Twentythree

Rare, super-personalised Frappuccino gets a new look for spring. 

Starbucks is going fruity this spring, with the unveiling of a new limited-time drink called My Fruit³ Frappuccino Ripe White Peach. If that name sounds familiar to you, that’s because the My Fruit³ Frappuccino first made its debut in Japan in 2021, and quickly became one of the country’s rarest and most sought-after drinks, as it became available at only 15 stores around the nation.

▼ The core flavours in the lineup have changed over the years, and now include Strawberry…

▼ …and Banana Mango & Acai Berry.

Bursting with fruity goodness, the key feature that makes the My Fruit³ Frappuccino so unique is its supreme customisability. Not only can you customise the drink base, but also the fruits blended into the base (1 below), the fruit sauce in the cup (2 below), and the whipped cream (3).

▼ Fruit to the power of three, hence the name My Fruit³

For the drink base you can choose from milk, tea, or juice categories, covering plain, almond, soy and oat milk, black tea or passionfruit tea, and a mixed fruit juice. This concept of “playing to your heart’s content with fruit” reaches new heights with the addition of peach, but if all the customisation choices seem too overwhelming, you can now simply ask for the Ripe White Peach Frappuccino. This will get you peaches blended into a mixed fruit mix base, and a pulpy peach fruit sauce to create the crisp texture of freshly picked fruit, with all the refreshing sweetness of a ripe white peach.

▼ With each sip, you can enjoy the texture and sweetness of ripe peaches, along with a refreshing aftertaste.

Of course, you can customise this Frappuccino to your liking, with the chain saying a switch from fruit juice to black tea will create “a vibrant flavour reminiscent of peach tea”. Those with more adventurous palates can switch the fruit sauce to strawberry, which will give you a sweet-yet-tart flavour profile.

Once you start experimenting with all the different combinations, you’ll be surprised at how different the My Fruit³ Frappuccino can taste. According to Starbucks, this makes it a great drink to match your preferences, no matter what type of mood you might be in on any given day. You’ll have to work hard to find it, though, as it’s only available at the participating stores linked below, where it will on the menu from 18 March, priced at 776 yen (US$4.88) for takeout or 790 yen for dine-in.

Related: Participating stores
Source, images: Press release
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When the grads are up, the guard is down.

High school graduation is a really special time in one’s life. I only vaguely remember mine… I think someone played the bagpipes at it. But there was that one episode of Beverly Hills 90210 where the entire student body rallied together to ensure Donna Martin could attend her graduation, and it stands as a testament to just how much this ceremony means to both teens and middle-aged actors portraying teens.

So, I can only imagine the whirlwind of emotions that happens when you go through the sheer happiness of achieving this milestone, only to become the victim of a crime moments after. That’s what dozens of students of Utsunomiya Hakuyo High School in Tochigi Prefecture had to endure on the day of their graduation.

The incident occurred on 2 March, when the third-year students and their families were inside the school gymnasium for the graduation ceremony. A person or persons had entered all seven of the third-year classrooms on the first floor of the school where the graduating class left their belongings, sought out bags near the entrances that were easy to open, and removed the cash from their wallets.

▼ News report of the thefts with a CGI re-enactment where the thief and victims look exactly alike

After the ceremony, it didn’t take long for the graduates to notice they had been robbed, and a commotion ensued. Eventually, it was determined that over 50 people had their wallets stolen from, but the total amount of cash was not disclosed.

One of the graduates described the feeling as, “A different kind of sadness [than the sadness of leaving the school]. Actually, it’s more like anger.” The school also apologized and said they would take measures to prevent this from happening in the future. At the time of the thefts, teachers were on guard at the school entrances, but no one was watching the unlocked rooms in that corridor.

While all readers of the news were in agreement that this was an especially heinous crime, some argued that it was time for Japanese schools to begin introducing stricter security measures.

“School thefts are common. Students should be given their own lockers to keep their stuff safe.”
“Some people probably brought more cash than usual that day too, and the thief probably knew that.”
“Those students must be really upset that someone would do that on their graduation day.”
“They probably had plans to go out after and enjoy their last day with their friends using that money. I hope whoever did it gets caught soon.”
“In my experience, it’s usually someone who gets addicted to the rush of stealing.”
“I think the days of the honor system in Japan are over. We need to install cameras.”
“When I was in the first year of my high school, I had my wallet stolen. I was shocked because I was so happy to have been accepted by that school.”
“This had to have been an inside job. They knew just when and where to go and didn’t arouse any suspicion walking around the school.”
“Of course, the thief is the one to blame here, but I would always keep my money with me at all times.”

This type of theft that preys on events is not uncommon around the world. There have been cases of sports stars and musicians having had their tour schedules exploited by burglars to know when to strike. In Japan, there’s even a term for it used in some circles called “hare no hi goto,” which literally translates to “sunny day theft” or more figuratively “special day thefts.”

However, since a high school graduation isn’t nearly as publicized as the Lakers’ regular season, it’s likely that this crime was committed by someone with inside information. Hopefully, this will make the police’s job easier, and after justice is served, these kids can have fond memories of their high school graduation like I do of Donna Martin’s.

Source: TBS News Dig, SECOM, Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
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Yokohama-style ramen slides on top of a pizza with help from the creator of ie-kei.

Here at SoraNews24, we love ramen, and we love pizza. But would we love ramen pizza?

That was the question we suddenly had a burning desire to answer with the release of Pizza Hut Japan’s Yokohama Ie-kei Ramen Pizza. This new flat fusion food draws inspiration not only from the ie-kei style of ramen, with its distinctive hybrid tonkotsu (pork stock)/soy sauce broth, but specifically from the restaurant where ie-kei originated, Yoshimuraya in the city of Yokohama. The Yokohama Ie-kei Ramen Pizza was created with help from Yoshimuraya’s founder and owner, Minoru Yoshimura, and so it has the ramen pioneer’s approval, but now it’s time to subject it to our own taste test.

Right off the bat, you can tell this is no ordinary pizza, what with the slices of chashu pork, like you’d find in a bowl of ramen. Then, of course, there are the ramen noodles themselves, and the fact that the sauce is ramen broth-brown instead of the traditional tomato-red. There’s spinach too, which would ordinarily be sort of an unusual pizza topping but here gets overshadowed by all the other weirdness going on around it.

But the Yokohama Ie-kei Ramen Pizza looking unusual doesn’t mean it doesn’t look good, especially when we sprinkled on the shredded nori (dried seaweed) that comes in a separate pouch and added an enticing green glisten.

Taste-testing duties were snatched up by our Japanese-language reporter Daiki Nishimoto, who’s an ardent ie-kei ramen fan.

As for why the sauce is brown, that’s because it’s meant to mimic the flavor of ie-kei ramen broth. Rich with a touch of sweetness, Daiki’s taste buds’ immediate reaction was “Oh, are you hooking us up with some teriyaki pizza?”, but as he chewed, the rich, and familiar to fans, flavors of tonkotsu and soy sauce made their presence increasingly distinct, making Daiki’s heart dance with joy.

The biggest surprise, though, was the pizza’s outstanding texture. The Yokohama Ie-kei Ramen Pizza’s noodles are broad and chewy, once again taking their cues from how Yoshimuraya makes theirs, which helps the flavorful sauce easily cling to them. The firmness of the noodles isn’t an exact match for that of the crust, giving you a variety of pleasing sensations as you bite into a piece of the pizza.

The enjoyment Daiki got from chewing through a mouthful reminded him of other popular carb combinations in Japan, and if you were drawing up a family tree of them, he figures that Pizza Hut’s Yokohama Ie-kei Ramen Pizza would be a cousin to yakisoba bread and Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki.

By the way, we mentioned the packet of nori that the ie-kei pizza comes with, but there’s another add-it-yourself ingredient that’s included, garlic vinegar.

▼ Nori (left) and garlic vinegar (right)

This is here as a pizza-oriented interpretation of the pressed garlic paste that’s often put in ie-kei ramen broth, sometimes when the diner is half-way through their bowl. Similarly, Pizza Hut recommends starting off without any garlic vinegar, then adding a squirt to create an invigorating changeup in the flavor profile.

Pizza Hut has done a great job balancing the shock novelty of the concept of an ie-kei ramen pizza with making something that genuinely tastes good, and will appeal to a wide variety of people, not just ramen fanatics or avant-garde pizza iconoclasts. It’s so tasty and approachable that, after eating it, we feel like it wouldn’t be at all out of place on the permanent Pizza Hut Japan menu, but it’s only available for a limited time, between now and March 31. It’s priced at 2,230 yen (US$14.50) for takeout, and since it’s only available as a medium size, we’ve got room for at least a couple more before the end of the month.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Device for charging on-the-go brings subway to a stop in latest mobile battery fire.

The Tokyo Metro’s Hanzomon subway line is pretty handy for getting around the city. Running more or less diagonally between the southwest and northeast corners of downtown, the Hanzomon Line can whisk you to and from the hustle and bustle of Shibuya, the brand-name fashion boutiques of Omotesando, the big-business high-rises of Otemachi, and the Skytree in Oshiage, all within 30 minutes at most and with no need to transfer trains along the way.

However, the Hanzomon Line was decidedly less convenient than usual last Sunday morning, when the whole line had to be shut down because of a fire that broke out on one of the trains.

The idea of flames onboard a Tokyo subway might seem like a shock, given the excellent safety record of Japan’s public transportation network. In this case, though, there was nothing wrong with the track, the rolling stock itself, or the way the 10-car train was being driven. Instead the fire was caused by a passenger’s mobile battery. As the train was travelling southbound, a passenger noticed flames coming from the battery, and when the train pulled into its next stop, Nagato Station, at around 9:30 a.m., Tokyo Metro staff scrambled to put out the fire.

▼ Video of the fire being extinguished

The line was then shut down for the next 40 minutes while safety checks were performed, after which the trains started moving again. Thankfully no one was injured, but with an average of roughly 75,000 people a day passing through Nagata Station, a fire could have been very dangerous, especially since as an underground subway station it only has a limited number of evacuation routes. And as mentioned above, the Hanzomon Line also passes through Shibuya and Oshiage Stations, both of which are near constantly packed with commuters and sightseers, and congested enough that a sudden fire in one of them could be even more deadly.

Mobile battery fires are becoming an increasingly common problem in Japan, with recent high-profile incidents taking place at a Kyoto hotel and onboard a Tokyo-bound airliner. Last summer also saw a mobile battery fire on the Yamanote Line, the above-ground rail loop that circles the Tokyo city center and is arguably the most important train line in the country.

With electronic devices becoming increasingly integrated in people’s lives, commuters and sightseers alike feel an increased desire for ways to keep them charged up while out and about. At the same time, the increased risk of fires in enclosed spaces is something that transportation providers will have to address, and just as Japanese airlines now have new rules regarding bringing mobile batteries onboard their planes, train and subway operators may now be wanting to reexamine their own policies and guidelines.

Source: TBS News Dig via Itai News
Top image: Pakutaso
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Why not feast like royalty while keeping your wallet, and your date, happy?

The first date is an important milestone in any budding romance: your presentation, your clothes, your attitude, and your charm all play a factor in the success of it. So too, does the location, with many people springing for a fancy restaurant in order to impress. However, what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could just have a much better experience in another place that is a lot kinder on your purse strings? What if you had your first date at Japan’s low-budget casual Italian restaurant, Saizeriya?

Whether a first date at Saizeriya is acceptable or not has been a long-held debate that often makes its rounds on social media, to the extent that, at one point, the phrase “a girlfriend who is happy with Saizeriya” went viral. To have a partner like that is to assume that she doesn’t need to have lots of money spent on her for her to be impressed and instead cares more about you as a person than as a walking sack of money. This is due to crazy levels of food and customization you can get for just 1,000 yen (US$6.29); in fact, we even had to go three times for our 1,000 yen challenges, and yet still have more combinations we could try.

Our Japanese-language reporter Asami Oshima is firmly on the side of a Saizeriya first date being perfectly fine. Yes, she may be partly biased towards the chain, given that she worked part-time at Saizeriya back in her high school days, but that doesn’t change the restaurant’s other attractive qualities for a date.

▼ Her first recommendations for the perfect date spread are Shrimp Salad (350 yen)…

▼ … and Spaghetti with Pollock Roe Sauce (400 yen).

There are generally two camps for who pays the bill on the first date: either the man pays, or the bill is split. Asami is a fan of splitting the bill, though she wouldn’t say no to someone deciding to treat her. However, should the restaurant be too high-end, she would end up feeling too hesitant about ordering exactly what she wants, so wouldn’t really be able to enjoy herself much. With Saizeriya, this is barely a thought that crosses the mind, because no matter how much you eat or drink, the price will always remain modest, meaning you can eat and drink without hesitation, no matter who ends up paying.

▼ Since that’s the case, splurge and go for a whole bottle of Lambrusco Rosé, at a stunning price of 1,000 yen.

▼ To go along with the wine, you should order the Caprese Salad with Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese (430 yen)…

▼ … and the Grilled Mussels with Vegetable Salsa (400 yen).

▼ Cheers!

As it’s a place you would most likely visit in your day-to-day life, you’re more likely to feel comfortable, and thus be able to have a date while being your natural self. The higher-end a restaurant is, the more formal it feels, often turning the experience into a performance of hospitality rather than a date.

Asami also has a theory that customizations deepen your bond. Japanese social media is overflowing with Saizeriya Customized Recipes, such as the Infinite Ajillo our reporter Ahiruneko recommends, or creating a Bismarck-style Pizza by topping a pizza with prosciutto and a soft-boiled egg.

Honestly, Asami had wanted to try out the Bismarck-style Pizza, but dining alone on this occasion, it was far beyond her stomach’s capacity to withstand, so she went for the Grated Cheese Topping (100 yen) instead.

▼ The cheese goes well with the salad…

▼ …the pasta…

▼ …the mussels…

▼ …and even the tiramisu (300 yen) she had quietly ordered.

There aren’t many people who dislike cheese, so you should order it if you go on a date. Since the restaurant’s prices are so cheap, you can experiment with customizations without worry, while also subtly scouting out the other person’s food and drink preferences.

These are Asami’s points for Saizeriya being a legitimate first date location option. However, she does understand the opinion for the other team, being that Saizeriya is out of the question for a first date, as she thinks it’s perfectly reasonable to want to cherish the feeling of doing something special on such an important occasion.

Asami ran a survey on Instagram and Twitter, thinking that opinions would be split, but surprisingly, “totally fine” was the overwhelming majority.

Reasons for Saizeriya being a good choice included:

• “Good value for money”
• “No need to show off”
• “If it’s someone you like, the place doesn’t matter”
• “Seems like you’d see their true personality”

Whereas, on the other hand, the “not good” camp argued:

• “I want an extraordinary feeling”
• “A bit weird for an adult date”
• “It feels like I’m being looked down upon”
• “Because it’s controversial, there’s no need to choose it on purpose”

To summarize Asami’s findings, people who view the first date as a special event usually fall into the “not fine” side, while people who prioritize the company of the person tend to be in the “fine” camp. So, while neither side is wrong, it’s best to go on a Saizeria date with someone who’s expressed their preference for it, and if so, you now have a delicious recommended menu to impress them when you visit, all for the low cost of 3,080 yen.

Related: Saizeriya Website
Photos ©SoraNews24
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Before you erupt like Psyduck, take a seat on Psyduck.

Pokémon is, at its core, an adventure series. It’s set in a world where adolescents leaving home to become drifters is seen as a positive, character-building experience as long as they’re capturing wild animals and playing with fire, electricity, and other potentially high-damage elements.

However, while most of the series’ narratives are about striving to be the very best, there’s one Pokémon who serves as a reminder that it’s never a good idea to push yourself too hard, and that when you realize you’re getting close to your breaking point, the smart thing to do is to take a moment to relax, destress, and do some mental self-care. So it’s very fitting that Psyduck, the Pokémon who unintentionally releases psychic blasts when he gets too wound up, is the muse for an adorably cozy chair from Japanese furniture maker Cellutane.

Cellutane actually calls this a “sofa,” since the loanword often gets used in Japanese to describe even single-seat chairs with plush upholstery, and because they also use the Japanese name for the Pokémon species, officially it’s called the “Koduck Sofa.” For the purpose of our in-English discussion here, though, we’ll call it the Psyduck Chair, as that’s an inarguably accurate description.

The chair is filled with Cellutane’s “sugobeads,” a mixture of urethane and tiny beads that lets you sink into the seat just a bit, almost like Psyduck is giving you a comforting, reassuring hug.

In addition to Psyduck’s disarmingly cute facial expression, other design points include his little tail around back…

…and his tufts of hair.

Because of its bead filling, the Psyduck Chair’s dimensions are slightly variable, depending on whether or not it’s just been sat in. The baseline measurements, though, are 92 x 90 x 79 centimeters (36.2 x 35.4 x 31.1 inches).

Cellutane is well aware that anyone who loves Psyduck enough to buy the chair is going to want to use it for a long time, and so has designed it in a way that the cover can be easily removed for washing by undoing its zipper. With a weight of 10 kilograms (22.2 pounds), the chair also isn’t so heavy that you can’t lift it up or move it out of the way when you need to vacuum the room it’s in.

▼ The cover is machine washable, so it’s kind of like giving Psyduck a bath.

The Koduck Sofa/Psyduck Chair is priced at 28,400 yen (US$183) and can be ordered through Cellutane’s online store here. It’d make a great pair with Cellutane’s Slowpoke chair, or even their Final Fantasy Moogle and Chocobo ones if you’re in the mood for an interior design crossover.

Source: PR Times, Cellutane
Featured image: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Cellutane
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Comfort food to snuggle up with is just one of the crazy prizes in the 7-Eleven Happy Kuji collection.

There are a lot of things to love at 7-Eleven Japan, but one of the most lovely of all is the convenience store chain’s karaage-bo, or fried chicken skewers. Honestly, it’s hard to see how they could be improved on, except, perhaps, by making them giant sized.

So now 7-Eleven has done just that.

However, even we have to admit that it would be hard to eat a serving of fried chicken that gigantic, and actually you don’t have to. That’s because this isn’t just any 7-Eleven fried chicken skewer, it’s a 7-Eleven fried chicken skewer plushie! And yes, you can take the pieces off.

The 90-centimeter (35.4-inch) long stuffed animal/meat is part of the lineup for 7-Eleven’s Happy Kuji event, a random-drawing prize lottery. 850 yen (US$5.50) gets you one prize pull, and each participating store’s “special class” prize is the fried chicken skewer plushie.

▼ The plushie skewer and its edible inspiration

That’s not the only crazy-size, zany-concept prize you can get, either. There’s also a pair of blankets modeled after the packages of 7-Eleven’s Gold Series of frozen/instant foods, one of which looks like a pizza…

…and the other like a hamburger steak.

The 7-Eleven love gets a little more modestly sized with the five bread pouches, which mimic the wrapper of the chain’s melon, curry, okonomiyaki, corn mayo, and butterscotch breads.

There’s more practical pseudo packaging with five different compact canisters based on the Cup Deli lineup of pre-made salads and side dishes.

Another set of pouches features the ingredients of 7-Eleven Japan’s rising-star smoothies on one side, and its Seven Cafe logo on the other.

Things get more abstract with the plush 7-Eleven coffee cup charms…

…but then swing back to the extremely realistic side of things with towels with the same text and graphics as 7-Eleven’s popular Maru De (“just like the whole real thing”) series of frozen fruit ice bars.

The “Rubber Collection” category has an assortment of rubber coasters, key holders, cable ties, and hair clips…

…and you could be forgiven for thinking that 7-Eleven had run out of crazy ideas once you see the muted-color tote bags…

…but then you’d realize they hadn’t upon seeing the cuddly Chigiri Bread Cushion!

Chigiri bread is a kind of bread with a sweet filling and a pillowy soft texture. It’s baked in such a way that it almost looks like peas in a pod, so that you can tear off (chigiru in Japanese) individual pieces to share with friends, pace your snacking speed, or just for fun. Unlike the fried chicken skewer, the pieces of the chigiri bread plushie can’t actually separate from each other, but keeping them all together does mean that it’s always ready to be snuggled.

This Happy Kuji lineup is available at 7-Eleven Japan branches as of March 13, but if you can’t get to one right away, don’t lose hope. The chigiri bread plushie is the “last one” prize, meaning that it’s awarded as a bonus for whoever pulls the last available other-available prize at each branch, so even if you don’t show up early, you could still go home a big (bread) winner.

Source: Happy Kuji, press release
Top image: Press release
Insert images: Press release, Happy Kuji
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