Brand: Walkers Cost: Gift Found at: Lawsons I am sad to say that I will soon be leaving Japan and its wonderful snacks. I’m off, instead, to Scotland. I need to go to graduate school, after all, and what better place to pursue an expensive degree than to a country where the local currency... Continue Reading →
Mushroom Pizza Bread
Brand: 7-11 Cost: 158 yen Found at: 7-11 It kills me to say this, it really does, but I did not enjoy this pizza bread. There were good parts, certainly - the bread was soft and the bacon chewy – but the overall experience was just so… oily. And not in the fun way... Continue Reading →
Mochi Mochi Chocolate – Ganache
Brand: Bourbon Found at: Lawsons My father’s favorite aphorisms is “gilding the lily,” declaimed at such wonton excesses as eating bacon on a burger, putting chocolate sauce on ice-cream, and wearing earrings and makeup to the same event. It’s one of a long line of fatherly one-liners that later turn out to be references... Continue Reading →
Chocolate Cake (Matcha)
Brand: 7-11 Cost: 213 yen Found at: 7-11 There are days that call for salads and fruits, and there are days that call for the richest, thickest, most decadent cake in the shop. And 7-11 makes some decadent cakes. I suspect that this one is made exclusively of butter, sugar, and matcha (green tea)... Continue Reading →
Dry Konbu Seaweed (Kii Provence Plum Flavor)
Brand: Family Mart Cost: Gift Found at: Family Mart Oh no. It’s awful. Like, truly genuinely awful. I don’t know whose idea it was to put ume plum flavor on dried seaweed and market it as a fun snack to suck on but that person was wrong. These are not two flavors that belong... Continue Reading →
Mt. Fuji Onigiri (rice ball)
Brand: Onigiri Shop Cost: 222 yen Found at: Lawsons The older I get, the more I learn to love the cheesy, the tacky, and the camp things in life. Gone are the days of “oh my god, gold pants” to be replaced with the era of “OH MY GOD GOLD PANTS!”- and I am... Continue Reading →
Look Heisei Sweets
Brand: Fujiya Cost: 129 yen Found at: Ministop It’s official! The name of the new era in Japan has been announced. As of April 30th, the Heisei Era (“peace everywhere” era) – the 31 year-long era in which I was born – will be over and the Reiwa (“joyful harmony”) era will begin. For... Continue Reading →
Sakura Mochi (Cherry Blossom Pounded Rice Cake)
Brand: Yamazaki Cost: ~100 yen Found at: Lawson’s Cherry Blossom (Sakura) season is HERE! And the world has gone pink. Cars have slowed down to admire the buds, shops have exploded with pink decorations, and outcroppings of semi-sober family picnics have sprung up on every lawn in every park with sufficient amounts of the iconic... Continue Reading →
Salt Charge Sports Drink Flavors
Brand: Kabaya Cost: 200 yen Found at: Lawson’s Spring is just barely here and already I am beginning to dread the summer – both for the sweltering heat and for the unflattering summer fashions that make me look like a sweaty mole rat that’s burrowed through the sale rack of an H&M. Two options... Continue Reading →
Thick Slice Beef Tongue Onigiri
Brand: Onigiri Shop Cost: 189 yen Found at: 7-11 Sometimes, you feel a little fancy. Sometimes, you feel like slumming it. And when you feel like having it both ways, there’s beef tongue onigiri. It has all the fancy trimmings and ornate packaging of a much fancier cut, but is still, nevertheless the humble... Continue Reading →