Burger King roasts McDonald’s with cryptic message on poster jabbing huge new store in Akihabara

Longstanding tongue-in-cheek rivalry between chains continues in Tokyo’s otaku mecca.

Two years ago, McDonald’s shut the doors on its Akihabara Showa-Dori branch, bringing an end to a 22-year stint at this location in Tokyo’s most famous otaku neighbourhood, and eliciting a sweet farewell message from the Burger King branch two buildings down.

At least everyone thought it was sweet, until they looked closer at the poster Burger King had hung outside their store (pictured above), and discovered it contained a hidden message in the first column that read:

▼ “私たちの勝チ” (“watashitachi no kachi”), which means: “Victory is ours.”

It was a friendly jab at Burger King’s competitor, whom the chain referred to as their “esteemed rival, and fellow friend who loved Akihabara” in the body of the message. However, whatever victory Burger King had claimed over McDonald’s upon its departure from the street was short-lived, as the golden arches made its triumphant return to Akihabara today.

▼ And that return really was triumphant, as the new McDonald’s was now bigger and brighter than it had ever been.

Image: Twitter/@miyamotosatoru

As it turns out, the building that McDonald’s was previously housed in ended up being demolished, making way for a shiny new building called “Chiyoda Terrace”. It appears that McDonald’s liked their old location so much they moved right on in to the new building, taking up the entire second to fourth floors as a way of seemingly rubbing their own victory back in the face of Burger King.

▼ Burger King looks small in comparison next door to the construction site for Chiyoda Terrace.

As people waited for the new McDonald’s to open its doors to the public on 1 April, they also had one eye on Burger King to see how it would react to the opening.

▼ Tape across the stairs to the new McDonald’s reads: “1 April 7:00 a.m. Grand Open”

Image: Twitter/@kaztsu

Proving it wasn’t all water under the bridge, this message appeared on the official Burger King Japan Twitter account a day before the McDonald’s re-opening.

▼ The message reads: “Watashitachi no kachi“

私たちの価値

— バーガーキング・ジャパン (@BURGERKINGJAPAN) March 31, 2022

If that sentence sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a callback to their previous message to McDonald’s two years ago: “私たちの勝チ” (“watashitachi no kachi”), or “Victory is ours”. However, this time, the “kachi” has a different meaning, because although it’s pronounced the same way, it uses the kanji “価値“, which means “value” or “merit“.

The short tweet immediately caused a commotion online and it didn’t take people long to find out the reason for the tweet — Burger King had hung a new poster outside its Showa-Dori store.

▼ The poster begins with the title: “私たちの価値” (“Watashitachi no kachi”), or “Our value“

Image: Twitter/@kaztsu

The message reads:

“Our Value

Artificial additives such as artificial colours, chemical seasonings, synthetic fragrances, and synthetic preservatives. As much as possible we don’t use these in our store. From our Whoppers, we begin to offer the value of real food. 

Two years ago, the pandemic suddenly arrived.

In the midst of changes to our everyday lives, we too felt keenly aware of the importance of taking care of our bodies and being grateful for good health.

So it’s all about safety. Simple ingredients made simply, with care. Just aiming for both deliciousness and peace of mind, all accumulated through trial and error. Serious taste that has been carefully nurtured. Confidence in the deliciousness of unadorned ingredients.

Burger King will forever continue to deliver burgers that refuse to compromise.”

The earnest message made no mention of McDonald’s…or did it? A closer look at the text reveals that each line ends with an unnatural break in the sentence, causing your eye to focus on the last character of every line, which, when read vertically from top to bottom, creates this:

“店のデカさよりだいじなこと。”

▼ You can see the cryptic message when you read the last character on the right-hand side of every line from top to bottom.

Image: Twitter/@kaztsu

In Japanese, the hidden message reads: “Mise no dekasa yori daiji na koto“. What does this translate to in English?

“What’s more important than the size of the store.”

Oooooh did you feel that? It suddenly got hot in here because McDonald’s just got burrnned!

The message about avoiding artificial additives in burgers and concentrating on healthy ingredients and the value of real food was all a dig at the big new McDonald’s next door. According to Burger King, these values are more important than the size of the store, and many online agreed, saying:

“I support you, Burger King!”
“I prefer Burger King!”
“Burger King responds as expected!”
“I respect this fighting spirit!”

Burger King’s determination to continue doing its own thing in the shadow of a much larger rival has always made it a beloved underdog in the fast food scene, and this bold jab at McDonald’s has earned the underdog even more praise from people around the country.

Now the nation waits with bated breath to see whether McDonald’s will respond with a message of its own. If not, that’ll mean it’s truly moved on to bigger, brighter things and forgotten their past relationship like a miffed ex-lover. Or maybe it’s just waiting for Burger King to take down its poster and replace it with a kinder one, like they did during their last dalliance in 2020.

Source: Kaztsu via Net Lab
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Insert images: Twitter/@miyamotosatoru, Twitter/@kaztsu
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We try Mister Donut’s new collab with Kyoto matcha sweets specialist Gion Tsujiri 【Taste Test】

Are the new matcha and hojicha donuts as good as they sound?

There’s nothing we at SoraNews24 love more than a new donut flavor. Well, maybe a new chip flavor, or a new special curry, or…okay, let’s rephrase that. There’s nothing we love more than a new flavor of food, so when Mister Donut announced that they were releasing a new line of limited-time-only donuts that were made in collaboration with Kyoto Uji Matcha confectionary shop Gion Tsujiri, we just had to try them!

The line, called “Misdo meets Gion Tsujiri”, includes two donuts flavored with matcha and two donuts flavored with hojicha, also known as roasted green tea. Though we love matcha, we were most excited to try the hojicha donuts, since this is the first time that Gion Tsujiri has ever collaborated to release hojicha sweets. Our mouths were watering just at the very prospect of trying them!

So after stopping in at our local Mister Donut to pick up all four varieties, we started our donut taste test with the Uji Hojicha Mochifuwa Whip (210 yen/US$1.72).

This donut has Uji Hojicha mixed into its dough, which has a light and fluffy consistency when baked. A sandwich-type donut, the inside is filled with a hojicha flavored whip cream, a hojicha-flavored syrup, and chocolate chunks, so it promised to be chock-full of hojicha flavors.

And it was! It had the light, refreshing aroma unique to hojicha, which made us very happy. If you’re a fan of hojicha-flavored sweets, you will definitely not be disappointed with this donut!

The second hojicha donut is the Uji Hojicha Mochifuwa Warabimochi donut (210 yen). It also has Uji hojicha mixed into the dough.

However, this donut differs from the Mochifuwa Whip donut in that it has a filling of warabimochi, a type of jelly-like confection, and Hokkaido adzuki red beans. This donut offered a nice harmony between hojicha and Japanese ingredients.

It was delicious! It was full of sugary delightfulness that made us feel like we were eating a Japanese sweet. It also had a kind of luxuriousness to it, which was a pleasant surprise.

Now on to the matcha donuts! The two varieties are “raw pon-de-ring” donuts, which are made of small, soft, chewy, and fluffy pull-apart balls. Like the hojicha donuts, the matcha varieties have Uji matcha baked into them. We started with the Raw Pon-de-Uji Matcha (180 yen), which was a simple, satisfying donut that makes use of the sweetness and umami of Gion Tsujiri’s matcha.

It was coated in a glaze, so when we bit into it, it also had a nice crunch to it that added a great textural accent to the donut.

Last on the agenda was the Raw Pon-de-Uji Matcha Kuromitsu Kinako (220 yen), which uses the same donut recipe, but is coated in roasted soybean flour instead of glazed. It also has the unique advantage of being served with kuromitsu, Japanese brown sugar syrup. You can try the donut with or without the syrup, almost letting you have two donuts in one, which, in our eyes, is a distinct advantage.

When paired with kuromitsu and kinako, the fluffy, chewy texture of the pon-de-ring donut becomes more than a donut, elevating it to the level of a luxury Japanese sweet. However, the one disadvantage that poses is that the matcha becomes more of a background flavor to the more overpowering flavors of kinako and kuromitsu. If matcha is what you’re after, you may be better suited to trying the Raw Pon-de-Uji Matcha donut instead.

All in all, all four of the new “Misdo meets Gion Tsujiri” donuts were supremely tasty. In our humble opinion, each of the donuts had its own appeal, with a different array of flavors. Part of the fun was trying them all and seeing how they compare, so that’s what we recommend too!

If you want to buy one of each, they come in a set for 883 yen, together with an original paper shopping bag with the “Misdo meets Gion Tsujiri” logo on it. It’s for takeout only, but worth it if you want to try all four!

Naturally, these donuts are around in limited quantities and only for a limited time, so make sure to try them before they’re gone at the end of April. However, this is only the first wave of this new line (although this isn’t by any means the first time Mister Donut and Gion Tsujiri have worked together), so that means we have more delightful matcha flavors to look forward to in the future!

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Mos Burger’s new French toast: A delicious breakfast with a side of linguistic challenges

Taste-testing the treat with a name that’s a mouthful and a confusing condiment.

Mos Burger is a great place to go for a hamburger, as it’s right there in the fast food chain’s name, after all. But if you can get yourself out of bed and into a Mos Burger branch by 10:30 a.m., they’ve got a special breakfast menu, and our ace reporter Mr. Sato woke up nice and early to try out its newest item.

About a year ago, Mos Burger started selling sliced bread, getting in on the recent premium bread boom that’s been going on in Japan. As of March 24, though, Mos has also been using this fluffy, thick-sliced bread to make French toast, and that’s what Mr. Sato was having for breakfast.

First, though, he had to order it. That might not seem like much of a challenge, but Mr. Sato, gourmand that he is, wanted to use the full official name for the product, which is: French Toast We Made with Bread with Such a Rich Flavor that You’ll Want to Say “I Probably Don’t Need to Add Any Butter” Out Loud.

As for why the name is so long, the sliced bread that Mos sells is itself called Bread with Such a Rich Flavor that You’ll Want to Say “I Probably Don’t Need to Add Any Butter” Out Loud, in keeping with the style of sliced bread specialty bakeries in Japan having long, light novel-esque names.

▼ If you’re ordering in Japanese, the French toast is called “Bata Nante Iranai Kamo to Omowazu Koe ni Dashitakunaru Hodo Noko na Shokupan de Tsukutta Furenchi Tosuto”…or you can just point to its picture on the menu.

First off, it looks gorgeous. Mos’ French toast is a mouthwatering golden color, mottled with the perfect quantity of darker flecks where the bread was browned. From the first glance, you can tell it’s going to be moist and fluffy, and the eggy goodness on its way to his taste buds gave Mr. Sato a smile right at the start of his day.

The French toast costs 250 yen (US$2) by itself, but Mr. Sato decided to satisfy his caffeine cravings by adding a cup of coffee as part of a 410-yen drink set. He also opted for a 40-yen packet of syrup. Honestly, he couldn’t help feeling it was kind of strange that syrup isn’t included as a freebie when you order the French toast, but maybe they charge you extra for it because it’s just that good?

Not able to resist any longer, Mr. Sato sliced off a bite with the side of his fork, popped it into his mouth, and was happy, though not surprised, to find the French toast was everything he’d expected it to be: moist, soft, and delicious, with a gentle sweetness that seemed to grow and spread across his palate as he chewed.

Mr. Sato’s expectations soared higher still as he drizzled syrup down onto the French toast.

▼ So much breakfast beauty…

However, this is where he got his first surprise of the taste test. Sure, the syrup was sweet, and he guessed it sort of enhanced the eating experience, but it didn’t really have the full maple flavor he’d expected. Actually, it reminded him more of mizuame, the sticky sugar syrup you’ll find on candied apples and strawberries sold at festivals in Japan.

The confusion is cleared up, though, if you take another look at the menu, which lists the syrup as…

…”maple-style syrup,” (メープル風シロップ), as opposed to “maple syrup” (which would be メープルシロップ). And just like Mr. Sato’s taste receptors had told him, the packet lists mizuame as the first ingredient, with maple syrup third on the list.

It’s not like mizuame tastes bad or anything, but the less pronounced maple notes of the “maple-stye syrup” were just enough of a mental disconnect that Mr. Sato thinks you’re probably better off without it, since Mos’ French toast is delicious enough to stand on its own without any extra condiments. Not only will that save you 40 yen, it’ll save you the trouble of having to tack “and a packet of maple-style syrup too” onto the end of “I’d like the French Toast We Made with Bread with Such a Rich Flavor that You’ll Want to Say ‘I Probably Don’t Need to Add Any Butter’ Out Loud.”

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Live-action Spirited Away stage play to stream online this summer

Adaptation of Studio Ghibli masterpiece will hold live streams on the final days of its Japanese tour.

Tuesday was bittersweet for fans of theatrical anime and anime theater, as the amazing-looking live-action stage play of Spirited Away held its final performance at Tokyo’s Imperial Theater. The silver lining, though, is that the production is now headed to Osaka for a 12-day run starting in mid-April, with performances in Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Nagoya to follow.

While those locations had already been on the schedule for some time, the Spirited Away stage play has just added a new venue: online steaming service Hulu.

This summer, Hulu Japan will stream two performances of the play, both part of its engagement at the Misonoza Theater in Nagoya. Why two? Because Spirited Away uses what’s called a “double cast” system in Japanese theater, where the role of a single character is shared by two performers who appear in alternating performances.

Hulu will stream performances on July 3 and 4, the two final days of Spirited Away’s currently scheduled Japanese tour. The cast on the first day will be:
● Chihiro: Kanna Hashimoto
● Haku: Kotaro Daigo
● No Face: Koharu Sugawara
● Lin/Chihiro’s Mother: Miyu Sakihi
● Kamaji: Tomorowo Taguchi
● Yubaba/Zenibaba: Mari Natsuki

July 4’s cast will be:
● Chihiro: Mone Kamishiraishi
● Haku: Hiroki Miura
● No Face: Tomohiko Tsujimoto
● Lin/Chihiro’s Mother: Fu Hinami
● Kamaji: Satoshi Hashimoto
● Yubaba/Zenibaba: Romi Park

Both performances will stream live, as their actors are on-stage in Nagoya, at noon.

Source: Hulu via Animage Plus via Yahoo! Japan News
Top image: Hulu
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‘Butter mochi’ flavoured chocolate may be the best kind of Tirol we’ve ever tasted

We can’t believe it’s not butter, and that it’s actually chocolate-y goodness!

Tirol chocolate is a must-have staple in any Japanese candy fan’s collection. The iconic chocolate squares have been a part of Japanese confectionary aisles for over 50 years, and during that time, Tirol have wowed us with some… creative flavours like eel and curry. This time they’ve gone with a much more appealing sounding taste, though — butter mochi.

Butter flavoured chocolate is enjoying a surge in popularity at the moment, so when our Japanese reporter Saya Togashi came across a box of Butter Mochi chocolates in her local branch of Japanese megastore Don Quijote, she assumed Tirol had jumped on the buttery trend, too. But on closer inspection, these didn’t appear to be just your run of the mill butter chocolates, but a collaboration with Hokunyu, a dairy company based in Hokkaido Prefecture, which is known for its dairy products. One of their famous products, Hokkaido Butter, comes in a package that looks like this:

▼ Here’s the Tirol Butter Mochi chocolates, which cost 321 yen (US$2.64)

The packaging similarities don’t end there, though — inside the box are 12 individually wrapped chocolates, that also have some familiar packaging…

▼ They look like little packets of butter, but don’t be fooled — they’re chocolate!

And as an extra sweet detail, the chocolate wrappers have a mini map of Hokkaido on the back. Tirol’s chocolates always come in cute packaging, and these are no different!

▼ A buttery Hokkaido outline

So the wrappers and packaging definitely passed the butter check for our reporter, but how did they taste? Saya unwrapped one eagerly and was met with a butter-y coloured chocolate on the inside. Her mouth already began to water as she imagined how it would taste — should she be popping it in her mouth or spreading it on some fresh toast?

But while butter flavoured chocolates are somewhat commonplace these days, these chocolates were butter mochi flavoured. 

And while butter mochi is perhaps more associated with Hawaii, here in Japan it’s a famous specialty from Akita Prefecture. It’s made by adding a generous amount of butter to rice before it’s pounded into mochi, and is said to have been eaten by the Matagi people, traditional winter hunters based in the northern regions of Japan.

Real butter mochi has a soft, fluffy texture, and Tirol recreated this by adding some gummy candy to the centre of their chocolate.

Tirol’s gummy mochi, while quite different in texture to real butter mochi, is chewy and addictive, and Saya reckons it was a perfect match for the creamy, buttery chocolate on the outside. The thick, gummy centre meant that Saya spent more time chewing the chocolate than she would have a normal Tirol, so it felt like it was a lot bigger than a regular Tirol, even though they were the same size.

Tirol have brought out some delicious chocolates in the past, but for the most part they tend to be a ‘one or two at a time’ chocolate. Maybe you’ll pop a square on a co-worker’s desk when you walk past, or bring in a box to share with your friends. Saya equates them to an old friend from school whom you don’t really keep in touch with — sure, they’re nice enough when you see them once in a while, but you tend to forget about them the next day.

But the butter mochi Tirol was a different story, and Saya quickly made her way through the whole box in one sitting. They were definitely more than an ‘old friend’; in fact, Saya decided they were easily the most delicious Tirols she had ever tasted.

The butter mochi Tirols went on sale on March 8, and like the eel and curry versions before it, are a limited-time only flavour; once they’re gone, they’re gone. Anyone wishing to try what Saya describes as ‘the most delicious Tirol she’s had in her entire life’, get yourself to your local branch of Don Quijote, or affiliated stores.

And if Tirol are looking for any follow-up flavours and still want to ride the butter train, we’ve got a pretty out-there recommendation for them — sea urchin butter!

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Tokyo bento shop giving away 2,205 pounds of free food to help negi farmers

Kitchen Dive continues to be the most generous bento boxed lunch shop in Japan.

We’ve talked before about the shockingly large portions and amazingly low prices of Kitchen Dive, a bento boxed lunch takeout shop in Tokyo’s Kameido neighborhood. This Saturday, though, Dive is doing something pretty incredible even by its own standards. It’s giving out free food.

Here’s where things get really impressive, though. The offer isn’t just a gesture of generosity to Kitchen Dive’s customers, but also to Japanese farmers.

It came to the attention of the owners of Dive that some farmers growing negi (long green onions) were having trouble finding buyers for their crops, and so Kitchen Dive stepped in and bought them.

▼ Negi

So how much negi did Dive buy? A full metric ton, 1,000 kilos (2,205 pounds).

聞こえ…ますか…助け…て…下さい…ネギ…が…豊作で…農家…さん…が…困って…います…そこで…キッチンDIVE…が1000…キロ…1t…大量…買取り…しま…した…今週…土曜日…ネギ無料で…1000キロ…配り…ます…取り…放題…です…ネギ…掴み…取り…して…下さい…店…が…ネギ…で…埋まる…助け… pic.twitter.com/YOPUW1n9qW

— キッチンDIVE クマ店長 (@divemamuru) March 30, 2022

To clarify, Dive didn’t buy 1,000 kilograms of negi to use in its bento. This metric ton is outside of what it’s going to cook with, purchased out of the goodness of its heart to help the farmers who were in a pinch. Dive isn’t trying to flip the green onions and make a profit off of them either, as it will be giving the entire ton away, with its tweet reading:

“Can you…hear us? Help…please. The farmers…had an extra-large negi harvest…couldn’t find buyers. So we bought…1,000 kilos…one ton. This coming Saturday…we will be giving out the 1,000 kilograms of negi…for free. Please…come grab some for yourself…We’re drowning…in negi…save us…”

Other Twitter users who have heard the call for help sound happy to do their part, with comments like:

“Things like this are why I love Kitchen Dive!”
“Even with all the bad things going on in the world, check out this.”
“Well now I’ve gotta go.”
“What a beautiful sight.”
“I bet that room smells crazy.”
“I’m getting fitted for my wedding dress on Saturday morning, but I hope I can make it there before all the negi are gone.”
“Somebody tell Hatsune Miku about this!”

But wait, when Kitchen Dive says the negi are “free,” do they mean “free with the purchase of a Kitchen Dive bento?” That’s what one commenter wanted to know, asking “How much do I need to spend to get the free negi?”, to which Dive replied “You don’t need to buy anything. Coming just to pick up free negi is OK! The reason we’re doing this is to help out the farmers.” The only negi-related surcharge is if you need a bag to put them in, which will cost you 50 yen (US$0.40).

Kitchen Dive is open 24 hours a day, but hasn’t given any official starting time for when customers can start getting their free onions on Saturday, so making a pre-noon negi run is probably the smartest choice.

Shop information
Kitchen Dive / キッチンDive
Address: Tokyo-to, Koto-ku, Kameido 6-58-15 Land Sea Kameido
東京都江東区亀戸６丁目５８−１５ ランドシー亀戸
Open 24 hours

Source: Twitter/@divemamuru (1, 2) via Hachima Kiko
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Manga creator/politician Ken Akamatsu opens political office/art gallery in Akihabara【Photos】

Creator of Love Hina is gearing up for a run at Japan’s upper parliament house to protect freedom of expression.

A few months ago Ken Akamatsu, creator of manga hits Love Hina and Negima, said that he’s planning to run for election to the House of Councilors, the upper house of Japan’s Diet, as the country’s parliament is called. This wasn’t just some idle Twitter musing on Akamatsu’s part either, as he’s now opened a campaign office in Tokyo…though it’s one that doesn’t look like any other aspiring politician’s.

赤松健アキバ事務所の１Ｆ＆２Ｆ、本日は所用により１２時〜１５時までとさせて下さい。
（告知専用アカウントを明日から運用します） pic.twitter.com/5Rh6jSszAK

— 赤松 健 ⋈ @UQ HOLDER! 最終28巻が発売中！ (@KenAkamatsu) March 28, 2022

As you might guess, Akamatsu’s office, which opened last week, is in Akihabara, Tokyo’s otaku district. At first glance, the signage makes it look like the place is a specialty shop selling merch or dojinshi for Love Hina or one of Akamatsu’s other series, but there’s a bit of a tipoff in that the sign’s sole text says “honnin” (本人 in kanji), meaning “the person himself,” and sure enough Akamatsu is indeed waiting in side the office for several hours a day to talk with visitors.

▼ Akamatsu can be seen on the left in the lower-left photo here.

秋葉原の赤松健事務所の１階＆２階は、本日１２時～１８時オープンしています。私の５つの政策や原画展示の意義がパネルで分かります。
２階は赤松健サポーター（無料）登録が必要です。名前・メアド・郵便番号・都道府県のみ入力。場所は秋葉原中央通りのど真ん中！https://t.co/dQiaS59JTZ pic.twitter.com/jDihA5cnqg

— 赤松 健 ⋈ @UQ HOLDER! 最終28巻が発売中！ (@KenAkamatsu) March 26, 2022

▼ The office is located just a short walk from Akihabara Station on the main Chuo-dori road.

In addition to being a campaign center, the office is also serving as a manga art archive. Akamatsu says he was inspired to do so by what’s happened with ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock print paintings which were considered cheap, disposable entertainment media for the masses in their heyday but are now considered cultural treasures, with many historians lamenting that the once-plentiful examples weren’t better preserved.

▼ No word on whether or not the Love Hina opening theme plays on an endless loop.

Akamatsu says he hopes to archive other artists’ work in the space as well, but currently it’s his own illustrations on display, with art from Love Hina and Negima making up the majority. Visitors will also find illustrated panels outlining Akamatsu’s intended policies should he get elected, such as protecting freedom of expression by shielding anime and manga from unnecessary content regulations and foreign pressures and preserving dojinshi culture, as well as fostering economic development and international goodwill through exporting and overseas promotion of manga, anime, and video games.

Source: Twitter/@KenAkamatsu via Otakomu
Top image: YouTube/「KING AMUSEMENT CREATIVE」公式チャンネル
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The beautiful masked booth models of the Tokyo Motorcycle Show【Photos】

After a two-year pandemic break, Japan’s biggest motorcycle show makes its long-awaited, thoroughly masked return.

Last weekend, the Tokyo Motorcycle Show took place. That, in and of itself, would be enough to get gearheads’ motors running, but this year’s event was an especially happy one.

That’s because the 2020 and 2021 iterations were both cancelled due to the pandemic. With public health conditions gradually improving in Japan, though, the Tokyo Big Sight convention center hosted the show for its return from hiatus, and our reporter Haruka Takagi was one of those in attendance.

However, Tokyo isn’t entirely out of the pandemic woods just yet, and so there were a multitude of precautionary measures in place. The most noticeable was that not only guests, but also presenters in close proximity to attendees were required to wear masks, and that went for the booth models too.

While a few models who were situated further back from public walkways were maskless, the rest had face coverings in place, often with the logo or colors of the company they were promoting.

Haruka also noticed that the booth layouts were decidedly less cramped than in previous years, which along with daily attendance caps, helped to keep the convention hall’s population density from getting too high.

There’s been a bit of a camping boom during the pandemic, something that Haruka herself has been enjoying, and so she was happy to see presenters showing off new selections of outdoor goods.

She also noticed a lot of casual yet fashionable-looking rider apparel, functional and protective but a bit toned down appearance-wise compared to full-on racer-style suits.

JAF, the Japan Automobile Federation, was also on-site providing information about their organization’s roadside assistance services, providing peace of mind to those touring Japan’s scenic backroads and mountain passes.

Haruka also spotted some riding shoes she wouldn’t mind wearing as everyday kicks around town.

In another safety precaution, this model who was handing out pamphlets had protective gloves on.

▼ Suzuki models making the company logo with their hands continues to be a cool photo trick.

As Haruka’s day at the show wrapped up and she headed for the exit, she couldn’t help feeling impressed at how even though everyone was wearing masks, the warmth of their smiles still managed to shine through, so a big thanks to everyone in these photos for their warm hospitality at the show.

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