KitKat Review: バニラアイス味

I found this package of 4 mini kitkat bars in the conbini one morning last month and got rather excited. A new summer flavor! Yay! They're バニラアイス味 or vanilla ice cream flavor, perfect for the hot humid Japan summer, despite the fact that they're actually chocolate, not ice cream, right? Inside the plastic package are 4 individually wrapped mini bars, keeping the Japanese penchant for over packaging alive.

I'm a cute mini bar! Don't the ice cube visuals cool you down and make you think ice cream?

In the heat, we melt just like ice cream!

As you can see from the photo above, despite the fact that you think this is a good summer snack, it's not. Japanese summers are ridiculously hot unless you're in Hokkaido (and maybe it's ridiculously hot even there, I don't know, never been there) and chocolate melts. Sorry to Kirsten who requested pictures of the cross section of kitkat's from now on. I tried to take one, but it didn't look like anything. It's a light tan wafer with white chocolate frosting. Very white, with little definition.

As for taste, I find these pretty disgusting actually. I'm sad, because I had high hopes as I love ice cream and kitkats. Maybe someone who actually likes white chocolate would like them more. They're super soft, though that may be the summer heat, and kind of taste like vanilla ice cream that has been left in a bowl and melted hours ago, that you dipped a thin wafer cookie into. It's not a strong vanilla flavor at all, and for some reason it makes me think of cream cheese. I don't like cream cheese, so I don't really eat it, so I'm not sure how close the tastes are, but that's what comes to mind when I eat vanilla ice kitkats. I will definitely not be eating these again. I need to find someone to take the 2 in the package I didn't eat for this review.

Driving in Japan, pt 3

When we last left off on my driving adventure, I had just failed my first driving test attempt by driving in the wrong lane. Luckily for me, there is no other traffic on a closed driver's course. Although, if there was, I probably wouldn't have made that mistake, so maybe it's unlucky? Well, whatever. I failed. sad face. The driving center set Ryan and me up with appointments the following Tuesday to try again.

So the next week, I once again left my high school early and arrived at the driving center a little before 1 p.m. and met Ryan and Inoue-san. Ryan and I payed our 2200 yen for the same forms as last time and filled them out. Then we went upstairs to the window that opens exactly at 1pm and checked in. The test was at 2:00 pm (however, you need to be there at 1:00... silly Japan) so we had an hour to sit and wait and look through the big windows at the course and try to memorize it. Our course for the day was course B.

Our beautiful course, a little different than last time.

Are we ready? I don't know.

Having an entire hour devoted to staring at the course layout and having done it once before seemed to help. I felt pretty confident I had it memorized. Ryan and I were concerned about a sign after signpost 3 in the A block. This sign in fact:

For those who don't know, this sign means honk your horn. It's for when you're going around blind turns where oncoming traffic can hit you if they don't know you're there. You beep your horn so they hear that someone is coming.

I've never run into this sign, except for on the test. Ryan and I didn't know where in correlation to the sign we were supposed to honk, for how long, how many times, etc. We looked online and in a driving book, but all it said was honk your horn. Unhelpful! When the driver instructor came up to tell us the driving order and explain the course, he asked if we had any questions. So we asked about that, and his answer was "Well, that's why it's a test. Do what you think is right, and if it is, you might pass." Great. Thanks.

He then explained the driving order. There were supposed to be 4 drivers, but one girl didn't pass the written exam, so it was just 3 of us, Ryan first, me second, and a Japanese girl third. Since we would all fit in the car, we all got in at the same time, the 2 testees not driving at the time sitting in back.

Ryan went first and seemed to do well, except he went really slow. The instructor actually told him he could speed up a little. I went second and was really nervous. I kept concentrating on which side of the road to turn onto. When I came to the scary honk your horn sign, I waited until the nose of the car was even with it, then wailed on the horn for a few seconds. I slowed down at the turn, carefully crept forward and looked both ways, then turned. After I drove, the Japanese girl took her turn. The first thing she did was tell the instructor she was cold, despite the 80 degree weather and the long sleeves she was wearing, and he turned the air conditioning off. It was so hard to sit in the back of that car, stifling in the heat next to Ryan and not be able to talk about our tests and how we think they went. The girl made really abrupt jarring stops as well. Not a cozy ride. Eventually, we made it to the end of the test and we all went back inside to sit on the benches by the driving test window and wait to hear how we did.

Ryan was called first, and he passed! Yay! A lot was said in Japanese and then he came back to sit next to me. Then, I was called. I also passed! HOORAY!!! The instructor actually said my driving was "上手です" or proficient, skilled, good. That is high praise coming from the Japanese driving center. He then told me I needed to look around more and turn tighter and of course stay further left, but whatever, I passed! I got to return to sit and wait. The other girl in our driving group was called up but unfortunately she failed. It was her second attempt. Good luck chica!!!

After sitting and waiting, Ryan and I got to fill out more paperwork, then go get our driver's license pictures taken. I was unprepared for a photo as we had to give them photos when we began, and I looked like a hot mess. A scary looking driver's license picture, what else is new. >.<

We took the pictures and gave them the completed forms, and minutes later were handed our shiny new Japanese driver's licenses. Sweet sweet success!

Suika Smash!

Summer in Japan is hot and humid, but full of fun things like vacation, festivals, and trips to the beach. Of course, going to the beach may involve over priced watermelon, which means　スイカ割り, or watermelon splitting. Cut a watermelon into pieces and eat it? That's lame! It's so much better to blindfold someone and let them smash it with a stick!

Suikawari (suika = watermelon, wari = splitting) is a traditional Japanese game played at picnics, festivals, and the beach during the summer. It's like a pinata, but a watermelon. After the watermelon is smashed into pieces, everyone grabs a chunk and chows down.

Today I went to the beach with Keiko-san and her 3 rambunctious children to swim and smash a watermelon. Hooray!

Reiji, Miki, and Hanae. In the car on the way to the beach.

Hanae loves taking pictures. She took a few with her mum's phone.

We have arrived at the beach!

Hanae found some shells.

I accidentally took this putting my phone away. It's so nice out, but so hot!

Reiji also found a shell

Keiko-san and Miki. That's Miki's version of a peace sign.

Reiji's war wounds. There were クラゲ about! (jellyfish)

I'm super pale and under dressed! Poor Reiji got stung all over his chest and arm.

And his side. That's gonna hurt.

Miki is ready to get the suikawari underway.

How to smash watermelon, Japanese style:

First, put your watermelon on a clean tarp. You will basically be eating off whatever you smash the watermelon on. Directly on the sand is not a good idea, unless you like eating sand with your watermelon.

Next, tie a blindfold over the first person's eyes. Reiji was first up. Then spin them around 3 times.

Direct them forward, left, right, etc. You can be nice or mean with these directions.

Take a swing at the watermelon and hope it smashes!

Once it's smashed, everyone can grab a piece.

Eat up! This cute little watermelon probably cost about 1300 yen, or about $15 (give or take.) Melon is crazy expensive in Japan.

Reiji eats the fruits of his labor. See what I did there?

Miki didn't take a turn with the stick, which after seeing her in action enough, was rather wise on her mother's part. She did eat watermelon though.

I completely missed the watermelon on my turn. Oops! I still got to eat some though! Also, check out that awesome hat I'm rocking! I felt like a cowgirl.

I taught the kids to spit watermelon seeds and we had a seed spitting contest. Keiko-san was definitely winning until she taught me her trick, and then I took the lead, with Reiji in second. It's wonderful how she lets me teach her children bad habits.

What a successful summer day!

A very geeky weekend

Last weekend my friend Michael and I took an 11 hour bus ride to Tokyo to have ourselves a geek vacation, Japanese style. We went to コミケ 82, or Comiket (short for Comic Market) 82.

Twice a year, summer and winter, Tokyo hosts Comiket, a huge convention that's only purpose is to sell manga and anime related gear to masses of fans. It started as a market to sell doujinshi, or fan made comics (not published stuff) and had grown to involve a commercial market room and cosplay as well. It's main purpose is still to sell doujinshi though. Most of the convention space is in the East and West halls, where there's tons of tables set up, each with people selling their own fan made stuff, as well as original stuff. It's free to get into Comiket, but all there is to do there is take pictures of cosplayers, and spend money on stuff, so that makes sense. You don't pay money to go into a mall, right?  Most of the things for sale are limited edition things you can only get at Comiket, so many items sell out fast, and there can be long lines for stores. The Japanese Post office has a room where you can mail your purchases back home so you don't have to lug tons of manga around. I saw people packing boxes with hundreds of books. The amount of money spent at comiket must be staggering.

If you want to cosplay, and you know I do, you can't come/leave in your costume. You have to change at the convention center in their special changing rooms, which they'll charge you 800 yen to use a day. Better than causing huge bathroom lines I guess.

Comiket is held in the Tokyo Bight Sight convention center, which is just off Tokyo Bay.

Welcome to Comiket!

Michael and I took the metro to get there all 3 days. All 3 days the trains and stations around the convention center were packed! I think they did a really good job managing the crowds and getting them to keep moving. They had trains running every 5 minutes or so. Despite the sheer number of people, we were never waiting long for a train, though we had some very cramped train rides.

We checked it out to see how it all worked on Friday afternoon, then returned Saturday to huge crowds, and Sunday was even busier. Apparently, 560,000 people attended comiket this year. O.O I got stepped on, bumped into, and pushed a bunch of times. I also kept losing Michael.

One of the hallways leading to the west halls. The convention center is huge, and everywhere in the building it was packed like this.

Going up the stairs to the commercial merchandise.

On Saturday, I took my new costume I made to wear. When we arrived, we followed the signs to the girl's changing area. There I had to stand in line for about 10 minutes waiting to get to the changing room. I paid my 800 yen, and got a little book with a sticker for Saturday, saying I could use the room. It also had a map of convention center and little mangas illustrating the rules of the convention.

After paying, we were lead in a group of about 20 girls into one of the big ballrooms of the convention center. There were no tables, instead the room was broken into sections with tape and orange cones. All around, sitting on their knees in lines were girls changing, putting on make up, wigs, costumes, etc. It was crazy. I wish I had pictures since it was just so organized and Japanese, but obviously, no pictures of girls changing. As girls finished and left, the staff would lead new people over to sit in their places. There were no mirrors or counters, any thing you might need, you had to bring with you. You literally got a small square of carpet to sit and change in, in a sea of girls doing the same thing. No wonder all these girls brought huge wheely suitcases with them. It was pretty cool.

After changing, Michael and I went to one of the cosplay areas. The Comiket staff is very strict about taking pictures of cosplayers. You can only do it in the cosplay areas, and only if you ask first. Of course, if you're in cosplay in the cosplay area, it's kind of a given it's okay to take your picture, I think. They do this so there's not hall clogging, traffic stopping photoshoots in the convention center. Too many people for that.

In the cosplay area, for the most part, cosplayers find a free place to stand on the edges of the area and around the fountains, statues, etc. Then they just stand there until someone comes up and asks to take a picture. They pose, pictures are taken, thanks is given, and they return to just standing until someone comes up and asks again. Much like in America, if people see someone taking a picture, they'll jump in and join, but they often don't want to be the person to initially ask. The cosplay area was outside and really really hot and packed with people. Lots of guys with huge cameras. I got my picture taken (I think I was making the Christenson squinty face that dad makes because of the sun. Not particularly attractive... >.<) and I was interviewed for the Japanese TV channel Zip! for their morning show. Super terrifying, I'm sure my Japanese was just awesome. I feel bad for whoever has to edit that...

I cosplayed Tomoe Mami from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

It was really really HOT!!!!

So walking around Tokyo for 3 days and cosplaying really hurt after a while. I sprained my ankle, popped my knee out again, and my hip was bothering me Friday night. I was hobbling around like a little old lady. Ridiculous!

Other awesome things we did in Tokyo include:

Going to the Tokyo Evangelion Store

Seeing the new Tokyo Sky Tree

Seeing a huge Gundam!

We also visited my favorite cat cafe, Wendy's, and saw the new Pixar movie Brave since they don't have it subtitled in Shimane movie theaters, only dubbed. We met up with Mara, who I went to high school with, and took purikura with her and her boyfriend Kenji.

It was a great weekend, but rather geeky. Just the way I like it!

Ice Cream is pretty cool, ish

In this country, they have many delicious snack foods that I quickly get obsessed with. They also rotate flavors seasonally, or randomly it sometimes seems. A couple of months ago, I stopped at my local conbini Family Mart to grab my favorite ice cream snack at the time, a crunchy banana chocolate ice cream popsicle thing. Unfortunately, the season had ended for those, I haven't seen the banana flavor since, only normal vanilla, and last week coffee. Delicious! but I digress.

Since they didn't have what I wanted, I was left with a hard decision, forgo the ice cream or get something else. I thought long and hard about it for about 3 seconds and decided to get something else.

When Steve and I were in Kyoto in the spring, he bought ice cream that you "drink" that I remembered thinking wasn't bad. There it was, sitting in the cooler in a tasty looking Cappuccino flavor. I decided to try it out.

Behold, the tasty treat: Coolish!

Mmm, coffee flavored frosty

What in the world is Coolish you ask? A very good question. The packaging calls it "飲むアイス" or ice cream drink. Drinkable ice cream. When you get it, you have to let it melt a little bit, and then you suck it up through the nozzle at the top of the package. If you don't let it thaw out a little bit, you will give yourself a massive headache and a sore jaw, and still not to get to eat (drink?) it until it thaws. Be careful!

Coolish is not technically ice cream. It's what some people call milk ice. It's like milk with tons and tons of tiny pieces of ice in it. Basically, it's a frosty in packet form. As a former Wendy's employee, frequent Wendy's eater when in America, and avid Wendy's misser (is that a word?) when in Japan, I was filled with joy at this discovery! Plus, since it's milk ice, not ice cream, it's fewer calories. Nice!

Obviously, I have quickly become obsessed with Coolish, especially now that it's getting so darn hot and humid here. Of course, in typical Japanese flavor fashion, there are 2 flavors of Coolish at a time. Vanilla, and whatever the flavor of the moment is. Sometimes if you visit stores like Wellness or grocery stores, they haven't sold out of all of the previous flavor yet, so you have a choice of 3 flavors! Lucky!

That's how I got to sample the Belgian chocolate flavor. It was out before Cappucino, but I found one hidden in with the Cappucino flavor at Yayoi (a local grocery store.)

It was a rich chocolate flavor. Not my favorite, but not bad.

One day, I went to get a Cappuccino Coolish and was sad to discover they were gone, replaced by the next flavor, Strawberry yogurt. True to it's name, the consistency was a little more yogurty, and it tasted like yogurt. As in a yogurt cup that was frozen, not frozen yogurt. There's a difference. I wasn't a fan.

If I wanted yogurt, I'd buy yogurt! I want ice cream darnit!

The next time I wanted Coolish, they still had the disappointing yogurt flavor, so I decided to try the original vanilla flavor that's always available. It was basically vanilla soft serve. Pretty good, nothing special.

Vanilla, always a classic.

Anyway, you can imagine the joy I felt when I walked in to Family Mart and discovered the newest flavor this week. Perfect for summer, it's Soda flavored Coolish!

Who decided soda is the color of windshield wiper fluid?

This blue soda flavor is pretty popular in Japan. There are lots of soda flavored candies, soda flavored soda, soda flavored I don't know what. I'm not really sure what soda flavor actually tastes like... It's kind of like Sprite but not so lemon lime. Maybe it's like cream soda? It's no cappuccino, but it's pretty tasty. And it's that fabulous blue color that makes me feel like I'm five again. The perfect summer treat!