Kit-Kats: The Odd

These are my favorite Kit Kats. Not necessarily because of their taste but because you have to wonder, "Who thought this was a good idea? Who came up with this flavor?" Seriously, imagine what an awesome job this would be, coming up with new flavors for Japanese Kit Kats.



You could do a lot with flowers. This is the rose (ロ－ス") Kit Kat. If this Kit Kat had been white chocolate, I'm sure it would have gone with the Bad flavors. But it was milk chocolate, and all was well. I liked this flavor - it was subtle, not too sweet, and strangely appealing. Flowery, yes, but no nasty aftertaste like the jasmine tea one. It was just not a flavor I associated with Kit Kats. But, oh, how that has been remedied.

How do I explain ramune (ラムネ)? The word originates from English's "lemonade" and it's a kind of cidery drink. But it comes in different flavors, not just lemon. I've never actually tried ramune (though, after this Kit Kat, I mean to), but I'm told it's a fizzy cider drink. If you look at the Kit Kat wrapper, you will see a green bottle with a blue ball near the top. Apparently, this is a specific type of bottle used only for ramune, and it's got a little marble inside it that floats on the liquid. Why? Just for the hell of it, as far as I can tell.

This was a very fun Kit Kat. First, it's blue. (It's also white chocolate, but milk chocolate would NOT have worked with this flavor, so it's okay.) Blue is easily the most awesome Kit Kat color I've seen thus far. Second, it was fizzy. Like, carbonated soda fizzy. How fun is that? It's a Kit Kat that fizzes in your mouth! Just when I thought Kit Kats couldn't get any better. Third, it tasted good. How's that for amazing?

Here's an interesting one. Most of my students and co-workers think this Kit Kat obsession of mine is charming or cute. I got in the habit of showing Takeda-san any new Kit Kats I found. When she moved back to Sapporo, her father drove down to help her, and she asked him to bring me Sapporo's signature Kit Kat. (Have I mentioned that my Japanese friends and co-workers are beyond awesome? Because they are.) This is a grilled corn (やきもろこし) Kit Kat. Weird, but tasty. In fall and winter, vendors all over Sapporo sell this delectable treat, so it's only right that this should be their flavor. It's much better than a squid flavor, which is the other thing that Sapporo is supposedly famous for (as far as food goes). I'm still waiting for miso flavor.

And this one is just fun: hot chili pepper flavor! This is the first dark chocolate Kit Kat I've had, but logic dictates that spicy chocolate must be dark. Milk chocolate just can't do it justice. I got this one in Nagano (along with the apple and the grape, which seem positively mundane compared to this), and I shared it with one of my more advanced classes. It was a hit, and now whenever I go somewhere, they ask me what kind of Kit Kats I found. One of them even occasionally brings me Kit Kats to see if I've had them before (the answer is usually yes, but I appreciate her curiousity).

Last, I present two Kit Kats that are appropriate for summer: lemon vinegar (レモンビネガー) and apple vinegar (アップルビネガー). Yes, vinegar. It's actually closer to a cider flavor (rather like what's pictured on the apple vinegar box), but it does have a slightly vinegary taste that goes well with the chocolate. It's a very cool flavor, which is why it's so good for summer. The lemon flavor was better than the apple flavor, maybe because it was less cidery. I actually really enjoyed the lemon flavor and bought a couple of bags to eat over the summer. It's been a while since I saw the lemon, but the apple is still available at a store in the Loc City mall.

And with that, I am now caught up with my Kit Kat discoveries. For now. Autumn is fast-approaching, and I have no doubt that more exciting (and/or odd) flavors will be appearing soon. In the meantime, I can get back to blogging about more important things, like travel and sightseeing and actual food!

Kit-Kats: The Bad

So, we saw the good. Unfortunately, some Kit Kats just don't have what it takes to be considered delicious. To be honest, some of them are downright yucky. It baffles the mind, doesn't it?

Surely combining strawberry cheesecake with Kit Kat marvelousness should create something truly fantastic! Right? Er, not according to my taste buds. Granted, it's white chocolate, and I'm not keen on it anyway, but this Kit Kat was particularly displeasing to me. It's not the worst flavor I've ever had (molasses Kit Kat, I'm looking at you, and YOU were milk chocolate, so don't EVEN try to make excuses), but it has its place in the bottom ten.

Yes, I rank the Kit Kats. So?

Now, part of it probably may be because I just don't like certain flavors. Take Mr. Espresso here. I did not have high hopes for this Kit Kat because I don't like espresso, and the last espresso-y Kit Kat I had was the tiramisu, which was just nasty (that one probably ranks #2 on the worst list). And I was right. Perhaps someone loving espresso would also love this Kit Kat, but for me, it was a one-time thing, baby.

Also, take a look at how unappetizing it is:

Could it be any blander? Beige Kit Kats are a crime against humanity. Note that it almost looks like it's not white chocolate. But it is! It is! Sneak.

But enough picking on white chocolate. Milk chocolate has its bad flavors too. Isn't this a pretty box? And it sounds nice, too: jasmine tea. Ah, jasmine tea is nice! It's refreshing, yeah? Good for a hot summer day. Okay, so the chocolate is melty, but still - jasmine tea! Nice!

And then you put it in your mouth. Bleh! Might as well just rename this one jasmine and be done with it. There's no tea flavor here, it's just jasmine, and jasmine hangs around for a while with a severe aftertaste. Granted, some flowers have a nice taste to them: lavender is good, violet is not so bad, and rose can be quite pleasant. Jasmine, however, should be left well enough alone. Stick to tea, jasmine. We'll appreciate you more that way. You and chocolate just don't get along all that well.

Speaking of tea . . .

Don't get me wrong, I like green tea. And I love matcha-flavored things. But when it comes to Kit Kats, I'll leave it rather than take it. It's the only Kit Kat I've eaten that tastes . . . chalky. Sometimes matcha has that chalky aftertaste to it, but this one was stronger than usual. And take note: it's white chocolate. It's a nifty electric green color, but it's still white chocolate.

This one was milk chocolate, but it still wasn't that great:

Well, it's a short list, but there you have the less-than-spectacular, the Kit Kats that missed the mark. It just proves that nothing is perfect, not even variously flavored chocolate treats.

Next up, we will examine the weird and the wonderful, the outlandish and fantastic. The Kit Kats that make you say, "Huh?"

Kit-Kats: The Good

I have been a bad poster lately, but my greatest blogging sin has been neglecting to post my Kit Kat updates. I have over a dozen Kit Kats to introduce to the world (or the small amount of people who read this blog, whichever is more realistic), and so I've broken them down in three posts.

Behold, Part Primus: The Good. AKA, the Worth Buying, Hoarding, and Consuming at a Slow, Langorous and Enjoyable Pace.

First up is the kinako Kit Kat, which comes in both mini and BIG sizes. Kinako (きなこ) is soybean flour, made after the soybeans have been roasted. It's a little nutty in taste, comparable to not-so-salty peanut butter. There's a popular sweet treat called warabimochi that uses kinako - I've been told that in the Kansai area, it's sold from trucks like ice cream in the States, but I'm not sure how willing I am to believe it. Although, warabimochi is definitely delicious.

Anyway, as to the Kit Kat variety of kinako, it is also yummy, and I enjoyed it. It has a bit of an old-fashioned feel to it, almost nostalgic in a way. I imagine that it could be considered a comfort food of sorts. Most Japanese I've talked to about it absolutely love it and have fond memories of eating kinako sweets as children. They were all very pleased when I mentioned this Kit Kat.

This Kit Kat appears to be involved in the promotion of a concert or a band or something of the kind. I'm not entirely sure what, partly because I can't read most of it and partly because I was more interested in the flavor: sakuranbo (さくらんぼ), or cherry. As you can see from the box, the Kit Kat itself was a pretty pastel pink; it would be the perfect treat for a Breast Cancer Awareness function. If the packaging was different, of course. The flavor wasn't too powerful, just a subtle hint of cherry. I only saw this flavor in one convenient store, and I'm sorry I didn't buy more when I had the chance.

This is one of the most recent discoveries I've made in the ever-exciting world of Kit Kat flavors: mango pudding (マンゴ　プリン). I'm not a great fan of Kit Kats of amazing colors because they're white chocolate and therefore inferior, but I am enamored of the mango pudding's brilliant orange color. My camera did a poor job of capturing this wonderful shade of mango (with flash, without flash - it didn't matter). The taste is not so astounding, but it's yummy enough.

This is the remarkable ume soda (うめ　ソダ) flavor, which I had my doubts about. Not that I don't like ume soda, but it's not exactly something that you connect with Kit Kats. It has a somewhat bubbly feel to it, not unlike the effect of carbonation. The fizziness really made it that much tastier. It offset the unpleasantness of the whole white chocolate thing. This was another cheerfully colored Kit Kat, comparable to the green parts of the ume (plums) on the box. I fully intended to take a picture of the Kit Kat itself, but I forgot, and I haven't gotten around to buying another box.

This is a souvenir box of apple (りんご) Kit Kats, which I bought in Nagano. Apparently, Nagano-prefecture is somewhat famous for apples and grapes (see below - also, why, then are there no peanut Kit Kats in Chiba? Can I make requests?), so this is one of their omiyage sets. I adore apple Kit Kats. They taste so crisp and refreshing - just like apples! Okay, just like apples with chocolate, but there's nothing wrong with that.

This was another omiyage set from Nagano, flavored of the big purple grapes (ぶど) - not to be confused with those sissy little green "muscats from Alexandria." (need a refresher? they were in my first Kit Kat post) The muscat grape Kit Kat was made of white chocolate and mediocrity. There was nothing special about it. These, however, were milk chocolate and heavily scented and just downright marvelous. When a piece of chocolate makes you feel like you've just bitten into a juicy fruit, you know you have something special. This flavor has a firm spot in the top ten.

And thus concludes this portion of my Kit Kat update. Stay tuned for more.

P.S. to Heather (I know you're reading this): if you and the girls aren't practicing your kana, I'll be very disappointed!

just making sure everything's in working order

Come summertime, a large number of Japanese companies require their employees to have annual medical check-ups. GEOS is one of these. This is a good thing (I guess) because if I wasn't forced to do this, there's no telling when I would do it on my own. Probably never. At least it's fairly simple, requiring only height/weight measurements, blood pressure check, sight/hearing check, x-ray, and urinalysis.

I'm not sure why x-rays are required, but I thought it was cool anyway because I don't ever remember have any part of my body x-rayed. Only teeth, and that's just downright dull. Also, my insides are neat. The doctor showed me my heart and lungs, though it was hard to tell they were my lungs because they were so clean and clear. There are no spots on my insides. The doctor was very pleased.

Interesting note: the doctor did everything. In the States, nurses do the brunt of the work (in my opinion) and the doctor just comes in to poke at you and sign the paper. This is my experience. Here (and, oddly enough, in Puerto Rico), the doctor did all of the tests and measurements. The nurse assisted, mainly by holding things and showing me to the bathroom. Also, the doctor spoke some English and was pleased to know I'm from Florida, because, of course, he'd been to Orlando in years past.

It was a very fast doctor's visit; it took all of maybe 40 minutes. I got a clean bill of health, except for "excess weight." Yeah, I know. I'm working on it. To show how far I've come since my heavy high school days, this did not fill me with overwhelming self-loathing. Rather, I was amused, because I was thinking, 'Yeah, you should have seen that number two years ago, pal.' Granted, my weight is not where I'd like it to be, but I AM working on it. Also, in my defense, the measurement was taken in the middle of the day, only two hours after a huge lunch, and during a particularly bloated period of my cycle. None of these are ideal for weighing. I was a full 3 kilograms heavier than when I weighed myself that morning.

I have gained a little weight since moving to Matsudo, and it's because of a number of things. I'm riding my bike less, so that's a loss of aerobic activity. I am walking and using the stairs everyday, but that's only developed muscles in my thighs and calves, which probably accounts for the gain. I'm doing weights in my apartment at night 2-3 nights a week, so my triceps and biceps are a little more defined too. I've lost inches around my waist and hips, and that means more to me than anything else. But I'll be much happier when I can go back to riding my bike 30-60 minutes a day.

My blood pressure is normal, so all in all, I can't complain. And I feel great. I haven't had any muscle aches or body pain in months, and going up all those stairs has done nice things for my endurance.

So, to reward myself, I went shopping. Not for food (yay, me!). I usually go to the Lala Port at Kashiwa-noha-campus, but Mio-sensei suggested I go to Nagareyama's Otakanomori instead. So, I did.

Otakanomori is much bigger that the Lala Port and also not so Americanized. Lala Ports tend to be (in my experience) very similar to American malls, big and airy and open and filled with children. Otakanomori seems to cater to a more sophisticated crowd. It's not cave-like, but it has lower ceilings and fewer windows. It oozes style. It's a mall that doesn't feel like a mall.

I made wonderful discoveries in Otakanomori. A Build-A-Bear (because "a bear hug is understood in ANY language!"), a Cold Stone Creamery, a New York-style bagel shop, a Baskin Robbins, and a gorgeous movie theater. Also, more expensive clothing stores than you can shake a stick at. Best of all is a Kinokuniya, without a doubt my favorite Japanese bookstore. This one had a terribly small English section, but it was still nice to peruse. I bought a kanji workbook to improve my reading skills. And then I went over to the cd/dvd section and bought myself a new pair of earbuds because my old pair is falling apart. These are easily the best things that happened to me all day. I had no idea that my old pair sucked so much until I put these on.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, even though it rained on my all the way home, and I've got a blister on my left foot because I wore my new sandals instead of my tennis shoes. The clinic I went to was in Minami-Moriya, and exploring that area has only endeared me to Moriya as a whole. I saw a lot of apartment buildings with "tenants wanted" signs, so I'm going to talk to Mio-sensei about inquiring after some of them. It would be nice to live there - the train station is so tiny and cute, and it's a short ride to Moriya that way. By foot or bike, it's maybe three miles, which would definitely make for a healthier lifestyle. I'm also thinking that the apartments may be cheaper than in Moriya proper because there's no Tsukuba Express to drive up prices. We'll see.

For now, enjoy some pictures of south Moriya.

the barely there platform

the tiny, tiny train station
proof that Moriya really is countryside

Non-Japanese Travel Journal: Florida

First, let it be said that I don't get homesick. In order to be homesick, one must have a permanent home, and it's been a long time since I had a home that I considered permanent. Home is where I am right now - I carry it with me, inside of me, because that won't change. My environment may change (and I prefer it to change), but I've got my memories, and that's enough. I don't waste a lot of time or energy on sentimentalism or nostalgia.

I didn't to back to Florida because I was homesick. I went because I had the chance to go, reasons to go, people to see, and things to do. Also, because I don't know when I'll be going back, and I have no desire to return any time soon. Returning to Florida is almost like taking a step backward, and I don't like backtracking. It's a waste.

Okay, waste is a bad word, and it doesn't quite have the meaning I want. It's more apropos to say that there are countless places in the world to see and limited time to do it in. If I'm going to use my free time to travel, I want it to be to someplace I've never been before, to experience something new. Florida is familiar and therefore comfortable, and it's too easy to fall into a nostalgic state of mind: "oh, remember how fun it was to . . . " or "how about all the good times we had at . . . " or "wasn't it funny when . . ." or "I sure miss . . . " Once you start visiting the past in your head, it makes it that much harder to appreciate the present and make something of the future. I'm too young for nostalgia, not when I've got so much more living to do.

Not that there's plenty of goodness in Florida to encourage visiting it. There is the following:

those beautiful natural settings

the never-a-dull-moment weather

the delicious (non-commercialized) food

silly friends

and, last but not least, family

Do I dislike Florida (or the United States)? No, of course not. There's still a lot of the States that I'd like to see. Will I live there again? The answer right now is probably not. It's not that I want to avoid comfortability and familiarity - I want to avoid complacency. It's too easy to start taking things for granted, to expect that this is the way things will always be. Familiarity is nice, but it doesn't make things wonderful. And I've found that I can be perfectly comfortable in a place that is foreign to me. That made me realize that I spent a long time in a place that no longer felt comfortable, even though I'd lived most of my life there.

So, for me, going back to Florida wasn't like going home. It was like going through a photo album and realizing how much has changed - both in yourself and in others - and appreciating the past while at the same time not wanting to relive it. And honestly, I prefer it this way.

how can you have a picnic without any sun?

Well, we managed it somehow.

Our school held a picnic on the 28th, and the sun never came out once. The forecast had called for a 60% chance of rain, but it didn't start until 4pm, at which point the picnic was coming to an end anyway. The clouds disappointed me a little, but everyone else seemed a little relieved by the weather.

They all thought I was kind of crazy to suggest a summer picnic anyway. Every day for the past three weeks, everyone has come in complaining about the heat. This has amused me a great deal. Because while it is somewhat hot and humid, it's nothing compared to a Florida summer. As I told some of my higher-level students, "Sure, it's hot. But it ain't *that* hot." As for the humidity, eh. There's not much wind unless it's raining, so everything's all hazy and a bit muggy. Until this week, the rainy season hasn't been all that impressive: it would rain maybe three days out of seven. Even this week, it's been more cloudy than rainy. The way people talked about it, I'd expected rain five days out of seven. But most people I've asked say this is normal. Well, everything's relative, isn't it?

For another thing, the sun isn't as strong here, but maybe that's just me too. Japanese women seem terrified of getting even a little sun - I've never seen so many cardigans and long-sleeved shirts worn in the summer (maybe *that's* why they're so hot!), and they wear these funky long and fingerless gloves and carry parasols. Also, lots of them wear not just pantyhose but leggings, which is downright crazy if you ask me.

But, I digress. Back to the picnic.

I wanted a picnic. 1: because I'd had little chance to hang out with most of my students, and I wanted to have a get-together to do that. 2: because I must find new ways of entertaining myself. 3: Izumiさん (our manager) is moving back to Sapporo. She refused to allow this to be a sayonara party, but I wanted something to let everyone chat with her once more before she left.

We had about 30 students show up, most of them mine. Several of our students live near a park near Shin-Moriya station, about a 15-minute bike ride to the school, and they suggested that we have the picnic there. We had everyone bring their own lunches, and Izumiさん and I brought some picnicky items like bubbles and frisbees and a couple of balls to toss around. One of my students brought a badminton set, and another student brought a larger ball so we could play soccer and dodgeball.

It really was a perfect set-up. We ate lunch first and then broke out the picnic toys. We had about ten kids there, and they had a blast with the bubbles and playing soccer with some of the adults. Some of my students had never played frisbee before, so I conducted a quick mini-lesson on the art of the frisbee. The previous English teacher also stopped by, which made a lot of the students happy because they don't often get a chance to see him even though he lives in Moriya. One of my extremely shy and quiet pre-teen girls kicked butt at dodgeball. And there were dogs - three dachshunds brought by a student who lives nearby. The adults fawned over the dogs more than the kids did.

The best thing for me was the park itself. In addition to a playground and tennis courts, it has a nice big lawn for groups such as our own. Also, it is grassy and not sandy (as it would be in Florida) and there were no ants in sight and it was all nice and soft. So the first thing I did upon arriving was take off my sandals and run around barefoot. The way my students reacted, you'd think they'd never seen a barefoot person before. I couldn't convince anybody else (except one of my kids students) to go barefoot with me, but they all thought it was "adorable." Some of them are still calling me the Barefoot Sensei. Even better was when I had to roll up the cuffs of my jeans because they were getting all dirty and I kept tripping on them. That sent Izumiさん into a fit of giggles. Of course I had to wash my feet when we got back to the school, but it was totally worth it. What's the point of summer if you can't go barefoot?

We got about three hours in before it started to rain. I had known it was going to rain eventually - I could smell it in the air - so this came as no surprise. Everybody (except me, apparently) was starting to wind down and needing a rest anyway, so it worked out. And nobody went away disappointed - everybody gave positive feedback and said they hoped we'd have another get-together in the future. I get the feeling an August picnic would not go over well, so I'm settling for September. This satisfied them.

Afterwards, Izumiさん, Mio先生, and I went out to karaoke to memorialize our last weekend as co-workers. That went beyond entertaining - both of them are good singers and they even sang English songs! (Usually, Benni先生 is the only one who does this with me.) We finished with a trio version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

[item of interest: Simon & Garfunkel are as popular as Queen and the Beatles here in Japan. S & G will are appearing in concert in Tokyo this weekend, and one of my students is actually skipping class to go to it. Some of my other students were disappointed that they couldn't go, either because of the cost of the tickets or the fact that they sold out almost immediately.]

And so, that was our Moriya summer picnic. I am now anxiously awaiting the main summer season, which will bring festivals and fireworks and other wonderful summery things. I'm especially hoping that I can make it up to Isesaki or Maebashi to hang out with my friends up there. Either way, summer is shaping up to be pretty awesome this year!

Rewind: Japanese Travel Journal: Hanami

[to note: date these pictures back to early April]

Sakura trees get a lot of praise and adulation in Japan, and it's easy to see why. Pictures can't capture the true majesty of a row of sakura trees heavy with blossoms, and it's near impossible to try to describe their intoxicating scent. For about two weeks in spring, Japanese social outings revolve around the life span of the cherry blossom, for good reason: walking down a sakura lane can't be much different from walking in paradise.

A very crowded paradise in some places, but a sweet-smelling and magical paradise nonetheless.

The act of viewing cherry blossoms is called hanami, which actually translates to "flower viewing" but seems to be reserved for sakura only. The basic purpose of hanami is to sit and look at blossoms. However, you don't just sit and look at blossoms - you also eat crazy festival foods, drink until your heart's content (or stomach's discontent, whichever hits you first), and hang out with your compadres. And should there be a karaoke machine just standing around and waiting for you to take the mike, then so much the better.

I saw a good amount of sakura this spring, and while I'm sorry that its season is so short-lived, I realize it's probably for the best. Society can only take so much sitting around and drinking before it starts to collapse. But the progression of the blossoms' lives is astounding. Sakura are only fully open for a very short time - they die quickly, sloughing down from the trees in pink and white waves. But they leave the sakura tree draped in a rich green canopy, the color of which is so vivid that it's a miracle in itself. I loved the blossoms, but the green leaves enamored me. Walking down sakura lanes became akin to walking through a hallway lined in velvet, so deep and lush that I lost track of the time as I stood and stared at the leaves. These leaves are what pushes the blossoms loose from the tree, breaking their tenuous hold on life, and I'm glad for it. They're not so pretty and cute, but they're stronger and more vibrant, lasting longer than the delicate flowers that let go of life just when it's beginning.

It's become a standard cliche - sakura blossoms trembling in the wind before separating from their branches, floating like airy boats before coming to a gentle rest on the ground - but it works because the experience is so moving. It's no wonder that sakura is a metaphor for life: so beautiful and brief, beginning with such great promise and ending with such swiftness, culminating in a bittersweet momento mori.

the magical 90-day mark

Well, I've been working in Moriya for 3 months now, and I've made a decision: I'm moving to Moriya.

I'm already tired of living in Matsudo. I spent most of June 28th in Moriya at a school picnic (which deserves its own post, which I will hopefully post soon), and I realized how much I disliked living in the city. Moriya is much more comfortable, and it's just a nicer place to be. The commute isn't so terrible, I just don't like the atmosphere. Also, I have no place to ride my bike, so I'm getting much less exercise now (even taking into account the 10 minute walk to the station and all those stairs I have to go up and down twice a day). I tried working out in my room, but the only time I have to do this is when I get home, when all I want to do is relax after a long day of work. Also, it bored me. I could never participate in a gym class because aerobics really do bore the hell out of me.

I will still be close to Tokyo. In fact, I will be exactly 32 minutes from Akihabara, which is faster than the 45 minute ride from Shin-Matsudo to Ueno. This pleases me, because though I wouldn't want to live in Tokyo, it's fun to go there for day trips. There is always something to see in Tokyo, but even if you can't find it, there's always Kinokuniya, which (for a bibliophile like me) is paradise.

The whole moving thing is going to be a pretty major undertaking because GEOS does not have any apartments in the area, and I will have to do everything on my own. I have fortunately been blessed with very nice Japanese co-workers, students, and friends to help me out with this. The packing I will have to do on my own, but having Japanese support is way more important.

This will all have to wait until after the 20th, which is when I will return from my trip to the States. July is turning out to be an exciting month for me, what with the Florida trip and the busy weekends and now the whole moving thing. Now I just need to start filling up my August calendar. My birthday is August 10th, and I have that day off, so I want to do something fun.

(and that's only about a month away. jeez, time is just slipping away from me now. whee! have I mentioned that I love living in Japan? I love living in Japan. I'm having way too much fun.)