Pic of the Week

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Pic of the Week is where I post occasional pictures of quirky Japanese things that I come across. Sometimes it may not be quirky as such, but just something that takes my fancy, or indeed anything that I think the world needs to know about. But rest assured it’s all educational.

You don’t see many ancient traditional thatched roofs these days; generally they’re all covered in steel sheeting. So I was rather pleased when I came across this beauty the other day in the countryside near Hiroshima city:

Strawberries and cream and custard in a sandwich—who would have thought? The Japanese, of course.

How do you add value to the humble apple? If it’s nice and round and tastes good and looks the right colour, what else can you do? Put some writing on the outside, that’s what. Up in Akita, home of the apple (Japan’s answer to Tasmania, clearly) we came across apples bearing a variety of messages. This one says Traffic Safety, although presumably you’re not meant to actually eat it while driving.

The other day when I was working I looked up and there was this ginormous great passenger ship cruising past the beach. Here’s the view from my balcony:

During our trip in Akita I found these beauties: little round chocolate biscuits cleverly marketed as dog poo. You’ll have to trust me — that’s what the Japanese says. Notice the little graphic at the top of a dog squeezing out chocolate biscuits. Which marketing guru came up with that one?

In much the same vein, here’s something I came across in a catalogue a few weeks back. It seems that you attach it to an empty drink bottle and give it to the kids to wee into when you’re stuck in a traffic jam (as per the picture of the cars in the background). According to the ad it is designed for both girls and boys, and holds enough for one adult’s worth or two kids’ worth. Sounds handy but can you imagine just trying to get this to work in a hot stuffy car when the kids are tired and bored and about to burst? Not to mention the awful prospect of Daddy deciding to finish off that last bit of warm lemon squash and accidentally reaching for the wrong bottle…

In the land where vending machines rule, there’s nothing quite so sad as a dead vending machine.

Christmas has come to our local convenience store, as of the first week of November. Note the Mickey Mouse and Santa mash-up.

Back in the good old days there was only one flavour of Kit-Kat. You bought a Kit-Kat, you knew what you were getting into. In recent years a few strange new imposters have started cropping up: white chocolate, caramel, whatever. But in Japan, where they don’t do things by halves, this has been taken to a whole new level. The marketing department at Kit-Kat Japan has clearly latched onto the idea of limited-edition region-specific Kit-Kat flavours and is flogging it for all it’s worth. Thus it was in Kyoto that we stumbled upon a green tea Kit-Kat, of all things. Though I have to say it’s not that bad: they’ve actually managed to make it taste both like green tea and like a Kit-Kat at the same time, which is no mean feat. But it still doesn’t compensate for the shock of biting into a bright green Kit-Kat.

There’s even a citrus Kit-Kat especially for our area of Hiroshima and surrounds, since we grow a fair bit of citrus fruit down here. My heart swells with pride as I open the pack, though it still doesn’t compensate for the shock of biting into a bright orange Kit-Kat.

You know how cornettos are incredibly hard to eat? Like, they’re just too round, and you have to stick your teeth out to get a proper bite and you end up getting choc-nuts all over your nose? And they’re so hard to hold? It’s a massive problem and one that’s been plaguing ice-cream eaters for generations, but luckily the boffins at Japan Inc have come up with the perfect solution: a flat cornetto. See how easy it is to bite into! And so easy to grasp in your hand! Staggering that nobody has thought of it before.

Baby beer! It’s the cutest thing, a tiny little can with just 135 ml of the amber stuff in it. (That’s it on the right.) But who on earth would buy such a ridiculously small can of beer, you say? Well I can report that sometimes, particularly if you’re a freelancer with a bit of work to finish off in the evening after dinner, you just feel like a sip of beer but not a whole can. And the baby beer is the perfect solution. Plus it just looks so cute.

Left and right socks — how does that work? I came across these the other day and just had to have them. Mind you, there doesn’t seem to be any difference if you put them on the wrong way around. Perhaps it’s a giant marketing scam. But I suppose it must be effective, because I bought a pair, didn’t I?

An important cultural statement from the Land of Cute: strawberry-scented Hello Kitty toilet paper, as discovered by with great excitement just the other day. Too good to wipe your bottom on, really.

Japan is the land of vending machines. One of my favourites is the Seventeen Ice icecream vending machine. This one’s at the soccer ground where Felix practices on a Saturday. There is a wide selection of flavours (including some truly evil ones such as grape soda, which surely has nothing whatsoever to do with grapes) and they cost just ¥120 ($1.50). And yes, they stay nice and cold in summer.

Here’s a hot chip vending machine. I really must try it one day, although I suspect I’d just have to throw them in the bin. Surely a vending machine can’t deep fry chips properly.