“American Quarter Pounder” or “World Whopper”

I wrote about McDonalds Japan‘s “Big America” Quarter-Pounder burger campaign.
(Click here to read it).

They offered the “Big Texas Burger“, then the “New York Burger“, and then the “Hawaiian Burger“. Now they’re offering the final one…the “California Burger“.

Well, to compete, Burger King Japan is selling four different 「世界の美味しさとてつまなくデカイ！ワッパー」 (“World’s Delicious Giant Whoppers“).

 

Rather than a different flavor burger for four different U.S. states, like McDonalds Japan is selling, Burger King Japan‘s new “Whoppers” are four different flavors from four countries.

From 2010 February 1 – 18, they sold the “American flavor 「バーベキューワッパー」 (“BBQ Whopper“),
and then from 2010 February 19 – March 4, they sold the “Malaysian flavor” 「ブラックペッパーワッパー」 (“Black Pepper Whopper“).
Currently they are selling the 「スパイシーイタリアンワッパー」 (“Spicy Italian Whopper“).
And the final one will be the “Japanese flavor” 「てりやきワッパー」 (“Teriyaki Whopper“), which will be offered beginning 2010 March 19.

Burger King Japan has had unique Whopper burgers before…
Click here for my post about their “Bourbon Whopper“, and
Click here for my post about their “Whopper 7“.

Big America

McDonalds Japan will be offering four new versions of their “Quarter Pounder” burger starting next month.
Only one of the new burgers will be available at a time though.

All four of the new burgers are known as “Big America burgers. And individually they are: “Texas Burger“, “New York Burger“, “California Burger“, and “Hawaiian Burger“.

The first of the four that will be available is the “Texas Burger“. It will be available starting on 2010 January 15.
It has bacon and BBQ sauce.

Next will be the “New York Burger“. It will go on sale in early February 2010.
It’ll be like a BLT meets a Quarter Pounder“…bacon, lettuce and tomato on the burger.

Then in late February 2010, the “California Burger” will be the one available.
It’ll have Monterrey Jack cheese.

And finally, in March 2010, the “Hawaiian Burger” will be on the menu.
It’ll have a egg and is called a Hawaiian Loco-moco style burger.

On the McDonalds Japan website, visitors an click a button if they intend to try all four of the Big America burgers. When I checked the site, it said that “105,423 people will try all four burgers“.

To me, none of them sound all that special. I don’t think I’ll buy any of them.
How about you? Which of them sounds good to you? Would you try all four?

Are these burgers available at McDonalds in your country…or is it only in Japan?

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Anyways, the Xmas decorations went down yesterday in Japan and were replaced with the traditional Japanese New Years decorations.

New Years is Japan’s biggest holiday.

Here’s a New Years window display at a store that my family and I went to today.

And while we were out, we passed a little league baseball game near the river:

Quarter Pounder

When I came to Japan, McDonalds Japan had quite a different menu from the McDonalds® in America. It’s still different…but it seems to be becoming more and more similar.

In the 1990’s, McDonalds® in Japan didn’t have any really large burgers, drinks or fries. The food was sold in smaller sizes…a “large cola”, for example, at McDonalds® Japan seemed to about the size of a “medium” at the U.S. McDonalds®. Japanese people who visited America often would be surprised at the size of the food portions at restaurants there.

Also, McDonalds® here has always had some items on the menu that are unique to Japan…some of which are seasonal (such as the “Lettuce Pepper Burger” and the 月見バーガー (“Tsukimi Burger” *) and others are always on the menu (such as the 「てりやきマック・バーガー」 (“Teriyaki Mac Burger“)).

(* The 月見バーガー (“Tsukimi Burger“) is available every Autumn at McDonalds® in Japan. 月見 (Tsukimi) is a traditional Autumn moon festival. (Click here to visit “McDonalds Japan’s Tsukimi Burger page).)

But recently, McDonalds® Japan has added some larger “American style” burgers to their menu. First, was the 「メガマック (“Mega-Mac“)…with four beef patties!

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And more recently, McDonalds® Japan has brought the 「クォーターパウンダー」 (“Quarter-Pounder“)…and even the 「ダブルクォーターパウンダー」 (“Double Quarter-Pounder“) from America and added them to their menus here! (Japan doesn’t use the American system of measure…so noone here knows that the name “Quarter-Pounder” means that the burger is a ¼ pound of beef (about 114 grams)).

In addition to adding the 「クォーターパウンダー」 (“Quarter-Pounder“) to their menu in Japan. McDonalds® Japan has opened two Quarter Pounder Shops in Tokyo. These are McDonalds® owned…but the famous McDonalds® logo is nowhere on or in the stores! And the menu at these Quarter Pounder Shops consist of only two items: the 「クォーターパウンダー」 (“Quarter-Pounder“) and the 「ダブルクォーターパウンダー」 (“Double Quarter-Pounder“).
Click here to see the Quarter Pounder Shop website (日本語 (Japanese) only).

Due to McDonalds® success with these bigger burgers, other fast-food restaurants in Japan have also begun to include larger burgers in their menus now, too.
I think Japanese people should eat less fast-food and more tradional Japanese food.

I do like McDonalds® also, though…but we don’t eat any of those giant burgers. When we go to McDonalds®, it’s just for a regular size burger and coffee (cola or tea for the kids).
McDonalds® Japan has a “¥100” menu (about US $1.05*) with things like coffee, ice cream, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, McPork burger, etc all for ¥100. (Recently, some items on this menu, such as the cheeseburger and McPork, have gone up in price to ¥120 (about US $1.26*)).
(* The U.S. Dollar has weakened against the Japanese Yen recently).

If you want to see McDonalds® Japan’s menu…click here (it’s all in 日本語 (Japanese)).

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What type of 携帯電話 (cellular phone) do you use? Does it have alot of functions?
I use the most popular company in Japan: NTT DoCoMo.
My phone’s kinda old…so it doesn’t have the latest functions. But I don’t care. All I need is Email, Internet and the phone.
Like most people here, I mainly use my 携帯電話 (cellular phone) to send and receive emails. But I also use a website on it to check the train schedules.
My 携帯電話 (cellular phone) also has a photo camera and video camera that I occasionally use…and GPS that I never use.

Nowadays, people in Japan use their phone as a “wallet” (make purchases, including train fare, like a debit card), to watch TV, and like an I-pod®…in addition to email and internet.
Those functions are popular in Japan now.

This isn’t my 携帯電話 (cellular phone)…but it’s a popular style now:

Nokia, the Finnish cell-phone company, seems to be make very popular cell-phones in every country…except Japan.

Nokia came to Japan a couple of years ago with big plans to take over the lucrative Japanese market. But the Japanese were unimpressed with Nokia‘s products and design. I guess Nokia didn’t do enough market research before coming here and they didn’t offer what is popular here.
They just announced that they’re leaving Japan.
Vodafone, the large English cell-phone company, had a similar experience a few years ago. This company also, it seems, is quite popular overseas…so they came to Japan with high-hopes.
Two years ago, Vodafone Japan was bought out by a Japanese company called Softbank…and is currently the number two 携帯電話 (cellular phone) provider in Japan (NTT DoCoMo, the company I use, is number one here).