Kodomo no Nomimono - Kid Beer

Here's something you'd never seen in the US: sodas for children that are deliberately made to mimic the appearance of alcohol. Definitely one of the weirder things to show up in my local grocery store.

A friend was visiting last week, so we decided to sample a couple. I chose the "beer" soda and she got the "sparkling wine" soda. We almost forgot about them, but then on her last day we drank them for breakfast. Or should I say tried to drink them, they were super sweet and very artificial tasting (and I mean more artificial than regular artificially flavored sodas.)

I don't think I'd recommend them, but the fact that they even exist is still pretty funny.

Kodomo no Nomimono

The foam is pretty impressive looking, isn't it?

I Slept In a Capsule Hotel: Review of the Shinjuku Kuyakushomae Capsule Hotel

While my sister was here one of the things she most wanted to do was stay in a capsule hotel. If you're not familiar with this concept, capsule hotels rent out very small spaces for low prices - generally to people who have stayed out past the last train and need a place to rest for a few hours. I don't think that people in Japan give a lot of thought to it, but in the west is seems very strange and very Japanese.

I was not very enthusiastic about this idea. I thought it would be uncomfortable, possibly dirty or seedy, and it seemed silly to pay to sleep somewhere in Tokyo when I could be in my own bed for free, but Raku got excited about the idea, and together she and Julie talked me into it.

We booked three capsules at the Shinjuku Kuyakushomae Capsule Hotel through hotels.com. If you're looking to book a capsule I found their website to be the most helpful. As a note, many capsule hotels don't offer accommodations for women. Interestingly, I came across several all night spas that offer inexpensive accommodations for women, but not men. The hotel we stayed in only had one floor for women and several for men. Because there are so few that allow women we found that the women's capsules filled up much more quickly. It is my understanding that normally you can just walk into a hotel and rent a capsuel after a late night of drinking, but because it was the height of cherry blossom season and ALL the hotels in the city were booked the capsule hotels booked up as well.

Although I had very low expectations I am happy to report that it was actually a really fun experience, and I would whole-heartedly recommend this hotel to others. Some of the reviews online said it was dirty, uncomfortable, or other bad things, but I thought it was excellent - of course I can only speak to the women's floor.

When we arrived it was really hard to find the entrance. Although there are signs on the building, the entrance is completely hidden. It's on the ground floor of the building with a Hub British Pub in it. If you walk towards the red Chinese restaurant and then look to the left you'll find an elevator that will take you the third floor where the reception desk is. First you deposit your shoes in a locker, much as you would at an onsen, and then head to the front desk where they will keep your key to the shoe locker and provide you with a key to your locker upstairs that corresponds to the number of your capsule. We were also given a special code printed on a piece of paper to gain access to the women's floor. The lockers we were provided with contained a pair of slippers, a set of pajamas, a face towel, and a bath towel - so you really could show up here with nothing at all. The lockers are big enough to hold a purse, hang up a coat, and hold a few things, but they are much too small for a suitcase - if you bring one it will have to sit out in the open. Many people had suitcases and they seemed nervous to leave them out, but the general atmosphere was very respectful and it felt very safe to me. It seemed like we all shared a sense of camaraderie over this strange experience we were having.

The bathrooms had free toothbrushes and toiletries, and all the showers had shampoo and conditioner inside. Even better, they were spotlessly clean. The website shows a really nice communal bath, but it's only for men. The women's floor only has shower stalls.

The capsules themselves look absolutely hilarious, sort of like a hallway filled with ovens stacked two high. They come with a pillow, a duvet, and a shade that pulls down to "close" the capsule. Inside there is a small shelf with a clock and radio built in along with an outlet in case you need to charge your phone. There is also a light switch for the capsule and a tiny TV. I didn't try the TV - it seemed like it would be too loud, but all in all it was much more comfortable than I expected. I could easily sit up without touching the ceiling, and stretch my arms out a fair amount. The mattress wasn't super thick but I didn't find it uncomfortable - though Raku did.

I wasn't sure how well I'd sleep in a capsule, but I never felt claustrophobic or unsafe, and after thoroughly photographing the place I didn't have any trouble falling asleep. While it wasn't silent inside I thought everyone was very conscientious and respectful of not making loud noise. An interesting note about our experience is that because it was peak tourist season most of the guests were not Japanese. About half of the women were white, which I assume is not the norm. In the end, it seemed a lot like staying in the dorm of a hostel, but with a little more privacy and a better story to tell at the end. I'm surprised by how much fun I had, but it was a great experience and I'm glad Julie and Raku convinced me to do it!

The  sneaky entrance, the small blue sign on the left is for the capsule hotel

The hidden elevator 

Am I a huge creeper for taking this photo?

Entrance to the women's floor

Isn't this bathroom spotless?

And super nice showers!

I can't get over how funny they look

Cozy isn't it?

Settling in for the night

Shinjuku Kuyakushomae Hotel
Phone: 03-3232-1110
Location: 1-2-5 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Map

Pumpkin Pudding Kit Kats

It took forever, but it is finally, really fall!  The weather is getting cool, the humidity is dropping, the first hints of changing leaves are starting to show up, and when it isn't raining the sky is turning that wonderful deep autumn blue. We've been sleeping with our windows open for the last couple weeks and really enjoying the fresh cool air.

It's been a while since I've posted any interesting kit kat flavors, I think there are less available in the summer (and I also hate every fruit flavor I've ever tried, so I've gotten lazy about buying those) but I recently came across some pumpkin pudding flavored kit kats in the grocery store. It seems like pumpkin spice is taking over everything back in the US, but it's different here. In the US it seems pumpkin spice actually means cinnamon and nutmeg flavor, and here they mean the real pumpkin, and actually they mean kabocha which is a squash shaped like a pumpkin with green skin and orange flesh.

The kabocha makes for a pretty terrifying looking jack-o-lantern on the packaging, made creepier by the pudding filling, which to me looks more like a lot of melted cheese. Ick. But the kit kats taste pretty good - the creamy flavors are always better than the fruit flavors. The pumpkin flavor isn't very discernible, it honestly tastes more like vanilla pudding, but I like them.

Godzilla at Tokyo Midtown

Every summer Tokyo Midotwn has a mojito garden on the lawn out back, but this summer it's gotten way more interesting. They've set up an enormous Godzilla bursting out of the earth to celebrate the new Godzilla movie.

Of course, Raku and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to have another goofy photo shoot. Godzilla will be up until the end of August, but be warned, it gets really crowded on the weekends. If you want to get better pictures come on a weekday or come early.  Apparently they have a smoke and lights show every half hour from 7:00 to 9:00 at night, but I haven't seen it yet. Surely John will be willing to check it out though, maybe from the mojito garden?

ゴジラ!!

Ms. Bunny Cafe in Roppongi

You may remember that a month ago Raku and I were having a Week of Fun to celebrate reaching major milestones in our writing. By now, after my mom's visit and getting into the overwhelming amount of editing I need to do, it's hard to believe that was only a few short weeks ago.

One of the best things we did (well, honestly every day felt like the best) was going to a bunny cafe. If you're not familiar with this amazing concept, a few years ago shops where you could go and play with cats became very popular in Japan, and by now the concept has spread to a number of animals and even an Owl Cafe, if that's not an urban legend. I think this probably stems from the fact that pets are so expensive in Japan, and that so few apartments allow pets. 

Being allergic to cats I was never interested in a cat cafe, but bunnies intrigued me. We went to Ms. Bunny in Roppongi, mainly because it was within walking distance, and we had a great time but if you go, be aware that their pricing isn't totally transparent. They charge by the half hour, and after the first 30 minutes we were asked if we wanted to leave or extend. We asked to do another 30 minutes, but when that time ran out we weren't notified, and when you've got a bunny in your lap it's hard to keep an eye on your watch or phone. We ended up spending about 40 minutes longer, so we had to pay for a full hour (we could have stayed for those 20 additional minutes, of course). We were also given little dishes of straw to feed the rabbits, and those cost 300 yen, which we didn't realize until the end.

Despite spending more than we intended we had a lot of fun. Being called a cafe I was worried there would be food or drinks all mixed up with the animals, which made me a little nervous, but there was none of that, which was a relief. There were a number of seats and a wall of bunnies in their cages. You could pick any one you wanted, and swap them out for other bunnies during your time. They'll place a blanket in your lap, and then hand you the bunny.

The bunnies are also for sale, and if you're interested in testing it out, you can take a bunny home overnight for 5000 yen. Just try not to fall head over heels in love. I had expected the experience to be a little stressful but I actually had a great time and would encourage anyone that's interested to try out an animal cafe.

Ms. Bunny Cafe
Hours: T-F 2:00-10:00, S-S 12:00-9:00, Closed Mondays
Phone: 03-3404-1182
Address: 6-7-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Map

Look at all those bunny cuddles!

Grilled Pudding Kit Kats

Ok, I've probably said this before, but it's even more true this time. I found the world's craziest kitkats. I wasn't even sure what flavor they were when I bought the bag, but I could tell I needed to buy them asap.

From the picture it seemed like they were supposed to taste like they had been grilled, and while they didn't they were still delicious - a mix of vanilla and caramel. I couldn't read much on the bag, but I could read caramel powder 0.5%. But when I showed them to Raku she was able to shed a great deal of light on the situation. First of all, they're pudding flavored! Incidentally, I learned プリン is the word for pudding (phonetically, purin). And pudding here generally comes as vanilla with a little caramel topping which explains the flavor. But they were not meant to taste grilled, WE were supposed to grill them! Crazy, right?

Our week of fun was obviously the perfect time to test out this madness. First they start to melt and then the tops start to turn golden and then you're like, omg who ever thought of cooking a kitkat? To be honest, Raku and I both thought they tasted better uncooked. They were sort of difficult to eat (we used forks) and the melty-ness of it took away from the usual crunch they have. The flavor however, delicious! Most novelty flavors aren't that great, but I would definitely buy more of these if I saw them again.

Tiny Picnic

The week of fun has come to an end, but Raku and I are exhausted and happy from celebrating all of our hard writing over the past year!  Yesterday we finished out the week by eating an elaborate indoor picnic composed entirely of miniature sized foods.  We spent the morning collecting, preparing, and photographing them before finally eating.  

When we had everything set out on the table Raku burst out laughing and asked how we got to be so smart.  Sadly our husbands are not quite as convinced that we're geniuses, words like "silly" and "childish" may have been used.  But we paid them no mind and had a fantastic day.  Oh, and yes, we did make faces out of our foods before eating them because we're amazing.

More Unusual KitKats

I just can't stop myself when I see unusual kitkat flavors (except for the green tea ones, I never want those).  I've had a few lately that I thought were worth sharing.

The first came in a big box that I got to send to a friend in the US, but I took the liberty of sampling one because it was wasabi flavored!  It was without question one of the weirdest things I've ever tasted. They're bright green, just like the root, and although they were sweet and not at all spicy there was the unmistakable horseradish flavor.  I don't know if I'm crazy, but it always seems like I can taste horseradish and wasabi at least as much in my nose as in my mouth.  Does that happen to anyone else? Because of that flavor it seemed really savory despite being sweet.  I wouldn't seek another one out, but I'm glad I tried one.

I bought the next flavor just because the name was so funny.  Well, let's be honest I would have purchased it anyways.  Men's Almond KitKat.  I have no idea what that name means, maybe it's too strongly flavored for women?  I was also interested in this one because it came in the giant candy bar size rather than the usual sticks.  I split this one with Raku, and we both agreed it didn't taste like almonds at all.  It mostly tasted like chocolate, with a brief flash of coffee somewhere in the middle of chewing that was quickly lost.  The label says something about coffee too, but I can't read all of it, so I suppose that will remain a mystery. It was better than most of the novelty flavors, but nothing spectacular.

The last one we tried was also in the giant candy bar form and it was Royal Milk Tea flavored.  If you're wondering what royal milk tea is, it's something Lipton introduced to the Japanese market in the 60's.  It's pretty much black tea with sweetened condensed milk making it very rich and very sweet.  If you've ever tried bubble tea I think it's similar to the milk tea base.  I see it everywhere and it's insanely popular, though I'm not a big fan of it.  The kitkat was delicious though!  Raku and I both agreed that this was a real standout among the novelty flavors and I'd definitely recommend it if you ever see one.

Milk Jam

I've seen something in the stores before labeled Milk Jam, and always dismissed it as something super gross.  But thanks to a recent post from Smitten Kitchen I learned that's just the English translation of Dulce de Leche.  It's funny how something that sounds so weird in your own language can sound so wonderful in another.  (Maybe this is why when I'm at the salon and my stylist tells me she's just put placenta in my hair I have to resist the urge to scream while she smiles at me like she's just given me a wonderful gift?)

Now that I knew what it was (and having never actually tried Dulce de Leche before) I made sure to pick some up the next time I came across it.  It's pretty good, similar to caramel.  We just had it on cheesecake from 7-Eleven, well I did, John didn't want to try it.  But I'm thinking maybe I need to make crepes soon.

Good News!

Guess what?  John and I are taking a vacation!  We've had two other attempted trips that have failed (typhoons in Okinawa and a friend's wedding in Thailand that we weren't able to attend) but we're finally going away.  We had some airline miles that were close to expiring, so we picked our destination based on where we had enough to get to and the winner is Guam!   We've even managed to schedule it so that we'll be there for our anniversary! (3 years, can you believe it?)  I don't know very much about what there is to do, but we've book a hotel right on the beach, so that's probably all that matters.   I can't wait to post pictures and tell you all about it in just a month!  It will be strange to be in the U.S. but not really in the U.S.  I hear they have a Kmart, maybe we can pick up a few things we've been missing.

Other than the vacation excitement, things have been going well.  As it always does when I let my guard down, Tokyo has whipped out a few funny surprises for me.  Several nights ago I was walking home and saw a guy that looked like he was walking a tiny dog, but really was pulling along a scrub brush attached to a leash.  I probably made an even bigger spectacle of myself chasing him down to get a good picture, though Raku swears I was discreet.

I also got a snack last week that I thought was just a bread stick. Three bites in, I discovered it was corn bread.  In the most literal sense.  It really wasn't bad though.

Just taking the scrub brush out for it's nightly walk

"Corn Bread"

Signs That Make Me Laugh

How is it already mid-December?  Other than the days flying past and the beautiful leaves falling off the trees not a lot is new.  My writing has been going slowly (but not badly) and I've been able to FaceTime with my family a lot recently which has been nice.  I've been compiling photos of funny uses of English lately.  They don't shock me as much anymore, but they still make me smile so I thought I'd share them.

How is this really a flavor?

Only a Quasi-National Park, so sad.

No you're not!

I can just picture my mom's face reading this.

Turkish, not Turkey!

I'll take bets on what this tastes like.

Midtown Christmas

Tokyo Midtown has a bunch of funny Santas set up for Christmas with instructions on how to pose with each one.  Raku and I didn't always take the advice, but we had a fun time playing around with them. Raku thinks she looks like a vagrant in the one where she's pretending to sleep.  My favorite was the nerdy Santa with the argyle socks.

Tokyo Midtown

Hours: 11:00-9:00

Address: 9-7-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Map

Funny Foods

I've seen some hilarious food lately.  The best was a package of "fried chicken and pepper" flavored cheetos that Raku got me as a gift for our anniversary with Japan.  In truth, they were better than I expected.  They definitely tasted like chicken, but once I was over the weirdness factor it wasn't so bad. In the grocery store last week I came across some sort of mushroom/fungus thing.  It wouldn't have been that funny except this store puts up English labels sometimes, but they're often a little off.  This product, whatever it is, was labeled a Medusa Head.  And I really appreciate that there was a face on the packaging.  The last was just a box of saltines, but I liked the way they were displayed to appeal to the Japanese palate.

Halloween Photo Shoot

Happy Halloween! Is there anything better than a holiday when you and a friend can dress up and have a hilarious photo shoot? Well, I guess I don't really need a holiday for that. Back when my sister was visiting she, Raku, and I all bought matching cat shirts for 500 yen at Uniqlo. Honestly there are not that many occasions that we find to wear them together (though we try!) but using them as cat costumes seemed perfect. We waited too long and missed our chance to buy cat ears, but made some pretty great ones using construction paper and headbands. Then we spent a good 20 minutes coming up with our best cat poses.

Speaking of holidays, John told me that on the way to work he saw Christmas wreaths up!

By the way, I don't know if you can tell in the pictures, but I got a haircut earlier this week. It's not much shorter, but it has lots of layers in it now. I wish I was more creative about styling my hair. Where do people get all their cute ideas?

Pepsi Chips

Pepsi makes seasonal flavors here.  Last winter they made a mikan (mandarin orange) flavor.  The summer before they made a salty watermelon flavor.  This summer though, they've outdone themselves.  Instead of an actual beverage they made a snack that's pepsi flavored.  They're being called Pepsi Chips, though they're really more like Pepsi Cheetohs.

Who came up with this idea?

The flavor is intensely concentrated, like a whole bottle of pepsi in one bite!  And they have pop rocks like dust on them to make them seem fizzy.  I'd heard they were bad, but I was still curious.  OMG, they're terrible!

SOOOO Terrible

John agreed, and Julie's opinion was my favorite: "They're the worst thing that ever happened in my mouth!"  But strangely Raku liked them.  Personally, I'd recommend avoiding them at all costs.  But if you're as curious as me, make sure you have a lot of people to share them with, you're not going to want more than one.

Daytime Karaoke

This past week Raku and I did a karaoke bootcamp.  If you've never done Japanese style karaoke, it's not done in public, but rather a group of friends rents a private room and take turns singing songs.  It's always a lot of fun, and the selection of English songs can be pretty entertaining, but I'm really insecure when it comes to singing so it can also be a stressful experience.

Raku and I decided that what I needed to cure myself was an extended karaoke session with just the two of us.  We went to our local Karaoke-kan, and wow is it cheap during the day!  It's 100 yen for 30 minutes, but if you do more than 3 hours they cap it at 600 yen between noon and 7:00.  You just have to order one drink (which we put off until later in the afternoon).

I thought about getting drunk first, my usual method of karaoke courage, but it seemed like doing it sober would be the real test (plus it was 1:00 pm).  Raku made up all sorts of games, like singing songs for all the letters in the alphabet, or picking songs based on our costumes.  Did I mention, we dressed up!

Partway through the afternoon we did a hilarious photo shoot to get us laughing and give us a second wind.  It was actually a blast, and I'd highly recommend it whether you're looking to practice or just want an inexpensive air-conditioned afternoon activity.  On weekends they have the same deal for 900 yen.

And now, since I know you're dying to see - our photo shoot!

Happy

Singing

Sad

Angry

Coy

Scolding Raku

Raku scolding me

Drinking Tea

Pretending to be puppies (Raku's face cracks me up!)

Japanese Facebook Advertisements

One of the things about being in Japan is that the internet assumes I read/speak Japanese.  I completely understand why, and I'm not complaining.  It's just funny to watch a youtube video preceded by an advertisement that I can't understand, or to have Japanese ads show up in my facebook news feed.  With all the news about how much tracking and individualized marketing there is on the internet it makes me smile that at least some of them haven't even figured out in which language to target me.  Sometimes the ads are really weird, and I can really only guess what they're selling, so I've taken some screen shots of the funniest ones to share with you.

I'm pretty sure this is for a drink that has placenta in it.  Yuck!

I have no idea what this is about, but it sure looks creepy.

I like to imagine that 96.4% of witches endorse whatever this is selling.

No idea.  Is the cat begging for her food?  Why does she have so much green tea?  Why are a book and some unidentified object floating behind her?  And what is that disembodied face saying?

I can actually read this enough to tell you that it's advertising laser hair removal...in intimate areas.