Tastes Like Tom Yum

Here is the next in the long line of new Pringles flavors I’ve been featuring from time to time. It’s part of their”Extreme” line. It’s  “Sweet Chili” flavor.

I thought it was very good. It had a hint of lime to it. I thought it tasted very similar to Tom Yum soup, a popular Thai dish.  There is a another new flavor, but I won’t be trying it. It’s some kind of mushroom flavor. I hate mushrooms, they are my kryptonite.

Warm Feet

One of the constant battles in Japan during the winter is keeping warm. With no central heating it can be difficult. Moving to a different room means you have to heat up that room, and sometimes it’s colder inside than it is outside. The problem for me is I have really bad circulation in my arms and legs. My feet are always freezing. Well, I found a solution!

I bought this at the local supermarket. It’s a foot warmer. It comes with this sealed bag of  gelatinous liquid inside.

What you do is put it in the microwave for around three minutes. Slip it into it’s cloth pouch.

Place it at your feet, and you’ll have toasty warm toes in no time. I like to use it when I’m watching TV. I also like to put in my bed so it’s nice and warm when it’s time to sleep.

Dishes!? Really!?

Here’s the other promo that Pepsi Nex is running right now. It’s a strange one for sure. You can guarantee I won’t be getting any of these. Royal Copenhagen dish fridge magnets. When I think of cola, images of dishes don’t come to mind.

I wonder who this is aimed at. I’m guessing house wives or maybe grandmothers. How can they do this on one hand and Be@rbricks on the other. Strange.

Warner Bros. Be@rbricks

I had previously posted about the Star Wars Be@rbricks, now Pepsi Nex is back with some new Warner Bros. Be@rbricks. You can see all of them in this promo image from their site.

I’ve got one already. It’s the Joker from the Batman movie The Dark Knight. Here he is in the package.

Here it is out of the package. Pretty cool I’d say.

I think I might try and grab the Matrix one as well. Some of them are quite boring though like the one for the OC and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory bears.

Year Of The Cow

Another New Year’s tradition in Japan is that every year is assigned an animal from the Chinese zodiac. This year is the year of the cow. Most houses will have a decoration of that animal some where in their house. Here’s ours.

Also everyone sends New Year’s postcard to each other, much like Christmas cards in western countries. Most of them have a picture of the animal for that year on them too.

New Year’s Shrine Visit

To complete our Japanese New Year’s rituals we went for a quick visit to the local shrine. Hachi Man Jinja is it’s name. It’s about five minutes from our house. Normally people go and visit right after midnight, but it’s cold and we were tired so we went this afternoon.

You go and throw some coins in the donation box, ring the bell, and wish for good luck in the coming year. While we were there I spotted these really cool lion sculptures. I liked how the eyes and mouth were painted in a bright red color.

New Years

Tonight is New years eve. New Years is perhaps the biggest holiday in Japan. The traditional activities are a little bit different than in Canada. Usually people stay home, eat lots of food, and watch the Kohaku singing contest on NHK (I’m watching it as we speak). Today lots of traditional New Years decorations popped up around our house. Like this one at our front door.

Also my mother in law made a nice looking Ikebana (flower arrangement) display.

Also another traditional decoration is this paper and the plastic looking snowman lump of mochi (sticky rice).

Also we ate a delicious assortment of Chinese dishes, brought from Sendai Hotel where my father in law works.

It was really yummy. We had to give food to the gods as well. Tomorrow we’ll eat soba which is a tradition as well. Well back to the festivities.

Sexist Chocolate

Here’s and interesting fun fact, chocolate can be sexist in Japan!! Just kidding. A very small amount people might be offended if they saw this product in Canada.

There are various chocolate products in Japan that say they are for men, like Toppo here and Men’s Pocky. Turns out that “For Men” just simply means dark chocolate. I guess Japanese chocolate makers think women don’t like dark chocolate. I just use it as an excuse not to share with my wife, saying “Sorry, this is for men only.”

Golgo 13 Awesomeness

I spotted this really amazing Golgo 13 figure in a magazine that I bought recently. The detail is pretty amazing, right down to his disassembled M16 in his suit case.

Judging from how good it looks it’s probably super expensive, so I’ll just look at the ad instead of buying it.

Curry Dip

My wife bought me this interesting snack. It’s Doritos, but they’re packaged in a Pizza-La pizza box.

It also comes with a curry flavored dip.

The dip was delicious, but not nearly enough for the amount of chips they give you. I even tried to use it very sparingly, but it still wasn’t enough.