Stone Ocean Royal Milk Tea

Stone Ocean Royal Milk Tea. Currently, Family-Mart konbini has a tie-in with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Very perfumy aroma, but tastes more like simple creamer. 200 yen, with tax.

I generally drop into konbini to see if they have any manga or anime-themed can coffee (the last one was for Jujutsu Kaisen). I've seen a few residual One Piece cans left over from months ago, but not much else. Suddenly, I encountered a bunch of stuff both at Lawson's and Family Mart, including the previous Galaxy Express 999 alcohol, this Stone Ocean tea, Ghost in the Shell chuu-hai, and one more upcoming one. I found one Red Bull-like energy drink with manga artwork on the can, but I don't drink those kinds of things, and I can't find it anymore in other stores.

Project Moni.style

"How's everything going?"

ISS 100 yen Jigsaw Puzzle

Decided to buy another 100 yen ($1 USD) 108-piece jigsaw puzzle. This one was tricky because of all the black, near-black pieces. I sat in McDonald's and spent 90 minutes on it. No one paid me any attention during the entire time, even though the puzzle took up the full table I was at. Probably won't do any more of this kind of puzzle, because none of the other images are all that great.

Ghost in the Shell Lemon Sour

Ghost in the Shell Lemon Sour. 9% ABV. At Lawson's konbini for about 200 yen with tax ($1.80 USD). Like drinking a lemon drop candy, but without the sugar. Chemically artificial candy lemon flavor, not sweet, kind of sour. Nothing really special, but the can art is nice.

Galaxy Express 999 Drinks

Ginga Tetsudo 999 has teamed up with Helios Brewery for a line of themed alcoholic beverages. The Queen Esmeraldas red ale is 9% ABV, for 380 yen w/o tax (about $3.75 USD) for one can. I tried checking out the website, but there's no mention of these beers at all there. The photo is blurry because the camera refused to focus on the can.



It's a typical hoppy Japanese red, bitter but not grapefruity.



The only other thing I've seen in this lineup is the Captain Harlock chu-hai (shochu and club soda). (Which I'm not going to bother with.)

Cat event at Amu

From Feb. 10th to the 23rd Amu Plaza department store had something of a cat theme. The event information board here describes the historical connection Kagoshima has with cats. Essentially, one of the ruling Shimadzu family members about 100 years ago liked having cats at the family estate at Sengan-en (a couple miles north of Amu Plaza), and there's a monument dedicated to cats there now.



About 30 shops in the department store carried branded cat-themed goods. Apparently there was a cat petting opportunity at the neighboring Tokyu Hands store, and the upper left-hand box above lists the artists participating in the below illustrations exhibit.



Some of the artwork looks like it's been pulled from one of the manga magazines, although it's not a story I follow so I don't know if the exhibit boards gave the name for it or not.



Some of the other illustrations look like they may have been done by students at an art school.



I liked a few of the images.



This one definitely was done by someone in Kagoshima. The background image is the Sakurajima volcano.



The artists' names are given on the above event information board if you want them.

Ryunosuke Arita

I was up at Amu Plaza on Sunday and heard this almost a cappella-like singing coming from the promenade nearby. The singer's name is Arita Ryunosuke. He was pretty good, but the turn-out for him was "slim" at best. Only 6-8 people were hanging around to listen to him, and no one applauded when he finished the song.



Busking ain't easy in 40-degree weather.

Slam Dunk Marker Art

Marker art for the shiatsu parlor. This time for Slam Dunk (or Real, I don't know the difference anymore).

Anti-Fog Marker Art

Glasses shop advertising anti-fog gel for mask wearers.

Shiseido Cosmetics Shop Art

Shiseido cosmetics store marker art.

"Prepare for beautiful skin."

NY-Style Roll Ice Cream Factory

For a long time, there was a Baskin-Robbins 31 Ice Cream in the basement food court in the Amu Plaza department store. About a year ago, that was replaced by this "NY-style Roll Ice Cream Factory" shop. I finally decided to break down and try it. The poster here promotes a tie-in with the Blue Period manga.



Part of the shop advertising for two of the ice creams. The one for American Dream costs extra because of the additional cookies.



This is the choco-mint roll. 850 yen (about $7.75 USD). It's very pricey for what you get, but there is kind of a performance art that goes along with making it. The woman behind the counter cleans off a refrigerated freezer plate, then puts the "key ingredient" in the serving cup (for one customer, it was a slice of banana, for me, it was a second Oreo). She presents the ingredient to the customer, then slaps the cup upside down onto the freezer plate and pours about a quarter cup of flavored milk over it. She chops up the ingredient into tiny fragments and mixes it into the milk as it starts to chill. She spreads the milk out thin on the plate as if she's going to make a crepe. Then, when it's frozen, she scrapes it up into curled strips, and puts the strips length-wise in the cup (it was either 7 or 8 rolls total). She presents the cup to the customer for approval again, then adds the toppings (for me, two Pocky, two chocolate animal crackers, whip cream and chocolate syrup, and another Oreo). Finally, there's one last presentation and I walk off with my dessert.



Is it good? Yes, if you like choco-mint ice milk and extra sugar (like I do). Is it worth the 850 yen? Not for what you get. It's largely air. Maybe as much as half a cup of flavored milk, but not more than that. But, it is fun to watch the girl doing all the chopping and mixing. That part, she was very skilled at.

Barber Shop Yaiba Art

Marker art for a barber shop, using Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Sword.)

"I'll cut your hair!!! HA HA HA"

McDonald's NY Burger

McDonald's is running their new New York burgers campaign. The youtube ad is kind of a 1950's dance-style heavily influenced by the art of Roy Lichtenstein. But, it's actually fairly ugly and I can't stand watching it when the video pops up in my browser. Two sandwiches - beef with cheese and black pepper, and chicken "burger" with salt and lemon. The primary "selling" point is the use of square buns.



Double patty, with liquid cheese, a Kraft single, lettuce, chopped onion, a tiny strip of pseudo-bacon, and some kind of sweet brown sauce (teriyaki?).



It didn't taste all that bad, but the single slice never melted. The liquid cheese came from a squeeze bottle and tasted like cheddar with cracked black pepper. There was a bit of a burn, like it had been painted with the vinegar from a bottle of pickled jalapenos, but it wasn't consistent across the entire patty. With a large coffee and fries, the price came to 760 yen (about $7 USD). Interesting to try once, and then move on to something better.

Direct link

Small Adventure - Dropped

It's easy to get jaded here. Smartphone zombies just walk straight into you. Groups of students, OLs (office Ladies) and salarymen will automatically spread out shoulder to shoulder and force you either to swing into a doorway until they pass, or off the sidewalk entirely into the street. Women from 35 on up will rip you a new hole to be the first to get to an open seat on the trains or streetcars. I've had similar women push past me in line at cash registers just because they couldn't be bothered to "pay attention to the foreigner."

A few mornings ago, I was walking up to the nearest streetcar platform to catch the tram. I had to cross a fairly wide street, which I did in front of a smaller side street. I got about halfway across when a car pulled up at the intersection of that side street, and the driver immediately rolled down his window, looked right at me and shouted "bag, bag."

At first, I thought he meant my backpack was unzipped again, but it seemed strange he'd be able to see it from that angle, and I could quickly tell it was zipped up tight. He continued pointing at me, so I turned around, and there was my little pocket camera bag lying in the middle of the street. I'd had it clipped on a belt loop with a carabiner, but not very well, and it apparently popped off without my noticing at all. Fortunately, the nearest approaching car was still a block off and I could run back and grab the bag without fear of being hit. I tried thanking the guy, but he just blew me off and quickly swung out into the street to avoid missing his light.

It was lucky, because I probably wouldn't have noticed it was gone for at least half an hour, and I'd have had no idea where to start looking for it. The camera itself was unscathed, too. And, yeah, my faith in humanity has been partially restored for right now.

Ciena Spring Chalk

I love these signs.

Godiva Valentine Day Campaign, 2022

Godiva has a new campaign now, "Watashi ni mo, ageru" (I'll give myself chocolate, too). The manga design for the woman was unusual enough to catch my eye, but the animated version in the video isn't animated enough to be considered "anime." Manga girl looks kind of creepy here...



Direct link

Choco Paku 2022

Amu Plaza Choco Paku


Amu Plaza is running its "choco paku" fair for Valentine's Day. On Saturday, at about 4:30 PM, there was almost no one looking at the displays, and a couple of the booths were already closed for the day. Attendance was really bad last year, too. Doesn't help that you have to go through a temperature screening at the entrance just to get past the barrier ropes. But, these chocolates have always been really expensive, so I've never bought anything from these fairs before. They may be pricing themselves out of the range of their best customers, too - school girls forced to buy "giri choco" (obligation chocolates) for every male they know (father, brothers, classmates and teachers).

Shiro Chalk Art, Setsubun 2022

Shiro hair salon's chalk art for Setsubun, the Japanese celebration where children throw toasted soy beans at adults dressed as oni (demons), while chanting "Oni go outside, good luck come inside." Setsubun was on Feb. 3rd. Saw a few parents carrying small children wearing oni masks in Tenmonkan. Otherwise, nothing much special was happening.

Hello Kitty Yoga poster

There's a yougan (lava) massage and exercise studio in Tenmonkan. Yougan translates to "hot lava, but it actually refers to cooled rock that is heated to maybe 90 F. They're using Hello Kitty for the ad. I think Kitty's going to have to grow 6 inches to live up to her expectations.

Coffee-flavored KitKats

I've been wanting to get a bag of these coffee-flavored KitKats for a while. I finally broke down and got one a few days ago at Donkey, for 220 yen (about $2 USD).



REALLY disappointing. Normally, they smell close to what they're supposed to taste like, but they usually just taste waxy. These bars, though, don't taste or smell like coffee. They just taste like milk. Not worth the money.

Ultradumb

Found this poster in front of a running shoes store, and I hated it at first sight. It's like the art department couldn't have cared less about churning out crap, and was desperate to hit the links for a 9 AM tee time on a Wednesday.

A poorly-placed shoe over some random triangles, and an aluminum foil cauliflower.

Oniidina Chalk Art

Hair salon advertising that they're taking reservations for women that want their hair styled for Spring graduation.

Janome Year of the Tiger

The Janome sewing machine store at Takamibaba street intersection has their handmade sign in the window for the Year of the Tiger. I should ask for their consignment rates.

Battle for Midway Ship Capsule Toys

Here's a weird marketing decision. A growing number of Japanese think that Japan was tricked into attacking Pearl Harbor just to give the U.S. an excuse to enter WW II. So, what's the justification for producing "cute" deformed battleships that fought against each other at Midway? Four ship designs plus one capsule of water explosions and aircraft. 400 yen ($3.75 USD) each.



Exact same toys, just a different insert sign in Japanese.

Google Doodles, 2021-1.2022

I'm still collecting the links to the Google Doodles that I find interesting, for science, math, Japan, animation, and game-related doodles. However, there aren't that many new doodles in any one month anymore, and most of them are boring. Here are the ones I liked for all of 2021, and January 2022.

Celebrating Masako Katsura (First Lady of Billiards)


Prof. Udupi Ramachandra Rao's 89th Birthday



Celebrating Johannes Gutenberg



Celebrating Laura Bassi (One of the first women in Europe to get a PhD)



Celebrating Swing Dancing and the Savoy Ballroom!



Akira Ifukube's 107th Birthday



Celebrating Shirley Temple



Margherita Hack's 99th Birthday



Celebrating the Turkana Human



Tim Bergling's 32nd Birthday (song)



Rudolf Weigl's 138th Birthday (Immunologist)



Kanō Jigorō's 161st Birthday (Father of Judo)



Charles K. Kao's 88th Birthday (Father of Fiber Optics)



Celebrating Johannes Vermeer



Celebrating Fairy Bread (white bread, butter and rainbow sprinkles)



Celebrating Lotfi Zadeh (Discovered Fuzzy Sets in Math)



Georges Seurat’s 162nd Birthday



Émilie du Châtelet's 315th Birthday



Julio Garavito's 157th Birthday



Stephen Hawking's 80th Birthday (animated)