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That probably depends on the egg you use, though.

The English concepts of “fresh” and “raw” tend to overlap quite a bit in the Japanese term “nama.” Often the distinction can be made from context like “nama biru” for a draft beer and “nama no ninjin” for raw carrots, but this recipe our writer Yui Imai came across really brings these two ideas together in one dessert.

It’s called nama purin, in which “purin” is a Japanese version of pudding, known in other countries as a flan or crème caramel. Many a purin has been called “nama“ in the past to highlight its tender freshness, but this recipe really seems to exemplify the idea of “nama.”

It was brought to us by the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations, or “Zen-Noh” for short. They mention that not only is their nama purin as fresh as you can get, but it’s also very easy to make with items found at any supermarket, so Yui was excited to give it a shot.

Here’s everything she needed for two puddings:

・Fresh cream: 100 grams (3.5 ounces)
・Milk: 50 milliliters (1.7 ounces)
・Granulated Sugar: 20 grams (0.7 ounces) for the cream and 1 tablespoon for the caramel
・Eggs: 2
・Vanilla Extract to taste

The hardest part is probably making the caramel sauce, but that’s just a matter of putting two tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of water in a pan and heating it. Once it gets a nice brown color, turn off the heat and let the residual warmth do the rest of the work.

Add about half the amount of water to get a nice consistency but be careful while everything’s hot because it might splash back and scald.

With the sauce out of the way, it’s just a matter of whisking up some cream with sugar in it. Yui did it by hand but after finishing, highly recommends using an electric beater. Your elbows will thank you for it.

Once the cream starts forming sturdy piles, add the vanilla and beat some more. Then add the milk bit by bit, beating each time to firm it back up.

Once everything is looking good, get your eggs ready and separate the yolks.

Just put the cream into a cup or bowl of your choice, hollow out a little groove, plop the yolk in it, then drizzle the caramel on top and marvel at what you just made.

In Yui’s case, she was blown away by the richness of both the fresh cream and raw egg yolk working in perfect harmony. Although it was quite different from a typical purin, it still had the distinct taste and sweetness of it, only everything seemed amplified.

She had always thought that making purin required a lot of steps like steaming and chilling, but this was way easier and seemed to yield even better results.

Of course, one major issue in other countries is the egg. In Japan, eggs are sold with the assumption they’ll be eaten raw, but other regions may have standards that differ so be sure to look into how eggs are prepared for sale first.

And if it turns out you’re in the clear, then try this recipe out for a nama purin like you’ve never had before.

Source: Zen-Noh Nama Purin Recipe
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Springtime sweets give us even more to choose from at “Thirty-one.”

We’re now less than a month away from the projected start of cherry blossom season. The sakura have already arrived at Baskin-Robbins Japan, though, which has brought back its beloved sakura ice cream and is debuting some other special springtime treats.

Since the chain is just known as “Thirty-one” to fans in Japan, the lineup is part of what it’s calling the 31 Enjoy Spring promotion, which kicked off last week. Since nothing says “spring” in Japan quite so strongly as cherry blossoms, there’s naturally now Sakura ice cream on the menu, inspired by the taste of sakura mochi sweets and containing actual salted cherry blossom tree leaf to help draw out a little extra sweetness.

Though sakura blossoms trees don’t bear fruit, having cherries on their mind seems to have also inspired Baskin-Robbins Japan to bring out a Burgandy Cherry flavor with chunks of cherry mixed in…

…and there are more vernal visuals to be found in the Cotton Candy Pastel, whose bits of pink chocolate evoke thoughts of cherry blossom petals fluttering through the breeze on a sunny spring afternoon.

And while not necessarily spring-related, the arrival of more matcha sweets is always something to be celebrated, so there are sure to be smiles for the new Matcha Brownie ice cream.

Sort of like Baskin-Robbins Japan itself, this is a multicultural mix of flavors, combining matcha powder from Kitagawa Hanbe, a tea merchant founded in Kyoto Prefecture over 150 years ago, and chocolate-chip brownie pieces.

Baskin-Robbins has also rolled out flowerily festive cherry blossom-themed cup and box designs for sakura season.

▼ It’s always good to have another reason to buy ice cream by the box, right?

All of the new flavors are on sale now, with Matcha Brownie and Burgandy Cherry available until the end of March, Sakura until May 8, and Cotton Candy Pastel until the end of May.

Source: PR Times
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Insert images: PR Times
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Shibuya Scramble-adjacent Tsutaya building set to become newest Pokémon destination.

It’s been a couple months now since the QFront/Shibuya Tsutaya building in downtown Tokyo’s Shibuya district closed. Located right across the iconic Shibuya Scramble intersection from Shibuya Station, the building is a symbol of the neighborhood, and the area just doesn’t feel the same with the place boarded up, as can be seen in the photo above.

So it’s good to know that the building is reopening soon, and it’s even better to know that when it does, one of the new occupants will be a swanky new lounge for Pokémon card game players!

The preview images have the feel of a cool, contemporary cafe, and yes, food and drinks are available. However, this isn’t any ordinary coffee shop, it’s the Pokémon Card Lounge, a space where fans of the Pokémon Trading Card Game can gather and, more importantly, battle.

The lounge looks to accommodate all levels of players, from the hardcore to the casually curious. Guests are allowed, and encouraged, to bring in their own sets of Pokémon cards, but the lounge also has a stock of free-to-use loaner decks and other “necessary items” (presumably things such as explanation booklets for how to play). So even if you’ve never bought a single pack of Pokémon cards in your life, or if you’ve bought many of them but just don’t have them on you at the time, you can roll in with no preparation beyond a desire to play and still enjoy a match against other aspiring Pokémon Masters.

▼ Note the Basic Energy marks decorating the walls.

There will be a fee to sit at the battle area tables, but you get some pretty nice perks too: unlimited free drinks and snacks from the self-service counter. The management says that these are so that players “can relax comfortably between battles,” implying that the staff isn’t going to be shooing you to the exit the second your match is finished. There’s also going to be an attached merch shop and “gallery” from which to view the card battles, both of which are free to enter.

Pricing details are yet to be announced, but the Pokémon Card Lounge, which will be on the fifth floor of the Shibuya Tsutaya building, is scheduled to open on April 25. If you’re stopping by, don’t forget that the Pokémon Center Shibuya megastore is just a short walk away too.

Source: PR Times via Shibuya Keizai Shimbun
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Equipped with everything you need to get work done and unwind with a glass of wine afterwards.

Where on Earth is the closest place to Heaven? If you were asked that question, what would your answer be? For our reporter Ahiruneko, his answer would be a Saizeriya solo booth, or “Hitori yo no Counter Seki” (“One-person Counter Seat”) as it’s known in Japanese.

As a family restaurant chain, seating at Saizeriya branches is generally designed to accommodate, well, families, so counter seating or seating for one is pretty much unheard of. However, when the pandemic hit Japan, the chain set up solo booths at select branches, including one each at Roppongi and Tachikawa in Tokyo, the latter of which Ahiruneko recently visited and fell in love with.

The Tachikawa Kitaguchi branch has counter seating for only 10 diners, and the first thing that makes them heavenly, according to Ahiruneko, is they’re located by the window.

▼ The next thing they have going for them is that each seat has partitions, offering you a great sense of privacy.

When staff showed Ahiruneko to his seat at the counter, they looked at him apologetically and said, “It’s a little small…” Ahiruneko, however, shook his head and told them they had nothing to worry about because he actually liked the size as it felt cosy and safe, like a snug in a pub for one.

▼ It was just the right size for him, with a lot packed into the space, including…

▼ …his very own electrical outlet!

Not only was he able to get his electricity for free — Wi-Fi was included for nothing as well!

It’s not all that easy to find places that offer free Wi-Fi and power right at your seat in Japan, and in family restaurants it’s virtually unheard of. This brings us to Ahiruneko’s next point of praise for the setup, because instead of having to pay hourly fees or order expensive coffees while you work, like you would at a cafe or teleworking space, you get to enjoy the cheap and affordable prices family restaurants have to offer.

▼ The reasonable prices extend to the wine menu.

Although it was the middle of the day on a weekday, Ahiruneko couldn’t pass up this opportunity to order a carafe of red wine to help him get through the workday. While he would’ve normally felt self-conscious about day drinking in public, the partitions afforded him so much privacy that he didn’t care at all.

As he sipped and worked, he ordered a few side dishes and felt like he was living a life of luxury on a budget.

The private booth-style setup gave him a sense of freedom and relaxation he wouldn’t normally feel at a regular seat out in the open space of the restaurant, and it helped to dull the noise of other diners around him.

▼ Time for another dish and this time, a carafe of white wine.

The multi-tiered contraption in front of him held all the cutlery he needed, as well as paper napkins, and they were all within easy reach.

It was like discovering a secret base, and the vibe was so calm and relaxing that the office worker who took a seat next to Ahiruneko on what seemed to be his lunch break laid his head on the table and took a quick power nap after eating.

So not only are the counter seats great for working, eating and drinking at, they’re great for sleeping at too. The only problem is finding them, as the official website doesn’t list which branches have counter seating, so it’s a bit of an if-you-know-you-know type of thing.

So if you’re a bit further out from the Tachikawa or Roppongi branches, keep an eye out for counter seats at your local branch. If you’re lucky, Heaven on Earth might be closer than you think!

Restaurant information

Saizeriya Tachikawa Kitaguchi store / イゼリヤ 立川北口店
Address: Tokyo-to, Tachikawa-shi, Akebono-cho 2-4-5, OSJ TACHIKAWA Building 5F
東京都立川市曙町2-4-5 OSJ TACHIKAWAビル5F
Open: 10:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Website

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New videos show Totoro’s anime bus in action, and it’s even cuter than we imagined.

Back in 1988, Studio Ghibli’s lauded anime movie My Neighbour Totoro made its debut, and in the roughly 35 years since, children and adults everywhere have been dreaming of riding the giant Catbus from the film.

It’s a dream that Goro Miyazaki, son of the movie’s director Hayao Miyazaki, was well aware of when he was first put in charge of constructing Ghibli Park in Aichi Prefecture back in 2017, and in true Ghibli fashion he delivered, teaming up with Toyota and Monet Technologies to create an actual Catbus to ferry visitors around the site.

Just over a year since the joint project was announced, we’re now approaching the 16 March date when the Catbuses will actually begin zooming around the park. However, a special press preview day has given us all an early look at them in action, and they’re even more adorable than we imagined!

As the above video shows, there are five Catbuses on site, and each one is equipped with two rows of seats behind the driver, with capacity for six passengers on soft, fur-like seating. The cute design details extend to the number plate, “と10-6“, with “と” being the hiragana character for “to“, and “10“(tou) and “six” (“roku”) being read as “to” and “ro” in Japanese, giving us “Totoro“.

Above the numbers is the word “長久手” (“Nagakute“), which is the name of the city where Ghibli Park is located, only with the character 久 appearing upside down, in line with the childlike mood of the film.

On the front is another charmingly intentional mishap, with the “ク” (“ku”) for “ジブリパーク” (“Ghibli Park”) on the route indicator written upside down.

In case you’re wondering, yes, those bright eyes do light up when the sun isn’t shining strongly enough, as do the red mouse eyes, and on rainy days, shades come down on either side of the vehicle to protect everyone on board.

▼ The rain shades are adorned with the silhouette of Totoro with its iconic umbrella, as seen in this cued-up video below.

The “APM Nekobus” as it’s officially known — “nekobus” is the name for “Catbus” in Japanese — was developed by Toyota Motor Corporation, based on the APM (“Accessible People Mover”) electric vehicle used to transport athletes around the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games venue.

The new design features were carefully crafted through consultation between the three parties involved in the project, with special attention given to details such as the eyes, which look like they’re facing straight ahead, but are actually mounted on slight angles to the left and right to give them just the right rounded look.

▼ Take a closer look at all the design details here:

As an “Accessible People Mover”, the Catbuses are considerate of seniors, people with disabilities, pregnant women and those with infants.

The first row of seats folds away and a slope can be installed in 10 seconds to make riding the bus easy for anyone who wants to ride it.

With a top speed of 19 kilometres (12 miles) per hour, the five new Catbuses will run along the 1.9-kilometre passage connecting Mononoke Village and Dondoko Forest, with the ride taking around ten minutes each way.

▼ The Mononoke Village Bus Stop (top) and the Dondoko Forest Bus Stop (bottom)

Tickets are required to board the Catbus, priced at 1,000 yen (US$6.65) for adults and 500 yen for children (4 years old to elementary school students) for a one-way trip. Tickets must be purchased in advance at one of the ticket machines located near the bus stop before boarding, and buses are scheduled to run from 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on weekends and public holidays.

▼ Mononoke Village Bus Stop (top) and ticket machine (bottom)

▼ Dondoko Forest Bus Stop (top) and ticket machine (bottom)

Everyone who rides the bus will receive a special memento with an illustration of the Catbus drawn by Hayao Miyazaki on the front, in a design created by producer and Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki, and a map of the park, drawn by Goro Miyazaki, on the back.

▼ The leaflet can be seen in this cued-up video below.

Having seen just how gorgeous the Catbuses are in action, we can’t wait to ride them when they go into operation on 16 March, which is perfectly timed for the grand unveiling of the park’s Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service-themed Valley of Witches area, scheduled to open on the same day.

Sources: Monet Technologies (1, 2)
Featured image: Monet Technologies
Insert images: Monet Technologies (1, 2)
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Get the benefits of amazake without the strong sweetness.

Amazake, a traditional Japanese drink made of fermented rice, is said to have as much nutrition content as brown rice. It has a distinct sweetness and a, well, rice-like texture, which can be a turnoff for some. Luckily, Japanese sweets company Morinaga has come up with a recipe that our Japanese-language reporter Yui Imai thought would suit her tastes: Coffee Amazake.

The recipe on Morinaga’s website is almost as simple as it sounds. All Yui needed was amazake–commonly sold in individually sized cans or cartons in Japan–coffee, and honey.

Yui wanted iced coffee, so she started off with some ice cubes in a tall glass, then she poured in the milky white amazake.

When she carefully poured in the coffee, it created an eye-pleasing gradation.

▼ Her Coffee Amazake was complete!

After a quick stir, she took a tip. As expected, the bitterness of the coffee cut through the amazake’s strong sweetness to create a well-balanced beverage.

▼ If you’re wondering where the honey in the recipe went, it’s actually optional!

For Yui, who doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, just coffee and amazake was enough. Upon trying a sip of it with honey, Yui concluded it was more of a dessert drink.

With this recipe, Yui figures anyone can experience the health benefits of amazake year-round, especially as a refreshing summer beverage. One Japanese cafe chain served this hot for a limited time, as amazake is commonly served as a warm winter drink. Maybe Yui will give it a try!

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Overly smooth prank nearly costs us an arm and a leg.

Our writer Masanuki Sunakoma has been trying out various viral pranks and experiments he came across on social media. This time it was the disembodied arm on the shoulder prank that caught his eye, where one person pretends to put their hand over the victim’s shoulder. However, the hand actually belongs to a third person, so when the first person walks away, the victim gets quite a fright.

Thanks to the matching shirts used in our rubber hand illusion experiment Masanuki was able to give it a try with the help of our boss, Yoshio. As for the victim, Go Hatori was once again chosen because the head in a jar prank showed him to be at least somewhat susceptible to trickery.

▼ Masanuki (standing left), Go (sitting left), and Yoshio (standing right)

The main problem was how to divert Go’s attention while Masanuki and Yoshio pulled the old bait and switch. To accomplish this they came up with a fake article premise in which Yoshio would pay for anything Go ordered from Amazon, provided he could get it in his shopping cart within three minutes.

With the plan set, everyone got into position. Yoshio approached Go and explained the three-minute challenge to him, while Masanuki hung around behind them, wearing a sweatshirt to cover up the fact that he was wearing the exact same shirt.

Once Go firmly took the bait and excitedly prepared for his challenge, Masanuki got ready by removing his sweatshirt.

Yoshio prepared the timer as Go brought up Amazon on his phone. Little did he know this was all just an elaborate plan to give him such a startling.

Meanwhile, Masanuki psyched himself up for the moment he had to jump in. His timing needed to be flawless and one small slip-up would ruin the entire prank.

The timer began and Go hurriedly searched through the e-commerce site but the pressure of the time limit made it hard for him to think straight.

At the same time, Masanuki struggled to continuously feign interest in the various items on the rack behind Go as he waited for Yoshio to get into position.

Just as he saw Yoshio inch closer to Go, Masanuki sprang into action.

Like clockwork, Yoshio pretended to put his arm around Go just as Masanuki stuck his similarly sleeved arm over his shoulder.

The prank was afoot and Go seemed none the wiser.

▼ Yoshio: “How’s it going?”

The next phase would involve Yoshio detaching from his false appendage, again without Go noticing. This was to be another crucial moment that could make or break this prank, but by the looks of things, Go was totally engrossed in his smartphone.

▼ Go: “Oh… The time’s going so fast!”

And just like that, Yoshio pulled back and walked away without Go taking his eyes off his phone for a moment. He also seemed totally unaware that Masanuki’s arm was still dangling around his shoulder.

▼ Go: “I wish I had something bookmarked…”

▼ Go: “Ah, I’m running out of time!”

As Masanuki stood bent over in an awkward position behind Go, he wondered if their plan to fool him was working too well.

Go should be shrieking like a little girl at the seemingly severed limb on his shoulder by now. But instead, he was completely diverted by his diversion of trying to make an Amazon purchase.

▼ Go: “Why isn’t it letting me add to my cart?!”

Finally, the timer counted down to zero, and Go looked up from his smartphone dejectedly.

▼ Go: “Stupid… That was so stupid of me.”

▼ Go: “Huh?”

▼ Go: “What are you doing there?”

Far from terror, the only emotion Go expressed was mild confusion about what Masanuki was doing behind him. Go later explained that he was so focused on what he was doing, that he never even noticed Yoshio put his arm around him in the first place.

▼ Go: “What’s wrong?”

▼ The video shows how excruciatingly long that must have felt for Masanuki.

Even worse, they had given Go a blank check to buy whatever he wanted on Amazon but with nothing to show for it.

▼ Yoshio: “So, what did you get?”
Go: “A pair of orange Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 Slip-on Sneakers, but…”

▼ Go: “They were all sold out in my size so I couldn’t add them to my cart!”

So, it looks like all’s well that ends poorly for everyone involved, but Masanuki learned a valuable in that it’s possible to be overly prepared. Pranking is certainly a delicate art and he’ll take this as a lesson learned for the next time he spots a funny gag on social media.

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