Passion Fruit Kit-Kat

The newest Kit-Kat flavor in Japan is 「オトナの甘さ　パッションフルーツ」 (“Adult-taste sweetness Passion Fruit flavor“)*.

Have you ever tried any of the numerous Kit-Kat flavors in Japan?

* (edit. Maybe this would be a better translation of the name.)

Japanese school lunch is excellent

I wrote a post about three years ago comparing Japanese and American schools.
(Click here to read it.)

Well, the Washington Post newspaper wrote an article fairly recently about Japanese 給食 (school lunches).

The article is here.

Basically, it says that school lunches in Japanese schools are healthy and delicious.
They are like home cooked meals made with locally grown ingredients, unlike the fast-food type of lunches that I ate in schools in America.

Also, the students serve the food to each other in Japanese schools.

having raised three kids in Japan, I know that students in Japan eat proper food in school.

BBQ Whopper “from Miami” ?

I’m from Florida.  Is Miami, Florida well-known for BBQ sauce?
I haven’t lived in Florida (or even in America) for quite some time…but I don’t recall ever hearing about any “Miami BBQ“.

Well, anyway, Burger King in Japan has recently begun offering “BBQ Whopper Burgers…from Miami“.

Does Burger King offer this in America too?
Have you tried it? How does it taste? “Citrusy”?

Next-generation vending machines

In your country, do vending machines give weather forecasts and recommend a drink for you based on your gender and estimated age ( using facial recognition software) like here in Japan?

We can also pay for the drinks by using our train commute IC cards.

McDelivery

More and more McDonalds in Japan have begun offering delivery service called “McDelivery“.

Does McDonalds offer delivery service in your country? Have you ever used it?

I have used pizza delivery, ramen delivery and sushi delivery…but I still have never used Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonalds delivery?

What types of food can be delivered in your country?

And, just like the pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken and other delivery services in Japan, McDonald’s McDelivery have company mopeds that are used to deliver the food.

McGum

McDonalds in Japan have been trying to get more weekday breakfast customers lately.

Awhile back, they offered free menu items, such as an Egg McMuffin or hash browns, to customers who come in for breakfast on a Monday.

This month, McDonalds Japan is having a very unusual campaign to try to boost Monday breakfast sales.

If you come in for breakfast on Monday, 2013 April 8, you will be given a free pack of chewing gum.
If you come in for breakfast on Monday, 2013 April 15, you will be given a free bottle of shampoo.
If you come in for breakfast on Monday, 2013 April 22, you will be given a free pack of skin cream.
And if you come in for breakfast on Monday, 2013 April 29, you will be given a free can of Sprite soft-drink.

Big America is back again…

Starting today at McDonalds in Japan, the Texas Burger is back on the menu for a limited time.
It will be followed by the Idaho Burger.

Other items that have returned to McDonalds menu here for a limited time are:

Blueberry Milkshakes,
Mega Muffin (double Sausage McMuffin on the morning menu),
American BBQ flavor French Fries,
Creamy Ranch Sauce for the Chicken McNuggets…
and coming soon…Maple Custard Pie.

Melon Kuma

In Japan, cute mascot characters are very popular to help promote many stores, restaurants and merchandise.

Even the Tokyo police, fire department and Japanese military have mascots.

Also, cities and prefectures in Japan have cute or funny mascot characters that are related to some local food or animal.
They are used to help promote tourism to the area.

These characters are normally cute … or at least try to be.

So, the new mascot for the northernmost Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido was on the news recently because not only is the character not cute… but it’s actually on there scary side!

Hokkaido is famous for the wild bears (熊 (kuma) in Japanese) and the cantaloupe (メロン (melon) in Japanese)… so the character is 「メロン熊」(“Melon-kuma“).

It’s a bear with a Japanese cantaloupe melon for a head … and has angry eyes and huge teeth!
It’s also fond of trying to bite people!

Quite different from the usual mascots in Japan!

Here’s a video of the melon-kuma trying to bite people and promote tourism to Hokkaido:

Famous Japanese

People around the world can name American presidents, American movie actors, American pop music artists, American companies, and American fictional characters.

They’re world famous.

It’s been that way for at least a few generations now.

But before I came to Japan, there was no internet back then and Japanese food and pop culture wasn’t popular around the world like it’s become in recent years.
Back then, I wouldn’t have been able to name a single Japanese prime minister.
The only Japanese actor I knew back then was Pat Morita (from “Karate Kid“)…and he was actually a Japanese-American.
The only Japanese musicians I knew were Yoko Ono and the Japanese heavy metal band Loudness.
Of course, I would have been able to name a number of Japanese companies such as Sony, Toshiba, Toyota, Honda, etc.
As for Japanese fictional characters, I knew Ultraman and Godzilla.

I’ve now been living in Japan for most of my life…so, I probably know more about Japan than I know about America anymore.

How about you? How familiar are you with Japan and Japanese culture?

What famous Japanese people do you know?
Japanese characters?
How about Japanese food / dishes?
Actors / actresses?
Bands / musicians?
How about Japanese words?
Japanese cities?
Or any other things you know about Japan?

Unusual pizza coupons

In America, does Domino’s Pizza have funny or unusual coupons?

Or is it another “only-in-Japan” thing?

Because,　once again, Domino’s Japan is offering 25% off specials to customers that fit some crazy stipulations.

Some of the funny new Domino’s Japan coupons.

For example, customers in Japan can get 25% off their pizza order if the pizza delivery person sees that they:

- have facial hair (a beard and/or a mustache),
- have “piggy tails“,
- have a last name with four Japanese kanji characters (very few Japanese people have such a long name),
- have a twin sibling,
- are wearing  glamorous clothes,
- are in the eleventh grade (high school ID required),
- have a pet parakeet,
- are wearing a “dorky” T-shirt,
- speak with an accent from another area of Japan (than the one they’re currently in), or
- show a receipt that proves they’ve already ordered a Domino’s pizza earlier that same day.

Coupons can’t be combined in one order…but if someone meets all of the above stipulations, they can get 50% off of their order (the odds of such a person existing are probably extremely slim though).