Random Picture #144

The name of the pictured beverage sounds like it would be more appropriate for a Viking marital aid than a sports drink, and while I'm not sure that that is not what is contained as a hidden prize within the can, I doubt that it's any more than a low calorie isotonic beverage. The Japanese for this actually says "so-pi-do", so I'm not sure that they even meant to name it for the god of thunder, but I'm seeing it in the manner that most amuses me. (Note that the Japanese for "Thor" is "To-ru".)

Actually, my husband informs me that this may refer to Ian Thorpe, a Australian swimmer whose nickname was "Thorpedo". The strange thing is that this beverage came out during his retirement (he retired, returned, and failed, but will try again). 

This amuses me far less than my own imagined ideas. Therefore, I will pretend not to have gained an awareness of this fact. Willful ignorance is bliss. 

Random Picture #126

It's important to keep a guard up against vitamins at all times. You never know when they might sneak past your battlements and make you all healthy and stuff. Image courtesy of BlogD. (used with permission)

Though many people seemed to have assumed that I spent all of my time in Japan either diving head first into Japanese culture or trying to cling to my American ways as much as possible, the truth was that I existed in between. I'm pretty sure that is what most people who move abroad and stay there for a long time do. Japanese people who live in the U.S. are still eating a lot of rice and complaining about how it's not as good as it is in Japan even if they have been there for decades. I don't see anything wrong with that.

One of the things that I did in Japan in regards to food was patronize the Foreign Buyer's Club. I didn't regularly buy anything, but tended to buy something that I hadn't had for quite some time. Unfortunately, they sell by the case so whatever it was, I'd be eating for a long, long time. One of the things I did not buy, but they carry, is Kool-Aid. My brother-in-law, who has lived in Japan longer than my husband and me and is still there, sent me the picture above with a comment which brought up something I had never thought of before. The fact that I've focused on Japanese snacks and beverages for years yet this never occurred to me is a good illustration of how we notice only those things in our frame of reference and the rest is out of our field of vision.

He remarked that Japanese people don't use powdered drink mixes except sports drinks. He said, "When I make up a Kool-Aid "On the Go" tropical punch drink in a water bottle, my students look like I am performing some freak chemistry experiment, and usually react with disbelief when I drink it. This, however, seems to be OK. I'd be interested in what, if any, reasoning lies behind that..." 

It's an interesting question for which I do not have an answer. If any readers have an observation or speculation that they'd like to share, I'd be curious to hear it. 

Sports Drink KitKat

I'm not sure how many people out there have never drunk a sports drink, but I'm one of them. I've just never seen the appeal of drinking anything after exercise besides water. It hydrates and it is free. I guess that's part of the reason people are told they need to restore their bodily balance with potions concocted by expert beverage makers. They aren't going to make any money off of you if you drink water. Nonetheless, somehow primitive man managed to make due after a big bison hunt with water, so I think I will survive as well.


In Japan, there are a plethora of sports drinks which I've never sampled (and probably never will). I once read that sports drinks are essentially Kool-aid types of drinks with salt added and that turned me off. It also set up some expectations of this bar which were not very high. I was in for a bit of a surprise. This was nothing like what I had expected.


The bar smells a bit like lemon-lime or grapefruit. Despite being white chocolate, it doesn't carry the "sweet" smell I associate with it. The taste is a melange of fruit flavors and yogurt. It's sweet, but not painfully so. I think that the part of this which resembles citrus fruits (mainly lemon) and the sourness of yogurt balances out the sweetness. If this is really what a sports drink tastes like in Japan, I may give one a try some day.

I was surprised to find that I liked this and even more surprised to that my husband liked it. He doesn't like yogurt (or grapefruit), but he enjoyed this. I think that anyone who liked the lemon KitKat might also like this. I'd certainly buy it again. Note that this was released on June 22 so it should be around for awhile.