Previously, we’ve covered Ronald McDonald, Colonel Sanders, Hello Kitty, and Mickey Mouse, but today we’re going to delve into food items being parodied. Things like the image above, which are just a little too sexy creepy to eat. Really, it looks like it should be called SM&M. Why do you think he’s showing his pinky like that? That’s the Japanese hand-symbol for boyfriend!

There’s a longstanding obsession and devotion to food in Japan, so it’s only natural that food gets some attention. Here we go!

Hopefully this makes you feel guilty the next time you eat M&M’s. Poor Yellow M&M. It looks like his boyfriend is abandoning him.

You’ve never experienced creepy baby mayonnaise if you’ve never been to Japan (something worth trying!). The image above refers to Kewpie Mayonnaise, probably the most popular brand of mayonnaise in Japan, which is made a bit differently from American Mayo (I think it tastes much better than the stuff we have).

Japanese mayonnaise is typically made with apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar and a small amount of MSG, which gives it a different flavor profile from mayonnaise made from distilled vinegar. It is most often sold in soft plastic squeeze bottles. Its texture is thinner than most Western commercial mayonnaise. A variety containing karashi (Japanese mustard) is also common [source]

If you’re interested in more Japanese mayonnaise related things, check out Kewpie’s own English propaganda page, or take a look at this all-mayonnaise restaurant. Or, why not watch this Tarako dance (which includes the Kewpie baby).

I feel like there’s a Broadway play in it for those girls.

Sad Mr. Pepsi Blue. Didn’t sell too hot anywhere. That’s probably because they used Blue-1 to color it (somewhat controversial coloring banned in several countries), not to mention it tasted like liquefied berry flavored cotton candy.

Another version of Pepsi Blue that I remember is “Pepsi Blue: Hawaii.” This added some pineapply taste to the already nasty berry flavor. I’m sure you can guess how well that did. Kind of makes me think “Nuca-Cola Quantum” from Fallout 3.

Then, last but not least, there’s this Pocky guy. This one’s my favorite, by far. Definitely a very “Japanese” sense of humor. I think Pocky is pretty well known in America, though feel free to prove me wrong. Basically, they are bready cookie sticks that are 75% covered in chocolate (or various other flavors). My favorite is “Man Pocky,” because, you know, women can’t handle that manly (more bitter chocolate) taste. Oh Japan.

So, if you want to see more defiled food, check out these links:

Food 1

Food 2

The next part of this article will be about parodied American Children Shows, and will come in the next 12 hours! If you want to get updated every time another part to this series comes out, please subscribe to our RSS Feed. Or, if you like e-mails, you can get an e-mail every time we update as well by going here. See you with another “character parody” article soon!

Surprisingly (to us Americans, maybe), McDonalds all over the world has different menus to cater themselves to the locals. Even in Hawaii, you’ll find things like ramen, Portuguese Sausage / Eggs / Rice Plates, and taro pies. Japanese McDonalds, of course has it’s own quirks, not to mention special choices on the menu.

Besides the food, Japanese McDonalds has some other differences as well. Ronald McDonald has a different name: Donald (ドナルド). McDonalds Restaurants are generally a lot cleaner, staff seems to be a little friendlier, and everything is a little more upscale (at least as upscale as McDonalds can be). The drinks and fries are considerably smaller, though the hamburgers are only a little smaller. They have most of the staple McDonald choices on the menu, but I went through and found all the ones you might not see in your country of origin. Let’s start with breakfast!

Breakfast Menu (朝マック)

Feel free to click on the image above to get a closer view, but we’ll be getting into more detail on some of these below. I’ve provided a literal translation to all of them, written right above each picture. A few things strike me as a little odd, though. Why is the Chicken Caesar Wrap and the Fillet-o Fish on the breakfast menu? Japanese love eating weird things (at least by our standards) for breakfast. So if you study abroad, be prepared to eat a lot of lunchy-dinnery things in the morning!

Bacon Lettuce Egg Wrap

This sounds ridiculously good. I thought I loved Sausage and Egg McMuffins, but now I have something new to look forward to. Thank goodness Japan’s time difference might help me wake up early enough to grab one of these, while I’m still in jet lag mode.

The Mega Muffin

I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard about the MegaMac (keep reading), but this is it’s monstrous morning brother, the Mega Muffin. From the looks of it, the Mega Muffin consists of two sausage patties, a slice of cheese, an egg, some bacon, and some ketchup. Seriously? Well, I suppose it won’t stop me from trying one the first chance I get.

Chicken Caesar Wrap

This menu item isn’t strange all on it’s own. The thing that’s strange is that it’s found on the morning menu. Though, I gotta say, I probably wouldn’t mind. This is a good segue to…

The Lunch / Dinner Menu

Not a whole lot that’s terribly interesting here. You’ll notice that many of these items are found on your local McDonalds menu. Here’s the things that are probably unique:

MegaMac

If you live in Hawaii, you may be one of the lucky Americans to come across one of these…uh…things? Just double the amount of meat you would normally find in a Big Mac, close your eyes, tap your ruby shoes together, and you’ll get one of these. When I tried it, I could barely fit it in my mouth, that’s how ridiculous it is. Why Japan would have a hamburger bigger than any of its counterparts in America is beyond me. I suppose it makes up for the generally smaller portions everywhere else.

Shrimp Thousand-Island Wrap

Normally I am a big fan of some Thousand Island salad dressing… but that’s usually just on my salad. I can’t wrap my mind around this one, though I love the shrimp (sounds like a perfect wrap). This is very similar to their Shrimp Burger, which we’ll take a look at right now.

Shrimp Fillet-O

If you’ve never had a shrimp burger, do so as soon as you can. It is (unsurprisingly) one of the best fast-food burgers you’ll ever have. The Japanese Ebi Fillet might even rival an In-n-Out burger, though that might be pushing things a little bit.

Croquette Burger

One of my favorite aspects of Japan is the constant easy access to one of my favorite foods: Croquettes (コロッケ). If you can put them in a hamburger, then more power to ya, I say. Though, I would probably just take them out from the bun and eat them separately. But then again I’m not twelve years old.

McPork

Erin says these exist from time to time in the US, so I won’t talk about them too much. I thought that maybe it was due to the ban of beef imports from a couple years back, but maybe it’s just a plain old normal hamburger :(

Teriyaki McBurger

I’m a sucker when it comes to Teriyaki Burgers, and this is no exception. My mouth is watering.

Shaka Shaka Chicken

These are like little fried chickens in a bag. Then, you get this seasoning mix that you pour into the bag, seal, and shake. Now, all of a sudden you have some seasoned chicken, the McDonalds employees didn’t have to do the seasoning part for you, and now everyone’s happy! Here’s a video of someone doing it.

Bacon Potato Pie

I’m not too keen on sweet deserts. I’ve always been one for eating salty things after eating salty foods, you know, to clear the pallet. This piece of work seems to fall within that category, and sounds wonderful. Screw you Apple Pie. Bacon Potato pie is in town.

Now, we’ve only gone over the different food options there were. There’s also some different drinks you can get your hands on, to wash the greasy goodness down.

Available Drinks

You’ll notice all sorts of different things (and a lot of familiar ones). One of my favorite things about Japan is the availability of Ginger Ale. You definitely don’t see it very often in American fast food restaurants, but in Japan, it’s pretty common! Other interesting drinks include tea, Grape Fanta (Fanta is fairly big in Japan), and Qoo (I have no idea how to explain Qoo, except for that their apple juice is amazing).

So What Will You Eat?

There’s all sorts of great / interesting things there, but if you could only choose one, what would it be? I think I would go with the Mega Muffin, just because my current American favorite is the smaller version of that one, and more is always better, right?

In Other News…

Tofugu is in a blog competition: Blogging Idol. Although you will hear more about this in one respect or another, you can support us in this competition by subscribing to our RSS feed (not to mention you get immediate notification as soon as an article is posted!).

[image source, image source]

]]> http://www.tofugu.com/2008/11/02/the-japanese-mcdonalds-menu-im-actually-lovin-it/feed/ http://www.tofugu.com/2008/08/15/japanese-face-shaped-watermelon-and-other-weird-shapes/ http://www.tofugu.com/2008/08/15/japanese-face-shaped-watermelon-and-other-weird-shapes/#comments Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:47:28 +0000 koichi http://www.tofugu.com/?p=641

A year or two ago, Japanese square shaped watermelon were big in the news. Not only were they easier to ship, but they were more expensive too, and that catches anyone’s attention. Today, I read an article over at Megaijin, that talked about triangular shaped watermelon (even more expensive, but more difficult to ship, I imagine). This sparked my interest, so I decided to dive a little deeper. You’ll be amazed at the weird watermelon-related things I’ve come across!

Cube-Shaped Watermelon

First, let’s take a look at the original strange Japanese watermelon: “The Cube.” This was an expensive solution to the difficulty that people had putting a big round watermelon in their refrigerator (why refrigerate, though, I say eat it all!).

Supposedly, only around a 1000 of these are produced in a year, though I feel like that number may have increased. It’s garnered notoriety amongst the rich (as well as several visiting political figures), and is pretty darn expensive. As you can see above, 2008 version goes for around $119 USD, which is cheap compared to some of the other watermelons we’re going to get into. Who knows how much shipping will cost you. Here’s another photo, from Choo.

I really wonder how the square watermelons taste. Is it just the novelty of the shape that’s selling them, or are they particularly juicy? Either way, if I was Scrooge McDuck I’d definitely replace my simming pool of gold coins.

Oh yeahh, check out those photoshop skillz (sarcasm)

Heart Shaped Watermelon

So now we get a little more expensive, and a lot more useless. I suppose this could shape up (haha, get it?) to be an expensive romantic gift of some sort, but I think buying a week’s worth of baseball tickets would be more fun.

A heart-shaped watermelon will run you around $237 USD, a price that will end up breaking your…you know. I’d suggest saving your money and spending it on UFO catchers.

Pyramid and Triangle Shaped Watermelon

Now, here’s where I get a little confused. Let’s start with the Triangle shaped watermelon, because, apparently, there’s some sort of big difference between triangle and pyramid shapes. Aren’t they just different words for triangle?

These “triangle watermelon” will run you the same as a heart watermelon, around $237 USD. I’m not sure what the purpose of these watermelon are, besides the novelty. Square watermelons, sure, they ship nicer and are easier to put in the fridge. Triangle watermelon? They just seem hard to ship and hard to eat.

Now, how about the pyramid shaped ones? From what I can see, they are almost exactly the same. The only difference? The ridiculous price.

Ever considered paying $950 USD for a watermelon? Well, now’s your chance. They only make a few of these a year (which, I suppose, is why the price is so high?), and they look like crummier versions of the triangle watermelon, at least to my untrained watermelon eye. I dunno, what do you think? They better taste better, that’s for sure.

Face Shaped Watermelon

Here’s the one that you all came for. This is the most ridiculous watermelon I’ve ever seen, and I would never be alone in a dark room with this one.

This face-watermelon will cost you $475 USD, but, I mean, c’mon, it’s a face! It even has glasses on and a big smile, so you feel good when you eat through half your month’s rent. It’s a smile that says…”it’s okay, I still love you…even though you’re a dumb knee-biter for buying me.”

Looks like this one has a Hitler mustache!

How are these Watermelon Made?

Well, the face one is a secret process, apparently. Though it follows the same basic rules as the others. All they do is put a glass / plastic container around the small, baby watermelon, and it grows into the shape it’s put into. Cube shaped is put into a cube container, triangle into a triangle container, etc. They  do something extra fancy with the Hitler face though, but they aren’t willing to taddle their secrets.

If you’d like to get one of these watermelon for yourself, you can actually get them shipped to you overseas (maybe). Check out Rakuten’s Art Suika page and look for the English section somewhere in the middle. You might be able to order your own overpriced watermelon if you email them.

Vocab for this Article

Something I thought I’d try to do, since this is a website about learning Japanese culture and language. We’re going to include some vocabulary at the end of every news / culture related article to give you a chance to sponge some Japanese vocabulary as well. I mean, why not, right?

スイカ (suika)
Watermelon

果物 (Kudamono)
Fruit

三角 (Sankaku)
Triangle

四角 (shikaku)
Square

What is so interesting about crêpes you might ask? Not a whole lot. I’m just salivating for a crêpe at this very moment, hence a small reason I’m writing this article. What does it have to do with Japan? If you have ever venture out in the metro areas of Japan, it’ll be hard not to spot a crêpe shop. In the minds of a Japanese, this famous French food staple will often bring up connections to the ever so rebellious young Japanese and Harajuku.

There isn’t that much to say about the history of crêpes in Japan. Crêpes were first introduced in Japan sometime in the late 1970s. At first the popularity of the snack was dismal. But then came along crêpe shop that opened up in Harajuku. The young Japanese who congregate the area welcomed the food item, and thus began its popularity.

The crêpe wrap served in Japan is the sweet crêpe variant, which is typically filled with sliced fruit, whipped cream, syrup, and anything else you can imagine when thinking about desserts. In addition, they are also served with vegetables and meats if one desires a meal. The filling is wrapped around with the crêpe wrap to form a cone shape. If you are in Japan don’t be surprise to get an extra helping of Japanese mayonnaise to go along with your meal crêpe. They sure do like the mayo over there. As you may have imagined, the crêpes served in Japan are more liberal in what they use for the filling.

The following are examples of what you might find on a Japanese crêpe menu:

• Strawberries with vanilla ice cream, topped with chocolate sauce
• A slice of cheesecake
• Potato salad topped with a hot dog
• Spaghetti
• Tuna, pizza, and cheese (yes, all in one crêpe)
• Frankfurter salad. One variant of a frankfurter salad I’ve seen consisted of lettuce bedding, the frankfurter with a side of turkey, topped with kidney beans and ketchup

Om nom nom nom. Why bother with utensils and dishware you would typically use for the fillings listed, when you can have everything housed in a nice cone shape wrap? For some reason I am reminded of the Simpsons episode where Homer condenses spaghetti into bar form.

Why is it hard not to spot a crêpe shop? It is mostly due to the displays that are viewable outside the shops; plastic crêpes that illustrate each menu item. Some find it fascinating, others find it scary. Personally, I’m the former. Look at the attention to detail in the first two images of this article! Plastic food displays aren’t just limited to crêpe shops, as they are commonly used by food establishments. However, the crêpe shop displays stood out the most to me, which is probably due to the extensive sized menus each shop carries and the plethora of colors exhibit by the crêpe fillings (contrast the colors of crêpes to katsu and fried products topped with curry). If you want to bring home one of these displays, stop by Kappabashi-dori in Tokyo. The district specializes in kitchenware and there are a few shops dedicated to plastic food displays.

If you live in a major U.S. city , then you might be fortunate enough to have access to a shop that specializes in Japanese crêpes. For those in the Seattle area, there is a Japanese crêpe shop that lies in the heart of the ID (acronym for International District, also known as the un-PC term Chinatown) called Unicorn Crepes.

Thanks to MSG150 for the photo above

UC was originally operated by three young individuals (I have heard they have since added more staff), one of which was an apprentice at a popular crêpe shop in his hometown Kyoto, so you know you are getting the real deal. The shop even has plastic crêpes proudly displayed! Oh, and the crêpes are pretty good. UC is located only a block away from the Uwajimaya. The peeps over at MSG150 gave their impressions of the place, which I agree with.

Here is a video for those who are interested in the construction of a Japanese-style crêpe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For those who want to drool over pictures of Japanese crêpes, here is the Flickr search results.

I’m hungry.

It’s been a year since the last “Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest” at Coney Island, when reigning king (at the time) of eating food “really really fast” lost his title, and his world record, to San Jose’s Joey Chestnut. This makes me sad. I thought for sure he would come back with a victory, regaining his honor.

Still, Kobayashi did actually manage to tie Joey Chestnut with 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes (it was 12 minutes in years previous), but lost it in overtime, where they had to eat 5 hot dogs faster than each other. It seems that now, though, both of them hold the record for most hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes, so that’s something I suppose.

I remember seeing a little blurb about Kobayashi on TV when I was in Japan. They wanted to find out how such a skinny guy was able to eat so many hot dogs. They followed him to a ramen shop where he at a ridiculous amount of ramen. They then did a cat scan, or something, where they found out his stomach was much larger than a normal human’s. If I remember correctly (and let me know if I’m wrong), it’s 3 times as large as a normal stomach. Not sure where there’s room for that, but apparently it’s there.

He also uses a special technique when eating hot dogs - they call it the “Solomon Method.” Basically, he breaks the hot dogs in half and stuffs both sides into his mouth and swallows it that way. Whatever works, I suppose. Not surprisingly, though, hot dogs aren’t his favorite food. His five favorite things to eat are cold tofu, Yogurt, Plain Bagels with Cream Cheese and Lox, Royal Milk Tea, and Vietnamese Spring Rolls.

Here is a list of his matches. It’s really interesting to see his improvement. You would expect a professional eater to just be able to eat until his stomach is all full, but apparently there is a lot of training that goes into it.

-2001: Ate 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes (shattering the previous record of a mere 25). He gained 8 pounds during this contest.
-2002: Ate 50 and one half hot dogs.
-2003: Ate 44 and one half hot dogs.
-2004: Ate 53 and one half hot dogs, getting a new record
-2005: Ate 49 hot dogs
-2006: Ate 53 and three quarters hot dogs, getting another world record. He also became world champion at eating bratwurst (I imagine this contest was a bit tastier) by eating 58 sausages in 10 minutes.
-2007: World record was broken by Joey Chestnut, who ate 59 and one half hot dogs in 12 minutes. Later that year they went head to head, and even though Kobayashi ate a ridiculous 63 hot dogs, Chestnut bested him by eating 66.
-2008: Kobayashi loses a tie-breaker to Chestnut in a “who can eat 5 hot dogs the fastest contest.” Both of them ate 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes (that’s really fast).

It’s obvious he’s not “losing it,” he has improved in the last few years. It’s just that there’s finally someone better than him eating lots of hot dogs. So, the question is, can Kobayashi keep improving and eventually beat Chestnut? I suppose it all depends on where their limits are, and I’m not sure if they’ve reached them yet.

[image source]
[information source]

The bowl and noodles were constructed out of carbon nanotubes–tiny cylinders made of latticed carbon molecules–in Nakao’s lab in 2006, but were only unveiled today after being entered in a microphotography contest. Measuring a measly 1,016 nanometers (or 1/25,000 of an inch), the bowl is theoretically small enough for even some bacteria to use–the average E. coli being around 2,000 nanometers long–assuming they like the taste of graphite, that is. Maybe the addition of some carbon chāshū or menma would make it more enticing?

Anyway, here’s what the inventor had to say about his creation:

“We believe it’s the world’s smallest ramen bowl, with the smallest portion of noodles inside, though they are not edible,” Nakao said.

The hardest part was to keep the noodles from rising upright from the bowl “like alfalfa sprouts,” he said. “The achievement was mostly for fun.”

So, though Nakao probably won’t be winning a Nobel Prize for this feat, you have to admit, it’s pretty cool. In my mind, it’s right up there with the world’s smallest guitar, toilet, and smiley face. And, hey, if the price of wheat continues to rise, tiny bowls of ramen may become a lot more prevalent, hm?

More nanocoolness: Nanotechnology Now and the EIPBN Micrograph Contest
Source: The Honolulu Advertiser

]]> http://www.tofugu.com/2008/05/30/worlds-smallest-bowl-of-ramen/feed/ http://www.tofugu.com/2008/01/05/tofugus-japan-week-in-review-1-fukuda-elevators-mochi-death/ http://www.tofugu.com/2008/01/05/tofugus-japan-week-in-review-1-fukuda-elevators-mochi-death/#comments Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:36:04 +0000 koichi http://www.tofugu.com/2008/01/05/tofugus-japan-week-in-review-1-fukuda-elevators-mochi-death/ December 27, 2007 - January 4, 2008

Every week (i.e. whenever time allows), I’ll be doing a “Japan week in review.” These segments will cover smaller news articles from throughout the week that we don’t want to cover individually. Although these articles of news won’t necessarily be very important, they’ll surely be interesting instead. Included after the break is a video; before that, though, let’s go through the stories not covered in moving picture.

Army of Tiny Crustaceans is Destroying a Small Japanese Island: On a small island 1650 ft off the cost of Hiroshima, a whole bunch of tiny crustaceans are burrowing into the island, causing it to break apart into a billion little pieces. The island’s name is Hoboro, if you ever want to visit, though I’m not sure why you would, since it’s inhabited (except for our friends the “nanatsuba-kotsubumushi,” of course). Supposedly the increasing number of these shrimp/crab relatives was caused by increasing temperature of surrounding waters, which caused plankton blooms. These little guys love the stuff, so they reproduced like crazy. Since they make their homes by burrowing into rock, they are destroying the island one burrow at a time. Reports say that the island could disappear within the century if this keeps up. Wow! [source]

Japan Stops their Brutal “Research” of Whales: When Japan “researches” whales, they kill them in large numbers and feed them to their upper classes. “I say, Mr. Tanaka, I’m going to have to research some more of that ‘Whale Curry‘, it tastes smashing” (British Accent). Thankfully, due to international pressures, Japan has halted (for now) this nasty practice. We’ll see how long Japan can keep from eating that lovely whale cocaine. [source]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s Vlog: As you can in the video above, Yasuo Fukuda (along with the whole Liberal Democratic Party) has started a Youtube page. You can even check out his English Video and see what the Prime Minister actually had to say (instead of what he said in my video). It’s pretty interesting and pretty blah at the same time. His English is fairly good, anyways. I’ll include it below for your convenience:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mobile Post Offices: In Aichi Prefecture (where I used to live), a lot of rural post offices are getting shut down. To combat the obvious problems that would arise because of this, mobile post offices (big vans) are being sent out. People can do all the normal mail stuff as well as withdraw money from ATMs. One neat little tidbit for the non-Japanese explorer: If you need to withdraw money from an ATM, the post office is the way to go! Most ATMs won’t accept your cards, but for some reason post office (and Airport) ATMs often do. Just something good to know if you are visiting. [source]

Death By Mochi is Wonderfully Tasty: Every New Years, a lot of Japanese people eat mochi soup (zoni). It’s one of those things that if you grow up with it you’ll absolutely love it. With every wonderful thing comes a price, though, and Mochi Soup is no exception. Every year a handful of people die from choking on the mochi, although usually they are of the elderly variety. This year four people died, and ten people were hospitalized - a pretty average New Years in my book. Party on, Garth. [source]

Ass n’ Boobs Airbag: You really just have to look at the picture. These airbags are supposedly better for you when you smash your face into them. I imagine they’d be a lot more fun too. Made by Takata, these airbags will reduce injury from airbags, but greatly increase (suspicious) male driver collisions. [source]

Tallest Elevator Test Tower: *Ah, dang, I messed up on this one. I thought it was the tallest elevator (as said in the video above). It’s actually the world’s tallest elevator testing tower, which sounds a lot less impressive, because I don’t imagine there are very many towers dedicated to elevator testing. Still, it seems like a pretty cool place to visit, so why not check it out if you’re near Inazawa City? [source]

Japanese Inmates Think Their Jumpsuits Aren’t Stylish: Aw damn, and I thought gray with vertical stripes was in again. O Brother Where Art Thou is hax. Recently a survey was done showing everyone what everyone already knew: Jail cells are too small, solitary confinement is no fun, and their clothes aren’t very fashionable. It’s not like we’d want our prisoners to be wearing the latest fads. How would we tell them apart from society? They have to look crazy, otherwise it would be hard to spot them amongst the millions of spiffy Japanese teenagers.

Hello Kitty Shames Soldiers, Kills You With Love: Apparently Hello Kitty has come out with it’s newest (and cutest!) high powered rifle … just kidding. Actually, a crazy gun-otaku put together a themed Hello Kitty AR-15 rifle for his wife. Here’s a quote from the creator: “Well, in the “spirit” of the California Assault Weapon Ban I decided to do my best to alleviate the fears of my fellow citizens and gun-banning legislators when I put together a new AR-15 for my wife.” Maybe if President Bush saw these he’d start equipping our fearless soldiers with these deadly assault rifles. [source]

So what do you think about this week’s useless Japanese News? I’m particularly interested in politicians blogging. I don’t think they pull it off very well, with Mr. Fukuda being no exception. All the American candidates are using Youtube as well, though for a different purpose. Fukuda’s use of it is more of a running thing; I think it’s good to keep the young’uns informed. Otherwise, I’m terrified of the Hello Kitty Gun, laughing at the Japanese inmates, and craving Mochi Soup. I might have to go make some of that right now, I think we have leftovers. See you all next week (or so)!

*Update: Aw, man, I kind of feel bad for posting this. I’m not very happy with it, overall. This has been a big learning opportunity, so there will be big improvements on this series for next time, though. Until next time…

A Brief History of Kurisumasu

Christmas in Japan is an interesting creature. The holiday was introduced back in the day (during the 16th century, if you want to be exact about it) when Christian missionaries first came to Japan. In the modern day, though, being a largely non-Christian country, observance of the day is pretty secular—no midnight mass or nativity scenes or anything like that. In fact, many Japanese kids (and possibly adults?) seem to be under the impression that the day is a celebration of Santa’s Birthday. Not a wholly unreasonable thought, I suppose. Anyway, initially adopted by the Japanese government to gain acceptance from powerful and snobby Western nations, Christmas gained more and more popularity as the country modernized, reaching its most commercial form around 1960.

Pseudo-Holiday

It’s important to note, though, that Christmas isn’t actually a national holiday in Japan and as often seen as an offshoot of the New Year’s festivities (which are official). Still, to the relief of department stores, bakeries, and Christmas tree sellers nationwide, most people have adopted the non-religious aspects of the holiday, buying and exchanging gifts, eating “special” foods and decorating their houses (though not quite so much as their American counterparts).

A 2nd Valentine’s Day?

Aditionally, Christmas Eve is seen as one of the most romantic nights of the year. The 24th is a day often chosen for dates and confessions—remember the last episode of Hana Yori Dango when Shizuka tells Rui she loves him and Tsukushi finally kisses Tsukasa? That’s exactly kind of how it is in real life! Because of the popularity of Christmas Eve as a “date night”, hotels and restaurants usually offer discounts or special packages to capitalize on the lovey-dovey feelings going around.

KFC and Christmas Cake

Somehow, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or ケンタッキー (kentakkii) as it’s known in Japan, managed to convince the country in 1970 that fried chicken was the way to go come Christmas time. Most people (from my experience, anyway) see it as a kind of turkey substitute, as turkey is traditional for Western Christmases but not readily available in most asian countries. Fried chicken is so popular that most Japanese families reserve their Christmas Party Barrels ahead of time; items bought between the 24th and 25th account for 20% of the company’s annual sales.

As for Christmas cakes, they’re not bought from any particular restaurant or bakery, but they’re pretty ubiquitous—more so, I would say, than fried chicken. They’re usually a vanilla sponge cake decorated with simple white frosting, strawberries, and a Christmas message.

Fun Fact: Because Christmas cake is thrown out after Christmas Day (the 25th), the term has become slang for a 25+ year old woman who has passed her prime and is no longer attractive as a potential wife, girlfriend, etc. As they say, “Nobody wants Christmas cake after the 25th”. Now, I don’t believe that this is true (or particularly nice), but I thought it warranted mentioning, anyway.

About 50% of all Japanese people have bought at least one of the two items this year. Together, they comprise the stereotypical (some would say “traditional”) Japanese Christmas meal.

A Message From Tofugu

From all the writers at Tofugu, I’d like to wish you all Happy Holidays and a great New Year! As corny as it may sound, it’s true. We appreciate your comments and support more than we can say.

Come lunchtime sophomore year of high school, all the cool kids were eating Cup Noodles. I wasn’t cool, unfortunately, but I loved them as well—with an instant ramen in my hands, I looked very much like that kid in the picture up there: excited, elated, and full of MSG-goodness.

Towards the end of the school year, though, the novelty of eating freeze-dried foodstuffs was wearing off, and that urban legend about the guy with the waxy stomach started going around, so Cup Noodles went the way of Twinkies and Spaghetti O’s—I just kind of stopped eating them, and eventually I forgot them all together. That is, of course, until I discovered the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, which has rekindled my love of all things Nissin.

Located in northern Osaka, the museum’s main galleries chronicle instant ramen’s rise to glory, from it’s creation in 1958* to its eventual space debut in 2005. Now, I’m sure that’s all very interesting stuff—but that’s not what I’d be going to Osaka for. Nope, I’d be going to get myself a spot in line at the museum’s “Cup Noodle Factory” for a customized cup or two of the good stuff.

Upon arriving at the attraction, you’d start the journey for the perfect ramen by transforming a humble styrofoam cup into a work of art. You’d then pass that off to a helpful factory employee who would stick the noodles into it upside-down (for some reason, this is very, very important). After that comes the most mouth-watering part: getting to choose the little freeze-dried extras.

First comes the soup; original, seafood, curry, or salt-based. Then comes the agonizing decision of which 4 of the 12 available toppings to add to your cup. You can choose from shrimp (エビ), egg (卵), green onion (ネギ), asparagus (アスパラ), corn (コーン), kimchi (キムチ), pork (豚肉), chicken cutlet (チキンカツ), cheese (チーズ), fish cake (ナルト), imitation crab (カニカマ), and garlic chips (がリックチップ). While some of those might seem a bit strange (ex: cheese) they’re all very popular add-ins—I’ve been told cheese and curry are great together, though I’ve never tested out this claim.

After everything has been added, your Cup Noodle is then sealed, shrink-wrapped, and packaged. All that’s left to do is find the closest available source of hot water and enjoy. If you’re curious, here are a few pictures of the process and results from Flickr, as well as a neat video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum

Address: 8-25 Masumi-cho, Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: +81-072-752-0825
Hours: 9:30am to 4pm
Holidays: Tuesdays and New Year’s Holidays
Admission: Free for the main museum, 300 円 to 500 円 for the ramen-making exhibits

* The museum’s namesake, having passed away earlier this year, is fondly remembered as “the King of Instant Ramen”. As the story goes, walking one night in post-WWII Japan (where food shortages were rampant), Ando came upon a line of people waiting to buy fresh ramen from a black-market stall. Peace will come to the world when people have enough to eat, he thought to himself. Soon after, Nissin Chicken Ramen, the predecessor of modern-day Cup Noodles, was born.

For this, Time Magazine called him a hero, saying:

His instant-noodle recipe included not only flour, palm oil and MSG, but—metaphorically, at least—a sprinkling of hope, too. After all, it is that midnight bowl of noodles that so many count on to keep going a little longer, a little later, in pursuit of the Asian dream.

Fujitaka, a Kyoto-based vending machine manufacturer came up with the idea of serving people ramen out of the can. The Japanese people can’t stop making things better. First they took American VCRs and turned them into transformers; now they are taking those old-fashioned, third-world country Styrofoam ‘Cup Noodles’ and turning them canned and futuristic. That’s right, no water necessary. All your cans are belong to us. It’s the perfect still lives with mom 40 year old’s disaster relief food.

The trick, according to Mainichi News, is using konnyaku to make the noodles. This way, the noodles don’t get soggy and you can enjoy your not-soggy ramen under a pile of rubble after that earthquake hits (without a hotpot!). According to the picture above, you can even get them out of the vending machine hot! This has made them so popular that the company is barely able to keep up with demand. Now that’s ridiculous.

The story behind this ramen gets a bit stranger:

Yu Yamada got the idea for marketing canned ramen after serving as a volunteer in the wake of the 2004 Niigata earthquake, when he took cans of noodles to those forced to live in evacuation areas following the temblor.

“It was surprising to see how delighted everybody was by the noodles. I just couldn’t forget the joyous looks on people’s faces,” Yamada tells Sunday Mainichi.

The question burning on everyone’s mind here is “when will I see these cans here in the States/Europe/wherever?” I personally have no idea. If you’ve seen canned ramen around shoot a comment and let us know where you got it (internet is okay, too, I guess). I imagine we won’t be seeing ready-to-eat ramen until Fujitaka gets their supply problems figured out. Until then, you’ll have to stick with your Styrofoam cups and boiling water. What a tough life you have.