm (5.5 x 1.2 x .8 in.) and cost 120 yen ($1.32). The bar has a bit of a rough-hewn pattern on the outside. I'm guessing this is supposed to resemble wood, but I can't imagine why. The information on the front says that this bar is .28% black soy. That small a quantity of a key ingredient seems to indicate that the people at Nestle Japan subscribe to the homeopathic notion that no matter how little of something you use, it can be effective.


The bar smells vaguely of soy flour (kinako) and has a gray bubbled interior. I ate my bar at room temperature, so the sometimes crunchy effect you get from eating catacombs of cold aerated chocolate didn't happen. Instead, I just got a soft, rich milk chocolate flavor and texture. It melts so quickly in your mouth that it seems like you've got a mouth full of warm fudge. It's a very sumptuous experience.

As milk chocolate bars go, this is very enjoyable. I've had Aero before, but mainly as smaller bars. I don't know if the tiny bit of black soybean in the bar enhanced the richness or simply that the thickness and room temperature chocolate made it seem more decadent, but I enjoyed this more than I remember regular Aero bars. That being said, I didn't taste the soy component at all.

Kobayashi Seika Roasted Soy Beans (Setsubun)

Most of the time, I give the company that makes a particular product some credit for infusing a product with their own unique flavors or cooking style. In the case of these roasted soybeans, I'm guessing that nearly any packet of this type of plain soybean is going to be pretty much the same as any other packet. There are certainly dozens of varieties of them and most of them look the same. That being said, you can get types which are coated in sugar, seaweed, etc. For the sake of experiencing what I assume is a "basic" in the spirit of the Setsubun season, I went with the plain ones.


I bought these at Peacock supermarket for 98 yen. To be honest, I chose this packet (made by a company that sells a huge variety of soybeans) because it was one of the few types of soybeans that was not sold in what appeared to be a family size or a multi-pack. Most of the soy beans (or soy peas, as they are sometimes called) seem to be offered up in bags full of little bags. I'm guessing this is so they can be handed out to family members and each person can either eat them or pelt their paternal figure with them during the celebration.

The information about Setsubun says that you're supposed to both throw these at someone wearing a demon mask (to drive away evil and invite luck) and eat one for every year you have been on the planet. Surprisingly, basic roasted soybeans are pretty calorific. This 65 gram (2.3 oz.) bag is 305 calories. Considering the absolute lack of any sort of external flavoring or oil, this is a little surprising, though there are 14 grams of fat in these. Japanese soy products are not de-fatted as many Western soy preparations are. Mind you, unless you're 100 years old, you're not likely to eat the whole bag at once. On the bright side, there are 21 grams of protein.

These smell pretty much like soy, because, well, that's all they are. They're very crispy and crunchy and resemble a more brittle version of a peanut, but with more of an edamame flavor to them. They're certainly fine and inoffensive, but I kept feeling that they desperately needed some salt or seasoning. They're like a blanched peanut in that way.

I like these, but not enough to just sit down with a Diet Coke and snack away. I think they'd be best consumed with something else like cottage cheese or even possibly in a salad to add crunch. In fact, I think they'd be fine mixed with anything which needed a relatively bland, somewhat nutty textural component. That being said, I'm not sure I'll make it through the whole bag before they go stale. I'm just not that into them.

Variety Friday: Setsubun Snacks

top shelf: Setsubun demon masks, second shelf: a variety of soy beans for the celebration

Though I've been in Japan a little over two decades, I have never taken much notice of the holiday Setsubun. This is in large part because I associate celebration of the day with kids and I neither have children nor close friends with them. The truth is that I have been vaguely aware of the holiday and some of its practices since the early years of my stay, but never really paid much attention until I started seeing Setsubun-themed candy in the past few weeks.

Setsubun includes a custom called mamemaki, which is where the head of household (usually the father of the family) puts on a demon mask and the children or other family members throw soybeans at him to drive away evil, draw luck, and purify the home. I say that I associate this holidays with children, because I have never known a Japanese adult who carried out mamemaki without kids. Childless adults don't usually perform this little role play. My guess is that most of them have far more interesting role plays involving long-celibate samurai and curious geisha or helpful gladiators and lost, grateful, and randy goddesses who have fallen to earth.

Though I'm sure Setsubun-themed foods have been around since long before I was born, I wasn't writing a snack blog prior to last year. This year, I decided to do a week's worth of Setsubun-related foods as a way of exploring the food culture end of the holiday. Setsubun is celebrated on February 3 so next week seemed like a good time to offer up those reviews. Some of the foods are modern candy with a Setsubun theme, and others are more traditional.

I could have easily done two weeks worth of Setsubun-related foods. While I was at one of my local markets today (Peacock), I saw that there was a wide variety of snacks covering both the purification end and the demon personification. One of the coolest was a package of big demon "feet" stick-less, lollipop-style hard candies. A bag full of big transparent yellow feet was hard to resist, but the price (358 yen or $3.93) and the prospect of all of the tooth decay from sucking on that many sugary feet put me off (though it does sound like a fetishist's dream). There were also demon "clubs" made out of what I'm guessing was some sort of carbohydrate backbone coated in a curious brown coating and nuts to make it look like a caveman-style bludgeoning device.

Since I couldn't possibly buy and consume everything, I made a few selections which I think may have broader application to my readers. By that I mean that these are foods which you may be able to find as imports or that might be available in Asian groceries (albeit from different manufacturers than the ones I sampled).

Variety Friday: Starbucks Japan Fukubukuro

My husband buying the "lucky bag" and asking the shop attendant about the availability of such things.

Every year on New Year's Day, you can find a variety of shops in Japan selling "lucky bags" or something equivalent to what we call a grab bag in the United States. Readers who have been with me for a long time or who have read some of the archives may recall that last year I talked about a "fukubako", or "lucky box" which I bought at Mister Donut.

The main idea behind these things is that they are meant to be a bargain. The value of the items in total is supposed to exceed the amount you pay. I've always thought that these things were simply a way of unloading stuff that nobody wanted to buy and that couldn't be unloaded. After all, when that case of purple polka-dot tights isn't moving, you can stuff one in every "lucky bag" and claim that they're a 1000 yen (about $11) value. If your shop carries enough bum goods, you could easily stuff your bags with all of the craptacular inventory that won't move off your shelves and present the collection of embarrassing and distasteful items as "value".

The Mister Donut fukubukuro and fukubako are undeniably one of the best values for your money since you pay 2000 yen ($21.50) and get coupons which allow you to buy 20 donuts. The value of the donuts alone is at least 2000 yen, often more since many donuts are more than 100 yen. You also get a plethora of goodies ranging from kid's toys to dishware. Unfortunately, you also have to stuff yourself with donuts between January 1 and March 31 because the donut coupons run out at the end of March. For this reason, my husband and I decided to give a different shop our "lucky bag" money this year. Since we can never have too much coffee, we decided to try on Starbucks this time around.

Our local Starbucks is in a JR station and only had two of the cloth totes that constitute their "lucky bags" on display. They carry two varieties, one for 5000 yen ($54) and another for 3000 yen ($32) and the more expensive one was sold out. My husband asked how many of each they had on hand and the salesgirl told him they had 20 of the pricier ones and 30 of the cheaper ones. She also said that that was all they had period so we got the next to the last one for the season. Note that we arrived at 12:30 or so on January 1st so they did not last long.


As for the contents of the bag, they gave us three 70-gram (2.5 oz.) bags of ground coffee (Verona, House Blend, and Sumatra), two coupons in gift cards good for any drink of any size, a double-decker bento box, a very small and thin lap rug in a Starbucks cup cloth holder, and a small fair trade African woven cloth tote bag. The value would break down something like this:

• 3 small bags of coffee: ~1000 yen
• 2 drink coupons: a maximum of 1000 yen (biggest, most expensive drinks being purchased)
• double-decker bento box: ~100 yen without the Starbucks motif, to be charitable, let's say 300 yen
• African fair trade cloth tote bag : a maximum of 1000 yen
  
• Starbucks cloth tote bag: a maximum of 1000 yen
• lap blanket and mug: ~300 yen
  

Technically, the value of the goods exceeded the cost, but realistically, two tote bags, neither of which is large enough to really shop with are not of much use and both are overpriced as retail items. Their true value is closer to 500 yen each. I also think it's absurd to put another tote bag in the main tote as a means of adding value.

The Starbucks 3000-yen "lucky bag" was a big disappointment to us. We would have preferred more coffee, more coupons, or at least some reusable Starbucks cups to the silly lap rug, and second tote, or even the bento box. At least the bento box is arguably useful though. It's actually a pretty nice size and has chopsticks snapped into the top of the bottom box. The main thing is that my husband doesn't eat traditional Japanese bento lunches and I work from home so it's not of great utility to us personally.

I wouldn't recommend the lucky bags at Starbucks if you're looking to take part in the spirit of the season during New Year's and pick up a lucky bag. Next year, I'm thinking we'll pick up something at a different place. If you can eat a lot of donuts, the Mister Donut box is still the best bet.

Quick update: I found someone who posted about the 2010 Mister Donut fukubako if you'd like to see them (there appear to be two different ones), they're here and here. It's rather similar to last year's haul.

Happy Year of the Tiger!

Happy New Year to all of my readers and thank you for following my blog!

Japan follows the Chinese convention of seeing each year as the year of an animal. This year is the year of the tiger, so you can get tiger figures everywhere. The item pictured above is a traditional New Year's mochi (pounded rice cake) decoration with the little plastic tiger on top instead of the traditional mikan (Japanese tangerine). I picked this up at 7-11 for about $4. Note that you can get similar mochi for about $1 at most convenience stores. I doubt there is a qualitative difference in the texture or taste of the mochi. I was mainly paying for the tiger.

Many Japanese families have freshly made mochi as part of their display, but I've been told that when they use the fresh stuff, it sometimes starts to grow mold before it is eaten and the mold has to be cut away before they can consume the remaining mochi. I'm not sure how I'm going to prepare or consume this mochi, but I'll give it a go.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable new year. :-)

Japanese Christmas Cake

Earlier this week, I was remarking to my husband that we have lived in Japan for 20 years, and never once purchased a Christmas cake. For those who are not aware of what it is, the Japanese have carved out their own unique way of celebrating the holiday in a secular manner which involves the purchasing of a birthday-cake-style cake and eating it on Christmas Eve or Day. The history of this cake is not clearly known, but the idea seems to have come from a combination of buche de noel cakes from France with their whipped cream decorations and sponge cake and the British Christmas cake shape and style.

Of course, the cakes also have been modified to suit Japanese people's tastes. In general, that includes the use of whipped cream frosting and fresh strawberries. There are some beautiful pictures of the most common type of Christmas cake on the Shibuya 246 site. There are a vast number of cake types though, and you can get nearly any type you like.

Getting back to my Christmas cake, my husband said that he'd like to, "just once", go the KFC chicken route for Christmas (fried chicken is the other half of the traditional Japanese Christmas custom) and I said we should try a cake as well. Fortunately for me, my little wish came true without my having to ponder whether I'd reached an alarming degree of cultural assimilation by diving in and buying a Christmas cake. One of my students gave me a beautiful chocolate cake last night as a gift.


The cake is quite small (but perfect for 4 satisfying, but not diet-killing, servings) and I'm sure cost an insane amount of money. It's got 6 layers. From top to bottom, it is: bittersweet chocolate syrup, chocolate mousse, dark chocolate sponge cake, whipped cream, crunchy chocolate ganache (possibly mixed with corn flakes?), light chocolate sponge cake. This was fantastic. Most of the cake you get in Japan is fatty, but not sweet enough to enhance the chocolate flavor (or uses too little chocolate). This one had high quality ingredients and great flavor. It was also very light. The mix of textures and flavors was impressive.

Wherever you are, I hope you're having a great holiday and enjoying whatever Christmas goodies your culture has to offer. Thank you for reading!

Variety Friday: Hello Kitty Halloween Tins

There are two "Family Mart" convenience stores within walking distance of my home. One is about 5 minutes away and the other about 9. I usually go to the closer one, but was in the mood for a walk and visited the other and discovered that all conbini of the same chain are not treated alike. One of them had a display of special "Hello Kitty" Halloween tins with Tirol chocolates and the other did not. I'm guessing this has to do with the fact that the one that is furthest away is a lot closer to a subway station on a major line.


The tins are 315 yen each ($3.46) and you get to choose 8 Halloween-themed small Tirol candies to put in it (not the premium ones which are larger and cost 32 yen (35 cents) each. The value of 8 of these small candies is 80 yen (88 cents), so you're really just paying for access to a small, extremely cute tin featuring Hello Kitty. The display box, incidentally, gives you instructions for exactly how to place the candies in the tins.



There are two styles of tins. One is a square-shaped house which doesn't seem nearly as Halloween-like (but has Halloween designs) and the other is the coffin. There were 3 designs for each style of tin and they were repeated on the packages of the chocolates (most of which are pictured above). There are only two kinds of Tirol candies to choose from and I have reviewed both of them before. One is "Bis", a bland little cracker-like biscuit covered in chocolate, and the other is a chocolate-covered roasted almond. Both of these are included in my previous review of a variety pack. Of course, one doesn't buy these for the candy. In my case, I didn't even buy this for the tin for myself. I bought the tin to send to someone back home as a gift. While I'm not immune to the extreme cutenesss of some Hello Kitty stuff, I'm not really enamored of her.

Family Mart is doing a full-scale Halloween campaign (detailed on their site in Japanese) and you are given a free papercraft Halloween bucket when you buy one of the items that is a part of the campaign. Image pilfered from Family Mart's site.

There are three colors and styles of buckets. The one I got is black. I'm not going to open it and put it together, but I did pinch a picture off of Family Mart's site which shows what they're supposed to look like.

Ghana Cherry Marnier Chocolate

Since today is Valentine's day, I saved an item that was clearly released for the holiday. It contains the Valentine's candy flavor trifecta - red fruit (cherry), chocolate, and alcohol (cherry liqueur). In fact, it proudly announces that there is .4% alcohol in this candy on the box cover.


Inside the box, there are two little conjoined trays with foil covers. They look like they should separate in the middle, but they can't be pulled apart. They packaging is like this so you can bend the sections in the middle while keeping two portions in separate trays. Each little "twig" of candy is about 5 cm (about 2 inches) long and there are 8 in each compartment. They are 22 calories per stick.


These smell vaguely of chocolate, cherry and alcohol. The sticks are soft and melt easily in your mouth. The filling is like a firm ganache, though the coating is not very firm. It has a low melting point, though it doesn't melt in your hands. These taste like cherry cordials though their texture is very different. The flavor strongly reminds me of Cella's chocolate covered cherries. Since I used to love those when I was growing up in the U.S., I liked these a lot.

These aren't too sweet though they have a bit of a sharp flavor from the alcohol. I can see where some people may find them medicinal because cherry cough syrup contains alcohol and these incorporate similar flavors. I think these are very nice and I'd revisit them again without reservation. However, if you are the least bit of a mind to dislike any of the risky component parts (cherry and alcohol), you might want to give them a miss.

Backwards Candy

Last time I was in a convenience store, I noticed a box of Dars chocolates with backwards writing on it. In every way, it looked like a regular box of this particular variety of chocolate. I couldn't understand what the point of the reverse writing was until I came across an article on Japan Marketing News.

Apparently, the reverse writing is an attempt to get Japanese men to buy Valentine's candy for Japanese women this year. Since the tradition has been for women to give men candy on February 14 and men to return the favor on March 14 ("White Day"), the candy companies want to encourage men to "reverse" the giving and give women chocolates on Valentine's Day.

It's probably a good ploy. Most of the Japanese women who I have spoken with about the White Day holiday say that the vast majority of men do not reciprocate for the Valentine's candy the women around them gave them. It'd probably be far better for sales if both men and women were on board for Valentine's Day. From a commercial point of view, White Day has generally been a bit of a failure.

Valentine Krispy Kreme Donuts (Japan only)

Before all the Krispy Kreme haters jump on the soap boxes and start to talk about how bad the donuts are or how they are the nutritional scourge of all human civilization, and how I am a total idiot for forking over my hard-earned cash for buying these, let me say that they were a gift. Personally, the only Krispy Kremes I like are the original glazed, and even then occasionally. I actually like Mister Donut more, though I can't say that I eat donuts often or am an aficionado of them necessarily. No, my husband is the one who adores donuts. He even dreams about them from time to time, but that's a story for an entirely other sort of blog.

These donuts are on sale at Krisipy Kreme branches in Japan from January 21 to March 14. The reason the sale ends so late is because of the clever way in which Valentine's Day was essentially cleaved in two as a sweets buying fest. The Japanese have women give men sweets on February 14 and the men give women sweets on March 14 for "White Day." The donuts are meant to cover all the available holiday sweet treats territory so that Krispy Kreme doesn't have to come up with any more specialty items.

The donut on the left is a "mocha chocolate heart". It didn't fare very well in transit. You can see that the whipped cream frosting smeared all over the wax paper that was meant to keep it safe and sound. The topping is bitter chocolate cookie "crunch". The truth is that it isn't very crunchy or very bitter, but rather more firm and soft. It's like stale cookies. The frosting is coffee-flavored whipped cream and the streaks of brown coating are just some sort of coffee flavored white chocolate stuff.

The mocha chocolate heart smells like coffee and caramel, though there is no caramel in it. It's not very sweet and has a mild coffee flavor and no chocolate flavor that I could detect. I didn't take a picture of the inside of the donut because there's nothing in there but more donut. This is pretty "bready", though the yeast donut flavor certainly isn't bad. I like whipped cream-based frosting, but this was all texture and little taste. While I have no issues with a less sweet donut, I wish the flavors were more multi-layered and/or intense. I will note that a round version of this particular mix of ingredients was available at some point in Krispy Kreme Japan's history, and it was just as unimpressive in its previous incarnation.

The donut on the right is a "strawberry double heart." The pink coating, which is also like a colored white chocolate in that it is firm rather than soft like frosting or icing, is made with Polish senga sengana strawberries as are the little freeze dried bits of strawberry on one side. There's a white chocolate heart stuck on the right side, which is where the "double heart" name comes from. This donut smelled of strawberry in a good way. It also had a reasonable though relatively weak strawberry flavor including a hint of tartness. The underlying donut was fresh and yeasty, but, again, there is no filling in it. This is definitely the better of these two donuts.

Both of these donuts are 180 yen (about $2) each and not bad as long as they are fresh. However, the flavor is just really weak on both of them and the textural elements pretty "blah". I wouldn't buy these and I wouldn't recommend them over other types of more flavorful donuts from Krispy Kreme. These are clearly made for style over substance, and the mocha one seriously does not travel well, so it's unlikely to look pretty for a recipient.

Most baked goods with any sort of glaze or frosting have been altered to reduce the sugar and increase the fat for the Japanese market. One of the reasons that Japanese sweets are sometimes as high or higher in calories than American sweets despite having less sugar is the higher fat content of those sweets. Sugar, like salt, can intensify and carry flavor (which is why humans tend to like sugary and salty things). If you reduce the sugar, you've got to enhance flavor through other methods and that so often doesn't happen in Japan and Krispy Kreme joins a long line of pastry makers who haven't adjusted the flavor profile while reducing the sugar.

Chocolat Framboise Marble Pocky

For those who don't live in Japan, I'll give the shortest possible explanation of how Valentine's Day works in this country. Women buy men chocolates. Men don't buy women anything. I'm sure that every Western man who ever felt pressure to find the perfect Valentine's gift is dialing up an Asian dating service and putting in an order for a Japanese girl right now.

I should note that a lot of women are obliged to give chocolates to men they don't even like. They also give to men who they are friends and acquaintances with. It's not about romance. That means that there is a whopping great marketing opportunity for confectioners to sell a ton of low rent candy and chocolate-based items to women who have to give their bosses and coworkers token gifts on February 14. Most companies rise to the occasion and get out there with themed items which feature the color red and hearts, though they don't always overtly state "Valentine's candy" so that the items can be bought any time by anyone.

This leads us nicely to this Chocolat Framboise Pocky. It's clearly been released for the Valentine's Day crowd (note the hearts on the box). There are three sleeves with 4 sticks each inside the box and each package has hearts all over it as well. Red fruit like strawberry, cherry, and raspberry are particularly popular inclusions for these treats, and liquor-infused candy is also readily available. I guess that men are supposed to enjoy boozy chocolates. Framboise is a sort of raspberry beer, so these sticks are three great Valentine's Day concepts fused into one - chocolate, liquor, and red fruit. How can it lose as a marketing concept?


These sticks smell very good. They smell both of chocolate and raspberry. The coating is relatively generous and the flavor is quite strong. Note that the raspberry flavor is pretty intense so you have to really like raspberry to enjoy these.The first bite tastes of dark chocolate and the second brings the raspberry more heavily into play. The coating is pretty much the usual for Pocky, a little soft and easy to bite into, and the sticks are crunchy and fresh. The sweetness is just about right and the fruit flavor doesn't taste artificial or perfume-like. The quality level is really surprising for such a "common" snack. These have cocoa butter, butter, and raspberry powder. I really liked these and I'd definitely buy them again if they were to be available after the Valentine's season ends.

Though I haven't been a fan of Pocky throughout most of my time in Japan, I have not been disappointed in the flavors I have tried. Considering that the calorie count on these is so modest, 4 sticks at 93 calories, I think that these are a very good choice as a sweet treat for anyone.

Super Size Ghana Special Holiday Bar

The box says, "creamy milk and the richness of cacao, new standard chocolate." (You can click any picture to see a larger version with more detail.)

Around this time of year, confectioners in Japan start super sizing their core candy products. You can get super sized Pocky, Crunky, and Ghana bars among other things. My husband and I had never purchased one of these monster confections until now. He selected the Ghana bar because, as a solid chocolate bar, it has the greatest long term eating potential and can be used for baking in a pinch.

The super size bars are available at this time mainly to offer as Christmas or (more commonly) New Years gifts for kids. However, one of my students who has a birthday in December was given one so sometimes young adults give them to each other. Personally, I think these would make a great group souvenir of a trip to Japan to share with your entire office if you happen to be in Japan during the limited time they are offered. You could also set them aside for a friend or loved one who has particularly severe depression or PMS issues. There's enough chocolate here to see them through an entire month of difficulty (as well as add a pound and a half to their body weight).

Though I haven't reviewed Ghana bars before, they are not new to me. You can buy normal (about the size of a Hershey's chocolate bar) Ghana for a bargain price in many supermarkets. One close to me regularly sells them for 88 yen (97 cents) each, which is about 12 yen (13 cents) cheaper than similar basic milk chocolate bars of the same size. This big bar costs about 800 yen ($8.79) and pretty much is roughly equal in volume to 8 smaller bars so it's not cheap, but it's also not priced at a premium.


The box is 30 cm (11.8 in.) long and 14.5 cm (5.7 in.) wide and has a snowflake design on it to make sure you know its a winter holiday gift. A regular Ghana box is entirely red with the logo in the middle. The chocolate is packed in an unassuming foil pouch. I'm guessing this is to keep it fresh for a long time. My bar's expiration date is September of 2009.


The chocolate bar is divided into 20 individual blocks. Each block is 4.5 (1.8 in.) by 2.3 to 2.5 cm (.90-.98 in.) in size. The side pieces are bigger than the inner blocks. If you had kids and they were supposed to share this bar, they'd be fighting over the bigger pieces at the edges. Each block is 84 calories. If you went insane and gobbled it all down, you'd be putting away 1,680 calories from the entire huge bar.

Ghana chocolate smells mildly of chocolate. These thick blocks are a little tough to bite through compared to the normal thin bars that are available year round, but I have to admit that I have a weak bite. The chocolate flavor is subdued at first, but becomes rich and deep as it melts in your mouth. It doesn't seem too sweet at first, but the sweetness builds up as you roll it around on your tongue. The chocolate itself seems to lack depth. You don't pick out any deeper flavors like coffee, nuts or any fruity notes. It's very fatty chocolate with a good portion of cocoa butter, so it's quite satisfying, but it is the sort of chocolate that is well-suited to the palates of children and those who like sweet chocolate that doesn't have a very strong milky taste.

Comparing a basic chocolate like Ghana to Hershey's in America and Cadbury in the U .K., I'd say that Hershey's has sour, yogurt-like flavor and has a chalkier texture and Cadbury is much milkier. The odd thing about Ghana to me is how the sweetness and basic chocolate flavor come through so strongly without the sort of heavy milky flavor that seems so common in other milk chocolate bars. Ghana has more of a "hot cocoa" which is made in part with water taste than a "hot chocolate" flavor which is made with 100% milk. It's good chocolate, but it's different from what you might expect back home.

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Marble choco (マーベルチョコ) Santa dispenser wishes you a "Happy Merry X-mas", because it's not enough to just be "merry" or "happy". You must be both.

Merry Christmas to all of my readers. I hope you have a beautiful holiday and can relax with friends and loved ones. Thank you for reading. It's very appreciated.