Starbucks Japan releases its second festive Frappuccino for 2022, but is it as good as the first?
21:13
cherishe
0 Comments
A surprising departure from your usual Christmas flavours.
Every year, Starbucks spoils its customers with not one but two limited-edition Christmas Frappuccinos, and after trying the first festive offering of 2022, the Strawberry & Velvet Brownie Frappuccino, our reporter K. Masami was back at her local branch on 30 November for round two of the celebrations.
▼ The second limited-time beverage is the Butter Caramel Mille-feuille Frappuccino (690 yen [US$4.98]).
The warm golden hues on the sign itself were a welcome sight on the cold morning Masami visited, and when she received the drink, it looked just as good in real life as it did on the poster.
The Frappuccino contains custard sauce, butter caramel sauce, fiantine and pie crumbs in the base, with added fiantine, pie crumbs, and even more butter caramel sauce on top for extra texture and flavour.
▼ Fiantine is a crepe dough that’s stretched out thinly, baked, and crushed into fine pieces.
All the flaky, crunchy pastry bits on top work well to recreate the texture of a mille-feuille pastry, tantalising the taste buds with buttery notes that create a sublime partnership with the sweet, rich, milky caramel flavours in the drink. The custard sauce makes its presence felt here and there as well, giving it bursts of pudding-like flavour.
For those who prefer warm drinks, the cold beverage is joined by the Butter Caramel Mille-feuilleLatte, in Short through to Venti sizes for 550-680 yen, which contains butter caramel sauce, custard sauce, espresso, and steamed milk.
▼ Like the Frappuccino, this drink is also topped with caramel sauce, fiantine and pie crumbs.
The addition of espresso to the mix here adds a slightly bitter kick to the sweetness, and the heat helps to melt the crumbly topping, making it softer on the palate. The combination of flavours is warming and comforting — like a snuggly hug on a cold winter’s day.
As Masami was trying her drinks at a Starbucks in the Kansai region around Osaka, she was able to pick up a “Shaken Meal” as well.
▼ The Soy Bolognese Shaken Meal costs 460 yen.
Masami had heard that some branches in the region were already stocking these, but this was her first time seeing it at her local branch so she was excited to try it out.
▼ As the name suggests, this meal is simply shaken and eaten.
The cup was packed to the brim with salad ingredients, making it a little difficult to eat, but masami certainly wasn’t complaining. The dressing was flavourful, and had made its way through the entire salad, making for a tasty, healthy, and satisfying meal.
▼ The salad was a great way to lessen the guilt of just having consumed two creamy Starbucks beverages.
Gucci teaming up with long-standing Japanese silk company to make beautiful limited-edition bags
19:13
cherishe
0 Comments
Gorgeous traditional Japanese art combined with Gucci’s history makes for some really stunning bags.
Kyoto is famous for a lot of traditional Japanese art and food, and one of those is Nishijin silk textiles, known as Nishijin-ori in Japanese. Produced in the northwestern Kyoto district of the same name, this fabric is made of woven silk that has already been dyed, giving it a rough but durable texture. Nishinjin silk dates back to the Heian Period (around 1200 CE) when it was supported by the nobility, the warrior class, and the wealthy, and is now known as one of Japan’s traditional art forms.
With a 20-step production process, where each step is overseen by a specialist, these textiles are, naturally, very expensive. That’s why it’s used for some of the highest-quality, luxury products like the newest limited-edition handbags from fashion brand Gucci.
Gucci has teamed up in a special collaboration with Japan’s oldest Nishijin silk company, Hosoo, to make beautiful, durable bags, made with the involvement of both by Japanese artisans using traditional techniques handed down for generations and Gucci’s artisans in Florence.
Employing the signatures of both Gucci and Hosoo, they’ve come up with three new, three-dimensional textiles of Gucci motifs woven with the refined, shining silk, gold leaf, and silver leaf that Nishijin textiles are famous for. These textiles are used in two new extremely limited-edition Gucci bags.
The Gucci Bamboo 1947 is a contemporary reinterpretation of Gucci’s bamboo handle handbags, which have a long and painted history. In the post-World War II Italy of 1947, when materials for making handbags were scarce, Gucci founder Guccio Gucci, with the help of Florence artisans, came up with the idea to use light but strong bamboo for the handles of their bags. These “bamboo bags” soon became beloved by Hollywood actresses and jet setters and were known around the world as iconic fashion pieces.
Though designed in the traditional bamboo bag style, the Gucci Bamboo 1947 makes use of a beautiful finely woven floral Nishijin silk brocade with a pink leather border, a gold and bamboo catch, and a bamboo handle. It’s a feminine and sophisticated version of an already classic design.
The Gucci Diana is part of a line of bags that reimagine the bamboo-handled tote bags originally released in 1991, and is part of the Overture Collection. A signature of the new design is the leather belt surrounding the handle, which is removable but is designed to help maintain the shape of the handbag.
The Nishijin fabric used in the Gucci Diana is three-dimensional, with a very minute version of the Gucci logo woven in a single, neutral color. The result is a very sophisticated, refined handbag that looks like the height of luxury.
The bags are also meant to embody the bonds between the Gucci brand and the city of Kyoto. For example, in celebration of its 100-year anniversary in 2021 and in anticipation of the next 100 years to come, Gucci held several special events in Kyoto, one of which was Gucci Bamboo House, an exhibition themed on tradition and creation that showcased Gucci’s iconic bamboo handbags.
Both the Gucci Bamboo 1947 and Gucci Diana will be available for sale in extremely limited quantities at select Gucci shops around Japan on December 1. These are guaranteed to draw the eye and the ire of any who see them, so if you’ve got the cash to spare, you won’t want to snooze on them!
Gucci doesn’t often team up with Japanese brands, but when they do, the result is always stunning, even with something as bright and youthful as Doraemon. We’re always excited to see what they come out with next!
Pokémon Center apologizes for writing model Nicole Fujita’s name as Nicole Fujita
18:13
cherishe
0 Comments
Even native Japanese readers had trouble spotting the problem in collaboration announcement.
Pokémon is such a huge pop culture force in Japan that the franchise is always working on at least a few creative projects with other famous organizations and individuals. For example, next month there’s a new line of accessories coming to the Pokémon Center megastores that’s a collaborative effort between Pokémon and fashion model Nicole Fujita.
In addition to accessories inspired by Pikachu and universally-agreed-upon-as-cute Piplup, Teddiursa, and Stufful, there are two other unexpected Pokémon species that are part of the collection. According to the above announcement from the Pokémon Center official Twitter account, there are also “items with Flygon and Hydreigon motifs, which are two of Nicole Fujita’s favorite Pokémon.”
However, three days after sending out the above tweet, the Pokémon Center posted an apology, informing everyone that it had written Nicole Fujita’s name incorrectly in the first tweet, and correcting the mistake by rendering her name in the proper way.
So what was the problem? Well, the initial tweet wrote the model’s name like this…
…but the correct way to write it is like this.
Having trouble spotting the difference? Maybe it’ll be easier if we put them right on top of each other.
▼ Top: wrong
Bottom: right
Still scratching your head? Don’t worry, you’re not alone, as plenty of people in Japan had trouble figuring out what was wrong too.
Your first guess might be to go looking for a difference between the first character for each version, but we’ll save you the time and eyestrain and let you know that all 18 strokes are identical in both, and also the correct way to write the “Fu” part of Fujita’s family name (since the Pokémon Center’s tweets are in Japanese, her name is written family name-first, as “Fujita Nicole”). No, where the Pokémon Center slipped up is with the third character.
But wait, aren’t they both just a pair of horizontal lines? Yes, but look carefully and you’ll see that in the incorrect character, the lines are longer than they are in the correct version, and there’s also a bit more vertical space between them. That’s because they’re actually two different characters. The top one is kanji, a character with a connected meaning used for indigenous Japanese words and names, while the bottom is katakana, a strictly phonetic character used for non-Japanese loanwords and names. Since New Zealand-born Fujita’s given name is Nicole, it’s written with the katakana, not the kanji.
▼ Top: kanji
Bottom: katakana
The difference isn’t something most people, even native Japanese readers, would be able to easily spot, though. Kanji and katakana aren’t ever mixed within a single family or given name, and while Fujita (藤田) is a common Japanese surname, the name 藤田二 doesn’t exist. Then there’s the fact that one of the pronunciations of the kanji 二 is “ni,” so even if someone did mentally register that the first katakana of Nicole’s name is replaced with the kanji 二, odds are they’d still read it as “Nicole.”
Add it all up, and Japanese Twitter users couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, even as the Pokémon Center said “We apologize for the error and wish to issue this correction.”
“Am…am I the only one who can’t find the difference?” “I can’t either.” “I spent about 10 minutes staring at my PC screen and still couldn’t figure it out.” “Wasted so much time searching for some difference for 藤.” “The person who caught this has some serious eagle eyes.” “It’s like some new kind of ‘spot the difference’ activity book puzzle.”
All that said, the kanji 二 and the katakana ニ are different, and the difference is marginally more noticeable in other fonts.
Another problem is that while the two characters might look the same to the human eye, electronic devices know that they’re different right away, so using the wrong one in digital communications (like social media) can limit the reach of the message by making it harder for people who are spelling the name correctly to find the related tweet, website, etc. So keeping your 二 separate from your ニ is an important part of communicating effectively in Japanese, just like keeping your ソ separate from your ン.
How to make your own hoshi-imo Japanese dried sweet potato snacks【SoraKitchen】
09:39
cherishe
0 Comments
Making one of Japan’s favorite snacks is a slow and easy process.
Japan loves sweet potatoes, especially in the fall when they’re in season. The most popular way to enjoy them is as roasted sweet potatoes, or yaki-imo as they’re called in Japanese, but Japan also has an alternative sweet spud snack named hoshi-imo, or dried sweet potato.
As unabashed lovers of both sweet stuff and traditional Japanese cuisine, hoshi-imo show up on our shopping list pretty frequently. As much as we love hoshi-imo, though, we’re often surprised at how expensive they are. On our last grocery store visit, for example, the shop had the packs below on offer, with hoshi-imo made with extra-sweet bani harkua sweet potatoes costing almost 1,000 yen (US$7.20), and even more ordinay varieties costing about 400 per pack.
Meanwhile, you can get a whole beni haruka sweet potato for about 300 yen. So we started wondering if we could just make our own hoshi-imo, and it turns out it’s a really simple process! Aside from the sweet potatoes, all you need is a steamer, a pair of cloth work gloves or hand towel, and a hanging drying net, of the sort you can get at Daiso or other 100 yen shops.
Once you’ve got all that, though, the next thing you need to do is to check the weather report. In order to transform your sweet potato into hoshi-imo, you’re going to need to let it dry for three days, and maybe even as much as a week. Obviously, the more sunshine there is the quicker the process will go, so we started making our hoshi-imo when the forecast predicated three days of sunny weather ahead.
The first step in the kitchen is to steam the sweet potatoes, with their skins still on, on low heat for one to two hours. You’ll know they’re ready when you can stick a toothpick or skewer through the potato smoothly and easily.
Then it’s time to remove the skin. You’ll want to do this right away, since once the potatoes cool down again the skin becomes harder to remove. Of course, the fact that you just spent an hour or two steaming them means the sweet potatoes are going to be piping hot, which is why you’ll want to use gloves or a towel. The skin will basically peel right off, but you do not want to make the mistake we did of using a plastic bag as a kitchen substitute and scalding our palms.
▼ Searing hand pain = blurry photos
Next you’ll need to slice the sweet potatoes into strips about 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) thick. Thankfully, it’s better to wait until the potatoes have cooled down before you start cutting, which took about 30 minutes.
By the way, if you’re wondering if you can just peel the raw sweet potatoes so you don’t have to worry about their heat, that’s not recommended. Steaming the potatoes in a skinless state makes them take in too much water vaper and turns them soggy.
Even with leaving the skins on for steaming, though, the sweet potatoes get very soft in texture. Japanese sweet potatoes have an especially high natural sugar content, so they sort of caramelize when heated.
But with some careful knife work, we managed to get everything sliced into strips, and then it was time to place them in the drying net and play the waiting game.
Like we mentioned above, it can take anywhere from three to seven days for the sweet potato to dry.
The way you can test to see if they’re ready is to take a piece and bend it lengthwise.
If it can fold in half like this without crumbling or tearing…
…then it’s ready to eat!
So how did our batch taste? Good. After three full days of drying, we had a pile of proper hoshi-imo, and at a fraction of what it would have cost us to buy that much pre-made at the store.
However, we have to admit that our hoshi-imo weren’t quite as sweet as professionally made store-bought varieties. We’re not sure if that’s because they use higher quality potatoes than what we could get our hands on at the supermarket, have a more sophisticated drying setup, or some other factors are at play.
The biggest difference here, though, is how much of a time savings store-bought hoshi-imo are. Making your own dried sweet potatoes doesn’t involve a lot of active prep time – setting up the steamer only takes a few seconds, and the peeling and slicing are both pretty quick processes as well. From start to finish, though, you’re looking at about three hours from when you start steaming until you have the sweet potato slices in the net, and at least three days after that until they’re ready to eat.
On the other hand, there’s a certain satisfaction then comes from making your own all-natural snacks, along with the unique slow-life appeal of the eventual reward for your patience. Plus, if you happen to live in a part of the world where you’ve got access to sweet potatoes but your local shops don’t have hoshi-imo, waiting three days for them to dry is probably still quicker than waiting until you next trip to Japan. Oh, and if you’ve got your heart set on making roasted sweet potatoes instead, we’ve got a new way to do that too.
So it should come as no surprise that while in the Ameyoko shopping district of Tokyo he couldn’t resist taking a turn of its mysterious “Trap or Treasure” machine. For a cost of 500 yen (US$3.62), this capsule machine promises one of the two titular types of capsule contents but gives no indication of what either might be.
Below the machines were signs further driving the point home that those willing to take the plunge will either get “Heaven” or “Hell” and another sign issued a set of three rules to follow.
1) Stand in front of the machine and close your eyes 2) Bow twice, clap twice, bow once, and pray for success 3) Insert a 500-yen coin and turn the knob Your feelings of gratitude and the strength of your prayer will determine your fate…
The act of bowing twice, clapping twice, and then bowing again is a rather common custom when praying at Shinto shrines. It’s something you’re likely to see any time you visit a shrine, but rarely in front of a vending machine.
Since the borders reopened Ameyoko has begun to bustle again with tourists. It still isn’t quite like it used to be, but there were enough people hanging around to make Mr. Sato feel a little embarrassed to pray to this capsule machine.
Still, the sign said that if he didn’t pray with enough sincerity, then he might get a trap instead of a treasure. The stakes were high, so he swallowed his pride and gave two deep bows, two loud claps, and one final bow full of faith while passersby glanced at him sideways.
He then put the coin in and turned the knob…
Out rolled a sizable black orb. Mr. Sato gave it a shake and there was a hard clanking inside as if something metallic was inside. Based on past capsule toy experience it seemed like a key chain, but this was no ordinary capsule machine. “Wait, wait,” he thought to himself, “It might be a jewel!”
Having convinced himself that he had just gotten a valuable gemstone, our reporter tucked the capsule into his bag and waited till he got back home before opening it.
Mr. Sato’s eyes were wide as he pried open the plastic ball and dreamed of the valuables destined to pour out of it when…
Reality popped out instead, in the form of a stuffed animal key chain.
It had a tag that read “Heartwarming School: Light Blue Class Polar Bear.”
Mr. Sato thought that was ludicrous. There was no way this thing was a polar bear and he even had reservations that it was a member of the Ursidae family. It could just as easily be a red panda, otter, or kinkajou.
As far as this being a trap or a treasure, it certainly seemed to lean towards the former but he also figured such judgment was really in the eye of the beholder. Had he been six years old this would certainly be a treasure, so perhaps this machine was only expecting six-year-olds to actually pray to it and simply underestimated the unique sway our ace reporter’s own inner child has over him.
Man rides motorbike into lobby of Fukuoka police station, demands they crack down on rude driving
06:18
cherishe
0 Comments
If it worked for the Terminator, why not him?
When I took the police tests for a Japanese driving license, one of the most important things was to keep my car very close to the curb. It’s not something that’s done a whole lot on the actual roads here, but the police seem to really encourage it during testing. The logic is that by keeping the car so close to the side, it avoids collisions with people on bicycles and motorbikes by cutting them off them from squeezing into your blind spot.
It would seem the police more than anyone know how bikes can seem to pop out of nowhere and cause trouble. But it’s probably safe to say that even the Fukuoka Prefectural Police were shocked when a moped suddenly appeared in the middle of their front lobby on 28 November.
The bike was ridden by a 41-year-old office worker from Kitakyushu City who brought it up to the doors at about 7:10 in the evening. After the automatic doors opened, he proceeded to ride into the lobby and then started revving his engine loudly. Upon seeing an officer, he shouted: “I’m here to talk about bad driving!”
The police accepted his invitation and arrested him for unlawful entry so they could have more time to talk. According to police he admits to his crimes but adds that he wanted them to crack down on people who engage in rude driving techniques like tailgating. He had been earlier cut off by a driver and according to some reports had been having some problems with people at work as well.
As for why he decided to ride into the police station rather than walk, he said “I knew there was a parking lot in the police station but I rode up to the lobby.” While not much of an excuse, his honesty ought to count for something.
Readers of the news were understandably baffled by what happened and left comments explaining that while he may have a point about rude drivers, this clearly wasn’t the best course of action.
“What is going on here?” “Is this a comedy bit?” “Maybe he felt he was going to do some reckless driving and wanted to turn himself in.” “If he were on drugs they would have said so, but he must have been on drugs, right?” “He does have a point. I don’t see many patrol cars recently and people drive like idiots.” “They’re not the manner police. What does he want them to do?” “What kind of thought process goes from ‘I’m frustrated’ to ‘I’m going to rush a police station with my bike?'” “Even though it’s a police station, the people inside must have been terrified. He could have had a weapon or sprayed the place with gasoline.” “You can’t get arrested for rude driving. You can, however, get arrested for driving into a police station.”
No one was injured in the incident and no damage was done, but I have to assume that driving into a police station will result in a suspended license at the very least. However, we can’t know his fate without understanding all the details of this case.
Speaking of details, the man claimed he was cut off by a driver while on his bike. That means there’s a more-than-remote chance that he could have been behind a car doing the police-recommended technique of driving really close to the side to stop bikes from passing. If that is the case, it still wouldn’t even be the strangest or most ironic aspect of this whole incident.
Can we pick out the Japanese premium priced persimmon in this blind taste test?
22:25
cherishe
0 Comments
Premium vs. supermarket — we try to avenge our persimmon failings from five years ago.
Our writers here at SoraNews24 pride ourselves on having something of a refined palate when it comes to food, so much so that we regularly take part in ‘Gourmet Writers’ Rating Check‘ challenges. The challenge premise is simple; participants are presented with two versions of a food item, and using only their taste buds, have to pick which one is the premium, more expensive option.
So far, the Gourmet Writers’ Rating Check challenges have taken on the challenges of seeing if they can tell the difference between real beer and happoshu, or distinguish fresh tuna from frozen tuna. But while our writers have clocked many taste testing hours over the years, there’s one taste test challenge in particular that still haunts them to this day. The story takes place around five years ago, when our writers were much wetter behind the ears.
▼ Back in 2017, the gang looked a little different
In 2017, the challenge was set — could the SoraNews24 team pick out the more expensive persimmon from the run-of-the-mill supermarket persimmon?
In a surprise result, every single participant chose incorrectly.
Such a devastating loss has haunted the SoraNews24 team ever since, and so today, five years since they first failed, they decided to avenge their past selves and attempt the challenge once more.
▼ The persimmons were purchased, and the participants prepared themselves.
This time, the two persimmons being used were Isetan’s premium Taishu persimmon, which cost 1,296 yen each (US$9.30) from Japanese department store Isetan. Taishu persimmons are said to be carefully chosen for their sweetness, so this really is a premium product.
Up against the pricey persimmon was a regular supermarket-bought persimmon, which cost around 80 yen. That makes the fancy persimmon more than ten times more expensive than the normal persimmon, but will our writers be able to spot which persimmon is premium?
All participants knew what was on the line here, and nerves were running high. Would they all pick the same? Would this year end in failure too? Let’s find out!
● P.K. Sanjun: B
P.K.: “I heard somewhere that cheaper persimmons don’t have seeds in them, so I was trying to find seeds. Neither persimmon had any seeds though, so I’m just going with which one was sweeter, which was Persimmon B. From start to finish, B was just sweeter. A was really delicious, but I can still taste the sweetness from B in the back of my throat now.”
● Go Hatori: B
Go: “There’s definitely a difference, but it’s hard to tell which one is more expensive. But B is a little sweeter than A, so I’ll go for B. A was ripe but not sweet. But B was firm and sweet. Something was mentioned about the expensive persimmon having more sugar content, so I’m picking the sweeter of the two.”
● Seiji Nakazawa: B
Seiji: “Actually, I remember how the expensive persimmon tasted last time, so I’m confident this time around. A was soft but slightly sour, B was firmer but not sour at all.
Anyway, I’ll trust my memory and my gut and go with B.”
● Ahiruneko: B
Ahiruneko: “There’s no way that A is worth more than 1,000 yen. These are two completely different fruits. The texture is totally different and B is much, much sweeter. So far I’ve gotten all of these fruit challenges wrong, but if I get this one wrong then I’ll lose all faith in my taste buds. This might be the easiest challenge yet.”
● Masanuki Sunakoma: B
Masanuki: “If you bought A at a really fancy supermarket, you’d feel pretty ripped off. But I’ve never eaten a persimmon like B before. A tastes like a persimmon your grandparents give you when you visit, and B tastes like a fancy fruit.”
● Yuuichiro Wasai: B
Yuuichiro: “‘A is delicious… but B has a totally different texture! How should I explain it… I don’t usually associate crisp persimmons with a sweet taste, but this one was crisp and sweet. Plus, I can’t imagine a fancy supermarket selling soft persimmons like A.”
● Mr. Sato: B
Mr. Sato: “I usually guess these challenges based on the texture, but I’m going to try something new today. Hmm… I’ll guess B. A has a soft, almost soggy texture, and not worth 1,200 yen. If I’d bought this from a fancy supermarket, I’d definitely complain. I can’t really tell anything from the sweetness, but I guess B is a little sweeter.
Plus, B was much crispier than A, so in the end I guess I’m going to choose based on texture again.”
● Yoshio: A
Yoshio: “I actually eat a lot of persimmons because my kids like them. I’m gonna go with A here, simply because it’s the one I liked more. A is juicy and B is crisp, and for me A is the one I want to eat again. I’d recommend A to others, so I’m going to stick to my guns here, even if it means I lose.”
So with Yoshio going with A, no matter what the result the team somehow avoided the dreaded “everyone is wrong” scenario they were faced with last time, which was a relief. With 7 ‘B’ guesses and just one ‘A’ guess, which persimmon would be the premium one? It was time to find out.
▼ Drum roll please…
The premium Taishu persimmon was…
…
…
…
▼ Persimmon B!
With the whole team (except Yoshio) successfully guessing correctly, it’s safe to say their revenge on the challenge was a huge success.
Let’s look at each individual correct guess success rate, with a final comment from each competitor.
▼ Seiji Nakazawa (correct answer rate 84.2 percent) “B was crisp but not sour at all. ”
▼ P.K. Sanjun (correct answer rate 80 percent) “At any rate, B was sweeter.”
▼ Masanuki Sunakoma (correct answer rate 62.5 percent) “A was like my grandma’s persimmon.”
▼ Ahiruneko (correct answer rate 61.9 percent) “B was much, much sweeter.”
▼ Go Hatori (correct answer rate 60.8 percent) “I’ll go with B, which is crisp but sweet.”
▼ Yoshio (correct answer rate 52.3 percent) “I’m going to stick to my guns.”
▼ Yuichiro Wasai (correct answer rate 50 percent) “B is crisp but unusually sweet.”
▼ Mr. Sato (correct answer rate 47.6 percent) “If A was from a fancy supermarket, I’d definitely complain.”
You can check out the blind taste testing as it happened here —
So, with the exception of our poor boss Yoshio, the SoraNews24 gourmet writers managed to get their revenge on the persimmon challenge after five years. Here’s hoping the gang can keep on riding the victory train all the way to their next taste test, and see you again in five years time when the team take revenge on the overwhelming failure that was the cherry blind taste test challenge!
0 comments: