Brand: Fisherman’s Friend Found at: Coop Cost: 15KR I have heard – or, more accurately, have been enthusiastically told - that Swedish companies are bad at deceptive marketing; that Swedish companies pride themselves on being forthright and honest with the consumer. And while I can’t say whether or not this is true, it would... Continue Reading →
Fondant au Chocolat Swebar Protein Bar
Brand: Swebar Found at: ICA Cost: 15KR Protein bars: the catfish of candy bars. I like to pretend that I’m eating healthy food, but really it’s just a socially acceptable way to cram 21g of sugar into my face while at the same time implying that I exercise. And what a glorious 21g of... Continue Reading →
Professional Sumo Potato – Chanko Nabe Flavor
Brand: Jagabee Cost: Gift Found at: Sumo Tournament As an apology for forgetting to send my bags to the airport (first world problems, amiright?) my boss brought me some potato chips from the Sumo tournament last month in Osaka. This gave me the opportunity to try, albeit in potato chip form, something that I’ve always... Continue Reading →
Walker’s Pure Butter Shortbread
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 →