Snack Fan Japan

Learn Travel Japanese Really Quickly

2011-10-19T10:17:00.001+09:00

The best way to get loads of lovely Japanese snacks in to come to Japan. One reason that people don't come to Japan is that they believe the language will be a problem. So.... How do you learn enough Japanese to stay out of trouble, or to get into trouble if that's what you want...

Two weeks ago I met a Canadian called Don Maybin at an English teaching conference. Over the past couple of years he's been building a language study system called "Sulantra" which stands for "Survival Language Training." Sulantra uses Maybin's intensive training system that he's been developing and testing over the past 30 years.

Each course is only 10 dollars so I signed up for the Chinese one to see if I could actually talk to the staff in my local Chinese restaurant in Mandarin instead of a mixture of bad Japanese and slightly better English. I was amazed at how easy it was to learn using the system and, because all the vocabulary and phrases are reused as you progress, it was easy to remember most of what I had studied.

The thing I really like about Sulantra is that the courses drill "survival phrases" into your brain such as "Please say that again.", "Please speak more slowly.", "What does this mean?". Using these survival phrases almost becomes a reflex action so that when you are in a shop or whatever and you're trying to buy some awesome new Pocky you have these phrases to fall back on if you get into trouble.

Anyway, the basic course is 10 USD and takes about 30 hours (although you have unlimited access) so it's really worth giving the Japanese course a try; you'll be buying a green tea Kit Kat in no time.
Learn Travel Japanese Really Quickly
(There's also a bunch of other languages including Chinese, Turkish and Korean.)
Please post a comment to say how you got on with the course, and whether you feel it was worth 10 bucks!

Look: Strange Japanese French Chocolate

2011-01-20T09:00:00.002+09:00

"Japonisme" is a French term meaning the influence of Japanese art on the art of West. The term "strange Japanese French chocolate" refers to this strange strawberry-flavoured, French-dessert-inspired chocolate I bought at my local supermarket.(sic)

The box contained three pieces each of four flavours of chocolate: strawberry mousse, strawberry cheese, strawberry champagne dessert and strawberry mille feuilles. There was very little difference in taste but it was nice to be given at least the illusion of choice. Buy more. Stop thinking. Be happy.

Best Japanese Snacks

2011-01-12T10:00:00.000+09:00

What are the best Japanese snacks that money can buy? This is a question that Snack Fan Japan will be asking, and answering in 2011. Are there any crazy Japanese snacks that you've heard of and would like to know more about? If so, just provide some details as a comment to this post, and the Snack Fan Japan team will do the rest.

Pepsi Shiso: Choice Of A Newer Generation?

2010-12-29T16:00:00.000+09:00

Last summer Pepsi trialled a new drink: perilla-flavoured Pepsi. Perilla is also known as Japanese basil. In Japanese it's called Shiso.

The drink itself was pretty disgusting unlike Pepsi Hawaiian Blue which was the novelty Pepsi of 2008. Having said that, I hope Pepsi Shiso comes back in 2011 for the simple reason that it can be used to clean the contacts on smart cards.

Dave Green from NTK, SnackSpot and Shift Run Stop

2010-12-25T10:00:00.002+09:00

My local newspaper(The Yomiuri Shimbun) ran a special feature on the British tech journalist Dave Green, who used to be an editor of Amiga Power magazine, and who also happens to be an expert on snacks. I asked a friend to translate it from Japanese for me and, in an effort to avoid copyright issues, I've rewritten it as a Dave Green FAQ.

What is Dave Green's day job?
He is a foreman in a two-way mirror factory.

Where did Dave Green come from?
The same place as everybody else.

What is Dave Green's favourite colour?
Green.

What did Dave Green do in the war?
He co-wrote a weekly email newsletter with Danny O'Brien called "Now That's Knowledge!".

What is Dave Green's favourite band?
The Clash.

Which food is Dave Green allergic to?
Red Lead.(AKA triplumbic tetroxide)

What is Dave Green's full name?
David Green.

How many Dave Greens does it take to operate a universal Turing machine?
Two: one to read, write and erase the symbols on the squares, and one to take care of any snack-related tasks.

What is the opposite of Dave Green?
David Green

Where does Dave Green live?
Dave Green divides his time between North London and Greenland.(maybe this is a tax dodge?)

What is Dave Green's favourite film?
THX-1138:4EB.

Who would win in a fight between Dave Green and Sarah Green?
Dave Green.

Who does Dave Green belong to?
The Internets.

What would Dave Green do in a fire?
Put it out and then walk away, shaking his head.

Which snack is Dave Green (wrongly) credited with creating?
Rainbow pretzel drops.

What does Dave Green collect?
Dave Green collects other people's collections.

Which celebrity does Dave Green most resemble?
Himself.

What is remarkable about Dave Green's brother, Simon Green?
He is made entirely from chocolate.

How can one contact Dave Green?
Direct contact is impossible, but several Twitter hashtags can be used to contact him indirectly. Unfortunately, none of them is reproducible here.

What is Dave Green's favourite spice?
The spice of life.

The Future Is Here: Cake In Choco

2009-04-27T10:27:00.002+09:00

Throughout the history of humankind, scientists have tried to push back the boundaries of human existence, squeezing "impossible" into an increasingly small bottle. Just a few years ago it was impossible to teleport, read minds, buy Krusty Cream donuts in Tokyo or speak French. All these things are now possible, thanks to science.

Cake In Choco is likely to change the way we eat on the most fundamental of levels. It is the future, and it refuses to be described with the metaphors of the past. We simply don't have a language that is powerful enough to discuss it with. If you've ever written a list of impossible things, at the very least you'll need to cross out the item: "put cake into a piece of chocolate".

Cake In Choco is, like many Japanese snacks, surprisingly good. It shouldn't work, but it does. You get all of the benefit of eating cake, chocolate and chocolate cake, without the crumbs. My advice is: don't delay, buy Cake In Choco today!

Tadaima!

2009-04-22T08:50:00.000+09:00

Snack Fan Japan is back on Twitter after being suspended for "aggressive following". Thanks to all of those who sent kind messages of support.

I've recently bought and consumed enough Japanese snacks to kill a horse. A bunch of updates will, therefore, be appearing soon including "Cake In Choco", "Fizzy Fanta Jelly Drink", "Cookiest Kit-Kat" and "Walky Walky".

Snack Fan Japan will continue to push back the boundaries of the snack-related Web 2.0 New Media blogsphere. We'll also eat lots of snacks...

Stay cool, you crazy kids!

-Karamoon

Daigaku Imo KitKat

2009-04-02T12:41:00.005+09:00

It is well-known that the good people of Nestle spend most of their time killing babies in Africa, it is less well-known that they somehow find enough time to invent new flavors of KitKat for the Japanese market on an almost monthly basis.

Japan-based blogger Umijin has sent us these great photos of the fabled Daigaku Imo KitKat, which is certainly one of the more peculiar KitKats.

In Japanese "daigaku" means university and "imo" means potato. "Daigaku imo" therefore, refers to candied sweet potato. WTF? The names seems to come from the fact that candied sweet potatoes were commonly sold outside universities.

Many thanks to Umijin for the photos. Check out his blog here: mackenchi.blogspot.com/ and Twitter feed here: twitter.com/umijin

Snack Fan Japan Has Returned!

2009-04-01T08:06:00.000+09:00

After a long yasumi, Snack Fan Japan is back, bringing you all the latest snacks from Tokyo and beyond.

Please click the "Stumble It!" buttons if you want to tell other people about Snack Fan Japan, and please comment on the posts!

- Karamoon

Jucy Gumi

2007-07-30T01:14:00.000+09:00

Pepsi Ice Cucumber

2007-06-25T04:09:00.001+09:00

Pepsi Ice Cucumber is the limited product this summer in Japan.
"Cucumber" is the vegetable you know. "Pepsi" is the drink you've probably drunk at least once in your life. But it's hard to imagine how Pepsi and cucumber mixed together...
I had imagined very disgusting taste but it turned out quite refreshing good taste!
It's more like fizzy melon soda but weaken melon taste, no Pepsi taste at all except that it's fizzy.
So it should be called "cucumber soda"!
The taste reminded me of "cream soda" which you can find classic Japanese coffee house "Kissaten" (see pic. No.2)
It seems that this fascinating drink is not advertised so much.
Karamoon told about it finding somewhere on the Internet but I had never heard about it until then. But actually it's sold in many convenience stores now in Japan.

Pocky: King Of The Snacks

2007-06-20T19:45:00.000+09:00

Biscuit sticks partly-coated in choco-chemicals. Pocky is fucked-up, but that's not a reason to avoid it.

A typical box of Pocky contains 4 packets of Pocky, each containing 5 Pocky sticks. Share the choco sticks among your friends and enemies. Eat them under the cover of darkness, when the waxing moon shows your blood to be black, and the whispers in your ear fill your heart and mind with anticipation of something that is at once terrifying and exhilarating. Japanese snacks are strange. There's not much more that can be said.

Milk Cocoa Cake

2007-06-18T22:17:00.000+09:00

These chocolate cakes look like they should be slightly harsh. On eating one (or all six) you'll find that they are slightly harsh. There's just something wrong about them; slightly too bitter, tasting like residues one might find after a fire in a plastics factory, they consist largely of stale air and leave the eater disappointed and cynical.

Hurry -Curry-Tastic

2007-05-25T14:58:00.000+09:00

If you are in a hurry, and fancy some curry, you should probably take a long, hard look at your life and address whatever it is in your psyche that makes you feel you don't have enough time to spend on preparing and eating a proper meal at a sensible pace. Alternatively you could just eat some of this instant curry. It's surprisingly good, like most convenience food in Japan.

Lazy Rice

2007-05-15T21:19:00.000+09:00

This rice is so lazy! It's perfect for lazy people. I can't believe I used to eat this kind of thing...

I don't usually think of rice as a snack, but this rice is so quick and evil that it wins a place on Snack Fan Japan. You just stick it in the microwave or boil for a few minutes. You should feel bad if you eat this kind of thing. Really.

Best served with boil-in-the-bag curry.

Unique Flavour Crisps

2006-11-05T02:54:00.000+09:00

I picked up two flavour crisps which you might not find in western countries.
"Wasa-beef" (Wasabi-Japanese horseradish & Beef) and "Pizza Potato".
Pizza is not Japanese food so there might be pizza flovor crisps sold in other countries but the inside the pack is different. There are bits of cheese (Parmesan & cheddar, the pack says) on top of the each crisps. I can never stop eating until I finish all of the pack.
"Wasa-beef" is also yummy that you can't stop eating. My colleague who is also a part-time flight attendant told me this. "Wasa-beef" got popular among Philippina flight attendants who fly to Japan by word of mouth. So "Wasa-beef" is always out of stock in the convenient stors around Tokyo International Airpot.

Japanese Instant Bowl-noodles

2006-02-18T15:50:00.000+09:00

Even though it's Japanese, of course instant noodles are not healthy but they would make you happy when you are too busy and starving to cook and there is nothing to cook. Here is the sample of normal priced 300yen(about 2.5USD/1.5GBP. The cheapests are 1USD/0.6GBP) instant bowl-ramen(Chinese noodles developed as Japanese style food). It has dried noodles and theree packets of seasoning powder with dried vegetable, "cha-shu"(cooked pork in soy-sause) with bamboo-shoot and soup paste.
The soup paste contains a lot of fat to make the taste rich. I don't recommend emptying all the fat from the packet. You'll still get rich enough soup. I often add dried seaweed which become edible just putting in the hot soup. The taste of this ramen soup is fatty soy sause.

Kimchee Instant Noodles

2006-02-12T08:44:00.000+09:00

Just in case some of you wanted to see what very cheap kimchee noodles look like...

White Rabbit Creamy Candies

2006-02-12T07:10:00.000+09:00

Not Japanese, and probably not eaten in Japan... So what are they doing on Snack Fan Japan??!?!?

Anyway, White Rabbit Creamy Candies are hard white sweets that don't taste as milky as they look. They are made from cane sugar, liquid glucose, butter and milk.

I buy these at a small Chinese supermarket. The packet claims they are: "Full of creamy flavour, high in nutritive value". Hackers everywhere should be eating them, and possibly are.

Korean Instant Noodles

2006-02-09T07:49:00.000+09:00

Scientists state that the likelihood of Korea being part of Japan is very low. That doesn't change the fact that I've eaten Korean noodles recently. I sampled three flavours.

First up are Chacharoni noodles, made by Samyang Foods. The packet states "This is a Chinese-Korean style noodle which is made by soy bean paste and served at Chinese restaurants in Korea." The instructions said to boil the noodles, drain them, and then mix in the paste and freeze-dried vegetables. There was no mention of adding more water, but I had to because it looked too harsh to consider eating. The flavour was pretty poor and the end result was only just about edible. I shall not be buying them again, at least not to eat myself...

The next noodles I ate were chicken flavour noodles made by Paldo. They were typical instant noodles, quite salty and quite edible. I added some cooked chicken and some chili sauce which improved them a lot.

The final noodles I tried were kimchi flavour noodles made by Samyang Foods. Kimchee is a type of pickled cabbage and chili. It's added to almost every Korean food. These noodles were by far the best. Lots of flavour, very spicy and great noodles(ramen type)

In general, it's probably best not to eat instant noodles. They are full of bad chemicals, taste unpleasant and are not very nutricious.

For Chocoholics

2006-01-26T21:22:00.000+09:00

The Strawberry chocolate is one of my favourite since I was a kid not being able to count money properly to buy it. You feel strawberry seed texture like you are eating real strawberries with chocolate! Crunky has crispy malt in chocolate.

Kinoko no yama(Mashroom Mountain) and Takenoko no sato(Banbooshoot woods) are cute shaped chocolate on cracker mashroom stem and on biscuit bambooshoot center.

They have been all regular-sold popular items throughout a year for more than 30years, although a lot of seasonal new products are always launched in the market.

Snack Fan Japan Is Here!

2006-01-25T19:45:00.000+09:00

Japanese snacks rule. Fuel for hackers, skateboarders and gamers, Japanese snacks such as Pocky, Crunky and Cup Ramen have become established as some of the most important things mankind has ever created.