Twentythree

Sakura season comes to the inside of Yamazaki’s Lunch Packs.

Yamazaki Baking’s Lunch Pack series of sandwich pockets is a Japanese convenience store staple, with year-round hits like peanut butter or egg salad always being a good choice for a quick, convenient bite to eat. But Japan loves special seasonal flavors, and with the cherry blossoms currently in bloom, you can now get sakura Lunch Pack sandwiches too!

The full flavor name of this limited-time treat is “Sakura An and Whipped Cream,” with an referring to the sweet bean paste used in traditional Japanese desserts. An sometimes gets translated as “sweet red bean paste,” since the beans used for it are red, but in the case of sakura an it’s cherry blossom-pink in color.

The packaging boasts that Lunch Pack’s sakura an is made with salt-preserved sakura tree leaves (yes, sakura leaves are edible) harvested on the Ito Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. It also has a cute illustration of the Lunch Pack mascot characters frolicking under a shower of cherry blossom petals.

However, from the outside the Sakura An and Whipped Cream itself looks just like any other of the sandwiches in the Lunch Pack series: a palm-sized pillow of crustless bread.

Despite being pre-packaged, Lunch Pack’s bread is always invitingly soft and tasty. However, whether for true beauty of sandwiches, there’s a compelling case to be made that it’s what’s on the inside that’s important, and in recent years there’s been a dip in consumer confidence that Japan’s sandwich makers are really giving us all that we’d expect in terms of fillings. So to see exactly what we’re going to be taste-testing, let’s grab a knife and cut one of the two sandwiches that comes in the pack open.

Huh…that’s not exactly confidence-inspiring, is it? Aside from not getting very close to the corners in total quantity, visually the filling seems to consist of significantly more mundane whipped cream than seasonal-special sakura an.

But to paraphrase the old saying, the proof of sweet bean paste is in the eating, so now that we’ve done all this pre-tasting analysis, it’s time to just grab a sakura Lunch Pack, bite into it, and see how it actually tastes…

…and it turns out that that little bit of sakura an goes a very long way, and the sakura Lunch Pack is really tasty! Granted, if you take just a tiny nibble and only bite off the corner, you’ll mainly be tasting bread with a bit of the whipped cream, since its airier consistency means it spreads out a little more inside the sandwich pocket than the denser sweet bean paste does. But even a moderately sized bite will still reach to the sakura an, and it’s flavorfully delicious. The salted sakura tree leaves really do a great job of adding a little spike of salty complexity to the flavor profile, making for an effective contrast with the sweetness of the bean paste and cream and making each of their individual charms more noticeable and enjoyable.

▼ A piece of salted sakura leaf, mixed in with the an.

The Sakura An and Whipped Cream punches above its weight class in terms of price, too. While exact prices vary by retailer, you can find it for around 120 yen (US$0.80), which is a great value, especially when you take into account that you get two sandwiches in each pack, making these sweets easy to share, or to double-up on if/when you find yourself craving another, which is pretty likely considering how good they taste.

Like the sakura themselves, the Sakura An and Whipped Cream Lunch Pack will only be available for a limited time, so grabbing a pack to take with you on your cherry blossom-viewing excursions is highly recommended.

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Elevate your Starbucks experience with a special service that’ll turn heads during your visit.

Sometimes the best finds in Japan are the ones you stumble upon yourself, and that’s what happened when we stopped by Starbucks the other day and saw a handwritten message on the chalkboard at the entrance that said: “Why don’t you order a coffee press?” Despite visiting Starbucks countless times, we’d never heard of a coffee press service before – we hadn’t seen it advertised anywhere, and moreover, we’d never seen a customer sitting down with a coffee press inside a store.

Curious to try it out, we sidled up to the counter and asked the staff for the coffee press, upon which the barista immediately whipped into action like a pro, handing us a menu filled with a variety of options.

As if sensing our overwhelm at the many options, the barista kindly asked us if we preferred our coffee black or with milk, and when we stated our preference for the latter, they recommended three bean types: “Light Note Blend“, “Colombia“, and “Cafe Verona“. With the “Light Note Blend” purportedly tasting like a light milk chocolate, that was the one we ordered, and after taking a seat at a table, the barista brought the coffee press over to us on a tray, complete with a mug and a small paper cup of milk.

The coffee press usually takes a few minutes to extract the coffee, but given that time had already passed between preparation and serving, the barista told us it was ready to plunge straight away.

▼ Depending on where you are in the world, you might know this as a French press, a coffee plunger, or a cafetière.

First, we tried the freshly brewed coffee on its own, pouring a small amount into the mug and drinking it straight. It had a thicker, more satisfying mouthfeel than drip coffee brewed with a paper filter, as the French press retains the coffee oil, so we were able to fully enjoy the soft richness and light, low-bitter taste that’s  said to be a feature of the Light Note Blend.

After enjoying it straight, we poured the rest of the coffee into the mug and added milk, which gave birth to a mild and light café au lait flavour. It had a gentle mouthfeel that seemed well suited to the spring season, and we totally fell in love with the taste.

We’d initially been concerned that a coffee press coffee at Starbucks might be dark and bitter, but the Light Note Blend showed there are a wide variety of options to suit your taste. Not only did the coffee press elevate our everyday Starbucks visit into a fancy cafe style experience, it also opened our eyes to new possibilities, and now that we know the true extent of the beans on offer, we’ll be ordering the coffee press option more often.

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Rapeseed, tulips, nemophila, and over a million poppies line up for a floral relay.

If you spend any time in Tokyo in the spring, you may be greeted by the sight of a flood of people competing for selfies with a single cherry blossom branch in famous parks like Ueno Park, or swept up by the stream of tourists walking alongside Meguro River as they admire the pale pink canopy of sakura blossoms. The classic spots are popular for a reason, I mean they are stunning, but if you’re like me and prefer to enjoy springtime while actually being able to breathe, you may want to head west to Showa Kinen Park.

Located just a short train ride on the JR Chuo, Nambu or Ome Lines from central Tokyo in Tachikawa, this park is built on a former airfield, which means it has a considerable amount of space. Starting March 26 and running through to May 24, the garden welcomes the arrival of the Flower Festival 2026, where spring flowers are set to bloom and reach their peak in a relay-like succession.

Stunningly gorgeous as they may be, cherry blossoms are notoriously fickle, and if you don’t time your visit perfectly, you’ll easily miss them at the height of their beauty. However, for the Flower Festival, the party will continue throughout spring.

If you head there right now, you’ll likely catch the tail end of the blooming period for the approximately 250,000 rapeseed blossoms.

▼ Blooming: Late February–Mid-April

As of writing this article, the 1,500 sakura trees are currently in bloom, though there’s no telling when the trees will bid farewell to their pink adornments, so make your move now if you want to catch them.

▼ Blooming: Late March–Mid-April

If the cherry blossoms have already done their thing, you’ll still be in perfect time for the Tulip Garden, where you’ll find 250,000 bulbs in 260 varieties.

▼ Blooming: Early April–Mid-April

Following that, the fields turn into a blue sea of nemophila.

▼ Blooming: Mid-April–Mid-May

At the same time, you can enjoy the cute collection of colorful flowers in the Bouquet Garden.

▼ Blooming: Mid-April–Late May

Until eventually the hills turn into a vibrant red carpet of about 1.8 million Shirley Poppies.

▼ Blooming: Early May–Late May

So, no matter when your visit takes place this spring, even if you didn’t quite get to see the flowers you were hoping for, there’ll still be a display for you that will feel like this was the main event you were here to see.

However, what would a “festival” be without some extra attractions?

Twice a day on April 2, April 25, and May 16, the park releases thousands of soap bubbles over the flower fields to create a fantastical landscape.

Photo-worthy spots will also be set up in each flower field according to the peak blooming period. Past examples have included: train tracks, doors, swings, benches, and a mini house.

There are also a couple more photography events. The first being that entry to the Tulip Garden will be restricted for 30 minutes from opening on April 4 (9:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m.), allowing photography of the empty garden from the outside. While unfortunately already fully booked, on April 3, April 5 and April 22, a limited 100 people can enter the park before opening, from 7:30 a.m., to enjoy photography in the park with fewer people, although advance reservation and a fee of 3,000 yen (US$18.80) is required.

The food options can’t be forgotten either, with recommendations including donuts and coffees, ground pork cutlets, and shrimp and avocado bagels.

▼ Spring Picnic Box Set (1,900 yen)

▼ Menchi-katsu Spring Holiday Bento (1,100 yen)

▼ Shrimp and Avocado Salad Spring Vegetable Bagel Sandwich with Italian vegetable fritters (900 yen)

With an entrance fee of just 450 yen for adults and a host of other events, like an outdoor concert by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force Central Band and Children’s Day events for all ages, Showa Kinen Park is a great value-for-money experience. So, if you’re tired of the concrete jungle and want to dive into a field of flowers, it is well worth a visit this spring, just be aware that in 2026, flowers have a higher possibility of blooming earlier than usual.

Location information
Kokuei Showa Kinen Koen / 国営昭和記念公園
Address: Tokyo-to, Tachikawa-shi, Midori-cho 3173
東京都 立川市緑町 3173
Open: 9:30 a.m–5:00 p.m. (paid area), 9:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m. (on weekends and holidays in April and May), 8:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m. (free area)
Website

Related: Showa Kinen Park Instagram
Source and images: PR Times
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We head half-way across Japan and try what foodies say is the most delicious McDonald’s branch in the whole county.

Among people who’ve tried both, there’s a strong sense that McDonald’s tastes better in Japan than it does in the U.S. However, recently we’ve been hearing rumors that even within McDonald’s Japan, there’s one branch that’s better than all the others.

By-location variance seems contrary to both the purpose of a chain restaurant and Japan’s cultural appreciation for diligent precision and quality control, but there’s been more and more chatter from online foodies in Japan that McDonald’s Shonai branch, in the Osaka Prefecture town of Toyonaka, is a cut above the rest. So even though Toyonaka, being just to the north of Osaka City, is halfway across the country from SoraNews24 HQ in downtown Tokyo, we figured a taste test was in order, and our Japanese-language reporter Ahiruneko, accompanied by our boss, Yoshio, made the trip to Toyonaka, making sure to bring their appetites with them.

We wanted to be sure, though, that we weren’t just tasting some previously unknown-to-us underlying difference between the flavor of McDonald’s in central and east Japan. In order to avoid that, we went to a different McDonald’s branch in Toyonaka first, in order to establish a baseline, and then hit up the fabled Shonai branch immediately afterwards.

That made our first stop the above-pictured McDonald’s 176 Shonai branch, which has the extra “176” in its name because it’s located along National Route 176. Once inside, we ordered a Big Mac…

…an Egg Cheeseburger…

…French fries…

…and Chicken McNuggets.

Splitting the food evenly between them, Ahiruneko and Yoshio dug in, and they didn’t notice a single difference from how these items tasted in Tokyo, or any of the other parts of Japan where they’ve eaten these perennial all-stars of the McDonald’s menu. They all tasted great, but in the exact same way they always do.

Now it was time to move to the McDonald’s Shonai branch for the second stage of the taste-test. Conveniently, it was just a 7-minute walk away.

The Shonai branch is located right across the street from the East Exit of Shonai Station on the Hankyu Takarazuka Main Line. Though neither of them had been here before, Ahiruneko and Yoshio immediately recognized the storefront from social media posts they’d seen gushing about the place.

They repeated their order from the last McDonald’s, and thanks to the speedy service of the staff they had their food three minutes later, meaning only about 15 minutes had passed in total since the first part of the taste-test and all of the baseline flavors were still very fresh in their minds.

Starting with the burgers, the ones at the Shonai branch definitely looked nicer. In the case of the Egg Cheeseburger in particular, the egg was almost twice as thick, giving Shonai’s so much more mouthwatering presence that it looked like a different, more premium sandwich.

▼ Shonai branch burgers shown on the right

In terms of how they tasted, though, Ahiruneko and Yoshio didn’t feel like Shonai’s burgers were all that different from any other branch’s. They did find the buns at Shonai especially fluffy and high-quality, but the other ingredients were of the same standard any veteran McDonald’s Japan fan would expect.

The first big difference with the Shonai McDonald’s, though, was their fries.

Compared to the fries you usually get at McDonald’s Japan, Shonai’s are more thoroughly cooked, without even a hint of pale floppiness to them.

▼ Regular McDonald’s fries on the left, Shonai branch fries on the right

With a golden color, more alluring aroma, and classy bit of crunch, McDonald’s Shonai’s fries feel like fancier fried spuds. Munching on them, they really did feel like a different entity from the more obviously fast food-level fries they’d had at the other branch.

▼ You could even say these are the gold standard of McDonald’s Japan French fries

And sure enough, there was a very noticeable difference in the other fried part of our test, the Chicken McNuggets. Ahiruneko, who’s eaten countless pieces of the bite-sized chicken morsels, knew Shonai’s were something special from his very first bite.

▼ Shonai McNugget on the right

Once again, it’s the texture that was different. Shonai’s Chicken McNuggets’ outer layer was delightfully light and airy, while still delicious in its fried goodness. Maybe the Shonai branch changes its oil more frequently than other McDonald’s do, or maybe their staff has a supernatural-grade sense of exactly when to pull the McNuggets out of the frier. Whatever the reason, the results were fantastic, with an exquisite texture and flavor, and the problem was that since this was a joint taste-test, Ahiruneko and Yoshio only got to eat half the McNuggets each.

So yes, even if their burgers don’t stand out from the rest, the Shonai McDonald’s really is on another level when it comes to their fried foods, and we’ll be keeping it in mind the next time we’re in Osaka, since McDonald’s has plenty of other fried food on their menu too, and we have a hunch they’re better at this branch too.

Restaurant information
McDonald’s (Shonai branch) / マクドナルド（庄内店）
Address: Osaka-fu, Toyonaka-shi, Shonai Higashimachi 2-4-1
大阪府豊中市庄内東町2-4-1
Open 6 a.m.-midnight (6 a.m.-11 p.m. Wednesdays)
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Produced by Kawaii Monster Cafe creator, the Future Train diner serves up pink teriyaki burgers and wobbly pancakes aboard the Sakura Express.

Kyoto in springtime is a fantastical sight: the traditional Japanese charm of the many temples and shrines, adorned with the soft, pink petals of the cherry blossoms. Travelers flock from around the globe to witness the beauty of the city, and if you’re looking for a unique way to experience the magic of sakura season, which adds a major dose of fun to any holiday itinerary, there is one place you need to visit.

Located next to Umekoji-Kyotonishi Station, just a short hop from Kyoto Station, is Future Train Kyoto Diner & Cafe. It’s a future-train-style entertainment diner built inside a real, upcycled Thunderbird express train, and produced by kawaii culture legend Sebastian Masuda, who also brought the Kawaii Monster Land to Tokyo’s Harajuku.

From March 19 to May 11, this iconic train is launching a limited-time spring spectacular called the Sakura Express, where not only do you get the tradition of Kyoto’s cherry blossoms, but also the playful, pop-culture energy from modern Japan. For all its guests (or should that be passengers?) the event offers up some exclusive content that is sure to add some sparkle to your trip.

First up is the food. Naturally, there are iconic menu items decked out in the pink synonymous with many other spring-exclusive treats found in Japan. You can dive into the Gokakenran Burger – Sakura Mirai (2,600 yen [US$16.35]), a gorgeous-looking and delicious beast of a teriyaki egg burger with a pickled vegetable tartar sauce served in cute pink flower buns.

If you have a sweet tooth, try the Fuwa Fuwa Sakura Pancakes (1,800 yen), a stack of wobbly and fluffy souffle pancakes topped with sweet-and-salty pickled cherry blossom powder.

Additionally, there are five season-exclusive a la carte dishes incorporating the springtime sensations and Kyoto character to enjoy.

If you happen to be traveling with a larger group, there is also a special party plan available with all-you-can-eat rice flour popovers.

Following your meal, you can immortalize your trip with Instant Camera Photography, where you can get a physical snapshot of your time on the train, complete with an original-design sleeve to keep it safe, for an extra 300 yen.

You’ll also want to visit the Pink Flower Box Seat in Car 3, which has been transformed into a stunning photo spot overflowing with pink blossoms.

To top it all off, you can participate in their Social Media Posting Campaign, and all you have to do is post a picture of your food or the train with the correct hashtag, and you’ll receive a special sticker as a free gift.

▼ Use the tags #futuretrain or #フューチャートレイン, post it on social media, and show it to a member of staff

Kyoto in spring is beautiful, but the Sakura Express at Future Train makes it exciting. After basking in the cascading pink petals in a temple garden, hop on the train and ride into Kyoto’s pink future for an experience you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.

Restaurant information
Future Train Diner & Cafe / ューチャートレイン・キョウト・ダイナー・アンド・カフェ
Address: Kyoto-fu, Kyoto-shi, Shimogyo-ku, Kankiji-cho 3-7 Umekoji Highline
京都府京都市下京区観喜寺町3-7　梅小路ハイライン
Open: Weekdays 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. (last order 3:00 p.m.), 5:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. (last order 9:00 p.m.)
Weekends and Holidays 11:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. (last order 9:00 p.m.)
Entrance Fee: 700 yen for adults, and 300 yen for children
Website

Related: Future Train Diner & Cafe Instagram
Source and images: PR Times
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