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April 25, 2024
 

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JAPANESE SNACKS

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Sep 2, 2014
Pretz's granola snacks: close enough to the real thing
Before you get too excited, the new Pretz Granola (¥140) by Glico, which went on sale last week, are nowhere close to the Nature Valley granola bars sold in the United States. While the treat contains bran, cornflakes and nuts, it has a texture less like granola and more like a cookie. It nonetheless packs a crunch and goes down well with a glass of cold milk. Two flavors are available: chocolate, if you want to satisfy your sweets cravings, or raisin, if you prefer to take the healthier route.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Aug 26, 2014
Refuel and refresh at Japan's gourmet motoring rest stops
Whoever said it's better to travel than to arrive must have been traveling in Japan. Just ask the folks who hit the road earlier this month for the o-Bon summer holidays. Sure, the nightly newscasts were filled with horror stories of bumper-to-bumper traffic, but motorists and their families knew that relief lay as close as the next rest area, where they could refuel, refresh — and finally let the kids out of the car.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / DESSERT WATCH
Jul 29, 2014
A Cronut copy that's better than most
With all the convenience stores and bakeries coming up with their own variations on the famous Cronut from New York, there are too many to choose from, but the Croissant Donuts from the Heart Bread Antique stand outside of Seibu Shibuya department store in Tokyo, and indeed the chain's other branches nationwide, are worth trying. Each Croissant Donut is made with layers of crunchy pastry that you can peel away and is topped with green tea, strawberry, chocolate or lemon frosting. And they're a bargain, too: only ¥280 a piece. 21-1 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; www.heart-bread.com.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / DESSERT WATCH
Jul 22, 2014
Harajuku ice-cream shop adds a scoop of science with liquid nitrogen
Newly opened (and tiny) dessert counter 196° Ice Cream in Harajuku isn't making an empty boast when it says that it serves the freshest ice cream in the world. The staff blend raw mixture with cups of liquid nitrogen, and after a minute of whisking the two together, out from the billows of fog comes made-to-order ice cream that's so smooth it melts the moment it hits your tongue. You can choose between premium milk (¥480), sweet chocolate (¥530), creamy mango (¥580) or a seasonal limited-edition flavor, all of which are as fun to watch being made as they are to eat. You'll think twice about regular ice cream forever after. 1-13-21 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; 03-6447-4950; www.drepocke.com. (Angela Erika Kubo)
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Jul 15, 2014
None more black: The new Doritos flavor rocks
The new Rock'n lineup from Doritos features coal-black tortilla chips flavored with pepper and rock salt (¥127), on sale in convenience stores until Aug. 11 with the name Rock'n'Black.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jul 8, 2014
Nakamuraken: refuge from summer in a glass of shaved ice
With months of nothing but sun, Japanese summers can sap your will to live. Be grateful, then, for the arrival of kakigōri (shaved ice). In fact, it's about the only thing to look forward to between now and November.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / DESSERT WATCH
Jul 8, 2014
Maple syrup goes with anything — even fried chicken
The staff at Soul Snacks in Ginza will politely recommend that you move the tiny chicken drumsticks out of the way before you cover your waffle with syrup and butter, but disregard that. As awful as it sounds, the chicken tastes best doused with sweet maple syrup. That combined with the thin waffle that almost melts in your mouth will have you moaning with delight — or maybe it's just an American thing. After your fried chicken and waffles (¥1,200), stop downstairs for a bag of fresh cookies, in flavors ranging from chocolate chip to oatmeal and raisin. (1-2F Ozio Bldg., 5-5-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo; 03-6264-1527; www.soulsnacksjp.com).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Jul 1, 2014
Refreshing summer drink repackaged as a chocolate
One of the best beverages to combat this sticky weather is Kirin Sekai no Kitchen's Salty Lychee drink, which is purported to replenish the minerals and fluids sweat out in Japan's horribly humid summers. And now, in partnership with Glico, Kirin has released a chocolate version (¥138), available in convenience stores. The sweet scent of lychee may be overpowering as you unwrap the packaging, but the flavors of the fruit are subtle and sublime within the white chocolate. No promises about cooling off, mind you.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 10, 2014
The Kyoto neighborhood where dessert is the main course
Kitayama is five stops on the subway from downtown Kyoto, but it might as well be a million miles away for the tourists who trudge around the city in search of Kyoto tropes: temples, shrines, teahouses and geishas who are more than likely tourists dressed up for the day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / DESSERT WATCH
Jun 10, 2014
A chocolate ice cream dessert you may never forget
Eating Avalanche (¥1,350) at the Marunouchi Ozao branch of Belgian patisserie Debailleul is like falling in love. You can't get the treat off your mind and the silly grin off your face. As bitter hot chocolate is poured onto it, the spherical chocolate shell melts and crumbles away like an avalanche, which explains the name of the dessert. Inside you'll find bits of white cookie dough and vanilla ice cream. Warning: This dessert may induce the most powerful foodgasm of your life. (1F Marunouchi Oazo, 1-6-4 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; 03-5224-3565; www.debailleul.jp).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Jun 3, 2014
A delicious treat, if you can find it
In the seven months since its release, over 3.45 million F Style Mochi Ponyo treats have been sold in Three-F convenience stores, and they have become a trending topic of discussion on Twitter. Mochi Ponyo are custard-filled sweets wrapped in soft pastry made of rice flour. Expect to have a hard time finding one: They're so popular that fans snap them up as soon as they're restocked. In addition to the standard custard flavor (¥108), you can try matcha (powdered green tea ¥126) or limited-edition strawberry (¥120).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 29, 2014
The bread that thinks its a pancake
AntenDo bakeries throughout Tokyo are now selling what the company calls Hotcake Pan (¥210) — sweet bread in a baking cup filled with vanilla-bean custard and topped with a thick square of butter. The bread comes with a plastic drop filled with pure Canadian maple syrup. Heat the bread in the microwave for 30 seconds or in a toaster oven for a minute or two, and then pour the maple syrup on top — or better yet, shoot it inside. The end result tastes just like a pancake, and is available only in April. www.antendo.com.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / DESSERT WATCH
Apr 22, 2014
Get in line for Japan's latest Cronut homage
Tokyo may not have a branch of Dominique Ansel, but it does have a Japanese answer to the New York bakery's famous Cronut. The next time you're waiting for a friend in front of Shinjuku's Alta building, grab the titular snack of Croissant Taiyaki (¥210), comprising sweet bean filling wrapped with a buttery pastry crust. You'd better hope your friend arrives late, though — on weekends the line can stretch into the adjacent Shinjuku Station subway entrance and all the way down the stairs. 3-24-3 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; also at Gin no An and Tsukiji Gindaco stores around Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Apr 15, 2014
M&M's get fruity with new Raspberry flavor
A new flavor of one of America's best-selling candies has just hit Japanese convenience stores. You can now pop white, light pink and dark pink raspberry-flavored M&M's (¥100) into your mouth. The candies are cute, but might be a bit too sweet and artificial-tasting for those who prefer something subtler. Unlike other candies that come and go, these raspberry M&M's will be around for a while — Mars Japan says that it will keep them on shelves for at least a year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Apr 8, 2014
Elk: Who doesn't eat soup with their pancakes?
Here's an odd couple: soup and pancakes. But this is how Elk, a small but expanding chain of cafes, advertises itself. The day I ate at Elk the pancake crowd was definitely in the ascendancy; there were a few soup eaters like myself, but we were in the minority. And speaking of minorities, men were so thin on the ground that when another guy came in I thought about sidling over and hanging out with him, but he had his girlfriend with him for that.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Apr 1, 2014
"Puyopuyo Tetris" snacks fall into place in your gummy tummy
Who said that you're not allowed to play with your food? Lion recently released gummy treats based on the insanely addictive new crossover puzzle game "Puyopuyo Tetris" that you just can't help but toy around with. You can put together chewy "Tetris" blocks and cute "Puyopuyo" character-shaped gummies that come in six flavors such as melon, strawberry and soda. The treats cost ¥100 per pack (plus consumption tax, which went up this week, folks), so pick up a few and see what you can create on the dinner table. If you're lucky your pack of treats may contain an elusive kangaroo-shaped gummy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / DESSERT WATCH
Mar 25, 2014
Scoop up a Ben & Jerry's at Kanto supermarkets
No more waiting in long lines at the Ben & Jerry's shops in Tokyo this summer — six flavors of the ice cream can now be found in branches of upscale supermarkets such as Seijo Ishii and Nissin World Delicatessen, some branches of Tsutaya and so on. You can try the popular Cherry Garcia or satisfy your chocolate craving with Chocolate Fudge Brownie anytime you want, priced ¥348 for a 120-ml cup. And good news for those who live in Chiba, Kanagawa and Ibaraki: You can also pick up Ben & Jerry's without having to make the long trek into Tokyo. A list of the 120 outlets, which will be updated as new stores are added, can be viewed online at reizoko.benjerry.jp/shoplist.html.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Mar 18, 2014
Cronut copies hit Japan's convenience stores
No other dessert captivated Americans last year as much as the Cronut, a croissant-donut hybrid that New Yorkers reportedly line up at 4 a.m. to try. The Cronut has sparked imitations throughout the world. One of them includes the Cubic Doughnut, (¥120) available only in Circle K Sunkus convenience stores throughout Japan. They come in two flavors, chocolate crunch and strawberry milk chocolate — and while they are nowhere as crispy as a well-baked croissant, if you pop one in a toaster oven for a few seconds, you'll find yourself with an unusual snack.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Mar 11, 2014
Malebranche: French toast and a dozen matcha confections
I have a bread maker and often have leftover heels of bread, which are ideal for French toast. In theory. In my kitchen, my pain perdu, as the French rightly call it, is more often than not flat, dreary and sans raison d'etre. Which makes the French toast at Malebranche all the better, and mine all the more depressing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / DESSERT WATCH
Mar 11, 2014
Pastry goods the color of White Day
If you're looking to impress a special girl in your life but want to keep things simple and easy on the wallet, Shiseido Parlour launched a line of white sweets this month that will be available until White Day (March 14). The custard pudding (¥451), roll cake (¥546) and éclair (¥367) are all made with eggs with pure-white yolks, which means that everything comes out completely white — something that can't be achieved with the conventional eggs you buy at the supermarket. 1F Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Bldg., 8-8-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo; 03-3572-2147; parlour.shiseido.co.jp.
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Japan’s cannabis market growing rapidly amid regulatory shift
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An AI star seeks to bring self-driving cars to Japan by 2030
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Tokyo issues strong warning on yen intervention as currency dips further
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki speaks during a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and South Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok on the sidelines of IMF and G20 meetings in Washington last week.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
New workers name Shohei Ohtani as 'dream boss' for two years running
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A craft beer crawl through Tokyo’s top bars, brewpubs and dives
If all you drink is Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin, you're depriving yourself of some of the best craft beer Tokyo has to offer — and there sure is a lot of it out there.
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Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
Tsukiji 2030s: A stadium, culinary center and transportation hub
A computer-generated image shows redevelopment plans for the former site of the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.
Hearing the impact of climate change in Okinawa, one bird call at a time
Toshihiro Kinjo (center), a research support technician at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, inspects an audio recording device in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on April 3 as Masako Ogasawara, a research support specialist at OIST, looks on.

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Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
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