JAKQ

Yesterday I headed out to Nipponbashi or でんでんタウン for a long overdue geeky day.  


I was hoping that since the new sentai series has started I would find some cheaper Gokaiger toys (particularly a certain blue figure that costs damn 3,800 yen D8).  No go on the Gokaiger stuff, but I did pick up a nice present to give to Becka when I go see her next week......




...and of course I can't make it away without a new blue ranger!

I am happy to introduce to you: 

Diamond Jack 

coming at you from way back in 1977 (9 years before I was born).

He was the blue warrior for JAKQ Dengekitai (ジャッカー電撃隊) which was actually not called a sentai series until sometime in the 90's.  I haven't really seen much of this show since it's a little harder to find but it pretty much follows along with the old school hero show bit.  Fuzzy filming, bad costumes and MAGICALLY 70's hair. 
This brings my "retro" sentai count up to three.
Bitches are hard to find ;_;

Youtube is surprisingly unhelpful when it comes to this particular series but I found something decent.  You can hear their badass theme song playing in the background of this beautifully choreographed, flawlessly executed fight scene.

  

So ends the geekery for this evening.

Back to the food tomorrow, promise~

it's Spring and that means 桜 season~

Cherry blossom season has come and gone and I magically managed to miss all of the hanami parties that my friends and co-workers had.  Not too big of a deal really, to be perfectly honest the crowded parks get on my nerves a little.

fruit by the foot?

HOWEVER, as it is beautiful, lovely Spring here in Osaka, I will share some sakura themed sweets I picked up.


First up is the Sakuranbo and Peach flavored soda.
This is some  weird, fruit soda line by Sapporo that I have only ever found in Family Mart.  All of the flavors are very distinct in that they do not taste like what they're supposed to.  さくらんぼ translates to cherry (but in the edible sense) so I suppose this soda has one up on all of the vague 桜 (cherry tree) flavored stuff.  What the hell does a cherry tree taste like anyway?

At any rate, this particular combo comes off as tasting like a red Fruit by the Foot.


The next treat is this strangely colored Sakura Maccha Latte Kit Kat.  The love that Japan has for matcha (green tea) is intense and all consuming.  However when you get candy that is matcha flavored it never actually tastes like tea.

So this Kit Kat takes the ambiguous, not tea matcha candy flavor and mixes it with the non flavor that they call sakura...
Yeah, I made a weird face at it too...

While as a general rule, I actually hate matcha flavored anything, this was really good.  It tasted a bit like cinnamon and a vaguely chai type spice.  The color is a little bit off putting but I'm not sure that the classic sakura pink would have been much better.

In all, I enjoyed my six mini Kit Kats that came in the box and I MIGHT even buy them again, but they are long gone from the store by now and the convenience store is sadly bereft of strange flavored Kit Kat at the moment.  The soda is still there but really, finishing the one bottle was hard...after a few sips

Orange Coke?

Fanta makes all sorts of weird-o flavors here.  Funmix was only around for roughly a month and that's probably being nice and giving it some.

I'm not entirely positive who thought orange and cola was the way that Fanta needed to go but it's not entirely horrible.  The biggest problem with this is that you really can't taste any orange.

I feel like I bought a bottle of Big K brand cola and added a shit ton moreCO2.  

In all, definitely not their best flavor...but really, who can resist something named Funmix?

In other news, I spent entirely too much money on bath salts and Batman underwear today.  Also I have not been to でんでんタウン in months so, no blue rangers recently...I feel saddened by this.    

ティラミス

So I don't know about everyone else, but when I think of tiramisu I imagine a very distinct, very alcoholic flavor.

Nestle and I do not see eye to eye.    

These tiramisu flavored minis came packaged together with プリン (Pudding/Creme Brulee) flavored minis.  

Of the two, these were infinitely better tasting (no alcohol flavor to speak of though)...but that really isn't much of a compliment.  They even look more appetizing than the other flavor.  I decided to not take a picture because they are straight, pure white and they look even worse than they taste.

Back to tiramisu...I don't know what it is they taste like but it reminds me of bad, slightly stale chocolate.

They also come off with a slightly crumbly, dry feeling which is extremely....disconcerting.

As I said though, the プリン flavor is much worse. 

 I was actually really looking forward to them too.  I am a big fan of プリン.  

Seriously, just look at it...all creamy and awesome.  Damn, might be time for a late night snack run.

So the Kit Kat version tastes like....well shit.  

It's bland to start, then the aftertaste follows up and it's almost sour.  Like bad milk sour.  

In all, this Kit Kat venture was a bit of a failure.  I suppose with all of the weird flavors you can get here there has to be a few that aren't so good.  

Sorry I started with a bad one there....oops?

ええのか？

So I just got this new app on my phone...wonder if it works....

have a picture of ジュウレンジャー just for testing purposes.

はちみつレモン？

Japan does weird things to Fanta.  Actually, just about everywhere but America does weird things to Fanta....



Let's rephrase:
Japan does weird things to soda.
(also acceptable to read as "Japan does weird things.")

So I'd like to introduce you to Honey and Lemon flavored Fanta.


I had heard stories of plain lemon Fanta.  They were magical tales of Lemonade with carbonation.  I am a huge fan of lemonade so I was beyond excited when I saw this unassuming bottle in the cooler upstairs at the 100 yen shop.
First thing's first, this does not taste like carbonated lemonade.  Imagine my disappointment.  It was pretty epic.
It does not, however, taste particularly bad.  Not much has ever earned the label bad from me though.


First taste and you're just thinking "Oh, this is bubbly, and lemony, and very very strange."  Not a bad start.  "Where's the honey flavor?" you wonder...then you hit the aftertaste.  "Is that...Ricola?  Or maybe Sucrets?"

This stuff is pretty much fizzy weirdness followed by a distinct liquid coughdrops flavor.
A lot of people do not appreciate this strange combination, but as I was the kid that ate Halls like candy, I kinda dig it.
Too bad that like most interesting drinks in Japan, this flavor was 限定 which loosely translates to "too bad if you like it we're only gonna sell it for roughly two weeks to a month and after that oh well 8DD"  I can't find it anymore...



Shit still doesn't taste like Honey.

I hereby dub Completely Useless Monday a total success.

Also go me for finally starting this blog.
No this will probably not make too much sense, but I hear that's what the internet is all about anyway.



So, to let you get to know me:
☆ I love the blue ranger.  You know, like from Power Rangers.  I know you watched that shit when you were like...seven.
★ I drink a hellacious amount of soda.  This is likely a large contributing factor to my ongoing battle with caffeine addiction.
☆ Kit-Kat bars are the SHIT.



That is basically the entire point of this blog.




Incidentally, I am an English teacher for what used to be Nova.
Osaka is my place of residence and it kicks ASS.  Because of this, I think 関西弁 is both awesome and hot as hell.
I have a very retarded brain to mouth filter.  I think I stunted it during early development stages.
I feel like you should not be embarrassed about anything you say, do, or think because face it, everybody does stupid shit way more often than intelligent, cool, sophisticated stuff.


Also I curse quite a bit.