Enjoy the things you can afford
Brand: Tomoguchi Cost: 100 yen Found At: Kyoto Daiso This is not food. I do not understand why this is advertised as food. Everything about these crunchy, pickled plums is wrong. Foremost is the crunch. It is not the crunch of an apple, it is not the crunch of a carrot - it is the... Continue Reading →
Brand: Cherio Cost: 100 yen Found At: Vending Machine – Kyoto Cherio vending machines are their own special creature. Not least because they are often fiendishly difficult to locate - not as ubiquitous as the Kirin, Asahi, Suntory, or Boss machines that you can find outside any apartment complex, train station, or four-way traffic stop.... Continue Reading →
Brand: Fujisafu Cost >200 yen (I don't remember) Found At: Cainz I am always looking for sweet potato chips. They are one of my favorite things and I cannot get enough of them. It was in this search that I came across an assortment of dehydrated vegetable chips at the Cainz superstore. Because I have... Continue Reading →
Brand: Asahi Cost: 140 yen Found At: Asahi Vending Machine Sixteen Teas contains all the ingredients of a Whole-30 nightmare. It claims to contain a wholesome blend of rice, wheat, beans, and two types of millet as part of the sixteen carefully selected ingredients based on “the health wisdom of the East.” Now, I do... Continue Reading →
Brand: 7-11 Premium Cost: 100 yen Found At: 7-11 When I bought this, I did not know what it was. This is the great danger of the Japanese foreign-word phonetic alphabet: without spaces or accents or kanji characters, it can sometimes be very hard to parse what is being spelled. Emil often complains to me... Continue Reading →
Brand: Fujisafu Cost: >200 yen Found At: Cainz This snack combines the delicate taste of sweet potato, the hardy flavor of new cardboard, and the consistency of crunchy packing peanuts. I can only imagine that, after a long day of laboratory research in the search for biodegradable packing materials, there was some sort of accident.... Continue Reading →
Brand: Kao Cost: 172 yen Found At: Family Mart I like my tea like I like my life partners. Strong, healthy, and containing at least 540mg of Catechin. This tea, like it’s jasmine counterpart, insists that it will increase my metabolism and decrease my body fat and, once again, I end up paying slightly more... Continue Reading →
Brand: IKEA Cost: 290 yen Found At: IKEA This cookie is like a long-term relationship. It requires work, it requires commitment, and it requires the faith to stick with it when times get rough. It is not always going to be easy with these cookies. You might have to spend a good two or three... Continue Reading →
Brand: Chocola Cost: 144 yen Found at: Ministop When I first came to Japan ten years ago, there was a huge ad campaign around B.B. Sparkling in which they claimed that drinking it would make you beautiful. For several years, I was sure that this could not possibly be true and that I was misremembering... Continue Reading →
Brand: Kirin Cost: 150 yen Found At: Vending Machine This fizzy drink spared no time in bubbling over. As sparkling water splashed everywhere, I was gripped by the urge to yell “Champagne for everyone!” at the group of schoolchildren walking by. Like most carbonated beverages in Japan, this one does not skimp on the bubbles.... Continue Reading →
The Little Food Blog 