You can pick almost any area to compare Japan with the U.S.: history, culture, sports — or if you like, convenience stores. The modern combini came to Japan in 1974 with the opening of the first Seven-Eleven here, a project which got its start when Japanese businessman Hideo Shimizu took a bus trip across the U.S. looking for the “next big thing” and fell in love with the idea of stores that offered items customers might need to buy on short notice, sold in a uniform way. Now there are dozens of convenience store chains here, including Lawson (”your town’s hot station”), Sunkus (the name is a bizarre merging of “sun” and “thanks”), FamilyMart, MiniStop, Heart-In, and Yamazaki Daily Store.

While most of the foods sold at U.S. convenience stores are pre-packaged and highly processed, many of the offerings in their Japanese counterparts are downright wholesome, with traditional Japanese-style food (bento and onigiri), Western favorites like cucumber and strawberry sandwiches, bread products including sliced bread as well as specialty items like Curry Pan, a good selection of salads, dozens of types of bottled Asian and Western teas, aloe-flavored yogurt, and so on.

Convenience stores are the salvation of the single male since there are enough healthy choices that you can usually eat pretty well there without resorting to that most famous of bachelor foods, instant ramen, although they sell that, too.

You won’t find the iconic Slurpee or Big Gulp at Seven-Elevens in Japan, but I’d give them up any day in exchange for niku-man, a steamed Chinese bun filled with meat that’s great in the winter.

Combini offer other forms of convenience, too, like a full color copier and digital photograph printer, the ability to pay your electric and phone bills at the cash register, shipping services for sending packages, and increasingly, real banking services, including making cash withdrawals and deposits using the smart ATM.

That first pilot store back in 1974 has really paid off: Seven-Eleven’s parent company Seven&i Holdings purchased its parent company in 2005 and now owns the brand worldwide.

Taste and freshness, sure, but I’m not sure how confident I want my sandwich to be. It may convince me not to eat it.

People in China and other countries around the world are worried what will become of their own health and the health of their loved ones with revelations of tainted food produced in China hit the news with each passing week.

Meanwhile. . .

While China grapples with its latest tainted food crisis, the political elite are served the choicest, safest delicacies. They get hormone-free beef from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, organic tea from the foothills of Tibet and rice watered by melted mountain snow.

And it’s all supplied by a special government outfit that provides all-organic goods from farms working under the strictest guidelines.

I wonder whether it will be revelations such as these that will lead to revolution in China.

China’ s poison milk scandal is spreading both in China and Japan. A Chinese government food safety agency has announced that 10 per cent of the liquid milk it has tested is contaminated, as well as 14 per cent of the baby formula. Hong Kong is reporting pollutants in ice cream and yogurt from China as well.

More than 6000 babies so far have developed kidney stones as a result of drinking the poisoned powder. Four of them have died.

Hundreds of parents streamed into the offices of the Sanlu dairy company at the heart of the scandal yesterday, demanding refunds and worrying over what was still safe to feed their children. “Now we have no idea what kind of milk to give the baby. They all have problems,” said the mother of a one-year-old who had been drinking Sanlu formula for two months.

I saw a report on the TV today that said powdered milk and other processed food products from China are currently in wide use in Japan.

Each year the organization that publishes the Standardized Kanji Test announces the “kanji of the year,” the character that best sums up the events of the past twelve months.

Previous characters have included inochi (life) in 2005 to mark the terrible young lives lost in suicides that year, tora (tiger) due to the historic Hanshin Tigers’ victory in the Japan pennant, and ikusa (war) in 2001, when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

The kanji of the year for 2007 was nise, meaning “fake” or “fraud,” due to the large number of food-related scandals that became news, including a famous restaurant caught labeling normal meat as high-grade Kobe beef and serving leftovers to customers, a confectionery company that sprayed water on stale slices of cake so they’d look fresh enough to sell, and Hokkaido-based “Meat Hope,” which despite its awesome name got in trouble for intentionally mis-labeling its products.

So far, 2008 has been more of the same as food scandals continue. The most egregious one so far has been a company called Mikasa Foods, which bought inedible rice that had been contaminated with pesticides and seawater (it said) for use in glue production. In reality, it relabeled the rice and sold it to more than 370 companies, which used it to manufacture everything from food to sake to beer and more — bleah.

Akihabara maid cafe Hibaritei (where all of the maids are cross-dressing men) is always looking for new ways to push the envelope.

Their latest “game” is snorting various food products (wasabi powder, hot sauce, etc.) and enjoying the reactions of the snorters as the effects of the stuff they inhale has an effect.

Previously, they had challenges of eating food with a certain extremely spicy “Death Sauce” but that was probably not challenging enough so they resorted to sniffing it into their noses. The first item was wasabi powder. There is no effect when you eat it but you’ll get a headache if you sniff it. At first, you don’t feel anything but it hits you hard after awhile. The shop owners, staff and even customers were involved in this strange challenge. Later on, two more customers came in and were dragged into the third round of the challenge.

After the warm up came the real thing - the Death Sauce. One tiny drop of Death Sauce can numb your tongue so you can imagine the deadly effect it may have to your nose. Suddenly, the whole maid cafe was filled with strange noises as the other customers watched on amused by our strange customs. The boys’ face were all as red as tomatoes and their eyes were bloodshot. If a new customer enters the shop he may be wondering why is everyone crying. Later on, they resorted to using ice to soothe their noses which was a funny sight to watch.

And if a verbal description doesn’t do it for you, here is a video. . .

Via Akibanana

For some reason, I am really happy for the double “L.”

Via Hello Kitty Hell

Next time you’re in Osaka, consider visiting the Monofuku Ando Memorial Ramen Museum, a sprawling facility commemorating the achievements of the Taiwan-born Japanese inventor of instant ramen.

In the postwar years, Japanese were eating bread made with wheat flower brought in by the occupying U.S. military, and Momofuku (then operating a small business extracting salt from seawater) wondered why they didn’t eat noodles instead, which were more familiar to the Japanese people.

In 1957, a bank he was director of went under, taking his personal finances down along with it. In order to get out of debt, he returned to his idea about noodles, trying to find a more convenient way to prepare them. The result was Chikin [sic] Ramen, a delicious chicken flavored raman that’s still being sold after fifty years. (I had some for lunch today.)

At the museum, you can see different varieties of Cup Ramen from around the world, like broccoli ramen from Germany or curry flavored noodles from India, which are made without the soup base so that the noodles can be eaten with the hands, as is the custom in that country. Cup Ramen in all Western countries have noodles that are shorter than in Japan, to make them easier to eat with a fork.

The museum sports a virtual reality room showing what happens as ramen is made, from the viewpoint of the raman itself, and afterwards you can mosey up to the Instant Ramen Bar and order some ramen with custom toppings that you can specify. (One of the most popular flavors is Seafood Milk, ugh…)

For a bit of balance, and following on from our article on blue bees the other day, let’s take a look at the other end of apiological scale.

If those gentle, quiet blue bees were old ladies on trundling mamachari, then vespa mandarinia would be helicopter gunships.

For vespa mandarinia is the giant asian hornet, and if you’ve yet to meet one, believe me, that name is no exaggeration…

(if you’re in any way phobic, leave now)

It’s funny how so many of the foods eaten by the Japanese on a daily basis aren’t very Japanese at all.

Sure, people here eat plenty of things that are associated closely with Japan, like soba and udon noodles, sushi and sashimi, or donburi (”big bowl”) dishes like gyudon (beef bowl) or oyakodon, the “parent and child” rice bowl consisting of chicken and egg cooked together and put over rice, but there are many non-Japanese foods consumed here, too.

Of course, there are many dishes that have been imported from China, like gyoza (pot stickers) or ramen, although the Japanese don’t consider the stir-fried yakisoba noodles to be Chinese in origin, much as they look like chow mein to me.

The Japanese have internalized foods from many other countries, including Italian spaghetti, French croquettes (which go so well with that Japanese tonkatsu sauce) or American “hamburg steak” (steak made from ground beef).

The single most popular food in Japan might just be that ubiquitous curry rice, the thick curry sauce served over steaming rice, which was imported from India via Britain during the Meiji Era. We probably eat it 4-5 times a week at our house.

Mrs Overoften uncovered this KitKat in a local shop, and knowing I have a passing interest in these matters, brought it home.

This KitKat gives you a vocabulary lesson in various ben (dialects) around Kyushu.

For example, starting in the north, you can see that those folks in Fukuoka say すいとう for 好きだ (suki da), which will translate as anything from “I like it” to “I love you”.

Going west to Saga-ken you see that locals say がばい (gabai) for とても or 非常に, meaning ‘very’.

In Nagasaki-ken やぐらしか (yagurashika) means うっとうしい (too much). Over in Oita-ken, they say どおくる (dookuru) for おちょくる (ochokuru), which is to make fun of someone.

Round these parts, Kumamoto-ken, もっこす means 頑固者 or わがまま (stubborn, obstinate).

Over in Miyazaki-ken, よだきい means 面倒くさい (too much trouble, can’t be bothered). Meanwhile people in Kagoshima-ken are said to say ぼっけもん for こわいもの知らず (brave, but closer to reckless).

And now with this vocabulary lesson firmly implanted in your memory you can sit back and reward yourself with a cup of coffee, and a KitKat. (I am not affiliated to Nestlé but will accept gifts from them should anyone from HQ be reading this.)

A recent exchange about the meat content of processed food products reminded me of my first encounter with a Japanese hot dog back around 1969.

This was a time when imported food products were basically unavailable, and prohibitively expensive when they were. So imagine my surprise when one day shopping I came across a pack of moderately priced hot dogs!

They looked just like the red hots we had in Chicago, so I bought a pack, took them home, popped them into pot of boiling water for a few minutes, slipped one onto a slice of bread, hit it with a little mustard, bit into it and. . . As soon as the frank hit my tongue, the trusty old gag reflex took over, and before I knew it the vile thing that had been in my mouth was flying through the air and headed for the floor.

The Japanese person I was with (who kept saying things like “Are you sure you want to do that?” as she watched me prepare my tube steak) at that point kindly informed me that Japanese hot dogs were indeed made of 100% meat. . . fish meat, whale meat, shark meat, and all sorts of other dregs of the seas.

I think she was right.

Thanks to Mr. T for the photo.

Though I never have run across this myself, I definitely would be willing to give it a try and find out exactly what a chocolate covered salty dog tastes like. . .

Via Noodles and Rice

Nippon Television Network Corp. (NTV) has gotten into hot water for inflating the number of plates of food downed by “a celebrity known for her enormous appetite” during an NTV program.

According to NTV, the woman devoured “only” 39 plates of food, though it was reported on the program that she had eaten 48.

“We failed to accurately count the number of plates, and partially used an inappropriate method to make the segment,” the TV station said in an apology during the program on Friday.

NTV’s general public relations department explained, “We were vague about how we counted the plates and dishes, for instance, counting one plate with four pieces of the same dish as four dishes.”

On Monday, NTV gave severe warnings to Hisao Adachi, head of the news bureau, and other program staff, and terminated a contract with a production company in charge of shooting and making the problem segment.

Celebrity gluttons are really popular in Japan, which is why I guess something like this is being treated so seriously.

What’s your favourite ice cream flavour? A quick poll I took of Japanese kids revealed banira (vanilla) to be the undisputed champion. Which surprised me. In English slang, after all, vanilla-flavoured has come to mean boring. Anyway, what do kids know. Chocolate is obviously the best flavour.

I didn’t find out about it until it was already over, so alas could not attend, but July and August saw the Ice Cream Expo in Yokohama.

And while all the ordinary fare was on offer, there wouldn’t be much point in an expo if all that was on offer was what you could find down at the supermarket.

But in terms of innovative (weird) flavours, it went far beyond the passé basashi (raw horse meat) and wasabi .

Otaku International has a report with a focus on the more outlandish - octopus, squid, caviar, chicken wings, the foul and dreadful natto, mamushi (the deadly pit viper) (I’ll just repeat that - the deadly pit viper), and the star of the show, ox tongue.

‘Chuwy’ visited the expo and tried a good number of the ice creams on offer, and wrote up his thoughts at the entertaining Chuwy Thoughts.

There are some more photos available in a Mainichi gallery.

If you are planning to visit Japan during the summer season, something I actually do not recommend, I advise you to visit some of the many matsuri (祭). These festivals are celebrated with drinking, a lot of different foods, sometimes games and many of these Japanese festivals have a big fireworks show.

One of these festivals is Osaka’s ‘Yodogawa festival’. Yodogawa is Osaka’s biggest river, and as the name of the matsuri already gives away, the festival takes place on the Yodogawa riverbanks. Especially with this summerheat a splendid location. The Yodogawa fireworks show is probably one of the most popular fireworks show in Japan and definitely draws one of the largest crowds. I’m talking thousands of people, the place gets really packed. If you are not into large crowds I suggest you watch the fireworks from the Umeda Skyline building, but you’ll really miss the great atmosphere.

Since the fireworks are on the river, you’ll have a good chance to view the spectacle from both sides of the river, I do advise you to come in early for a good spot.

The result:

Just some small advice from me if you intend to visit the next Yodogawa matsuri:

- Come in early, I don’t mean 10 minutes before the start, but at least 5 hours. This will guarantee you a great spot for the show. (If you decide to watch the show from the riverbank that is).
- Bring a large plastic or cloth sheet to sit on.
- Bring food and drinks. Even though you can buy lots of oishii food and drinks at the festival, be prepared to wait in line for 10 to 20 minutes before getting served.
- Bring umbrella’s in case of rain. (This unfortunately can happen and has happened last night. We shared 1 umbrella with 4 people, didn’t ruin the show though)
- Go to the toilet beforehand. (Same as the foodstands, the waiting line for a toilet is around 10 minutes, if you have to do the big one expect to wait in line for over 20 minutes.

Of course, even without these preparations you can still enjoy though.

Now all we need is a little Lego soy sauce.

Via UniqueDaily

A restaurant located at the Naokata City, Fukuoka prefecture government office building has added a new Oppai Lunch (Breast Lunch) to their menu to mark the release of the movie Oppai Volley (Breast Volleyball), which was shot in the city.

The Oppai Lunch consists of two cups of breast-shaped chicken rice with strategically placed green peas, and includes vegetables, a bowl of soup, and flag for 500 yen (milk separate).

Via The Road to the Deep East

Last night my girlfriend and I had some friends over and we made okonomiyaki. I had never had it before, but had heard about it from various Japanese friends, and was excited to try it for the first time. It’s sort of like a Japanese pancake, but mixed with various goodies and topped with sauces and other ingredients.

Osaka and Hiroshima are two places where okonomiyaki is particularly famous. We made Osaka style last night, where ingredients are mixed in with the pan-fried batter. We used cabbage, nagaimo (Japanese potato), and moyashi (bean sprouts) in the batter, and topped it with bacon, delicious Kewpie Mayonaise, and okonomiyaki sauce!

With Hiroshima style, the ingredients are typically layered and to spice things up sometimes noodles (udon or yakisoba) are involved! I made my girlfriend promise me that we could make this style next time.

Yaki means “grilled” and okonomi means “what you want,” so you do the math! I expect there are probably some pretty strange versions of this dish in various regions of Japan!

If you are interested in making okonomiyaki, here’s an instructional video featuring a man with a strange accent guiding you along as a Japanese woman and her small dog prepare this delicious dish!

Tokyo also has what is known as monjayaki that is a runnier, liquidy variant of okonomiyaki.

Micheal ‘Gaijin’ Pacheco

Michael plays guitar and keyboards in an Asian American themed band named The Slants.

From the Essential Skills Department. . .

Via Ramen Students