Mikan Flavor Cider

One of my favorite drinks over here is Mitsuya Cider. It’s a sweet delicious soda. There’s nothing really like it in Canada. They’re always coming out with different variations, adding fruit or milk, etc. Well I got this one the other day.

It’s mikan flavor. Mikan is a type of Japanese orange. The taste is something similar to tangerines or mandarine oranges. The combination of the cider and mikan is quite delicious, and tastes like real fruit. Kind of like Orangina or something. I liked it very much.

Little Big Planet

I got my copy of the North American version of Little Big Planet in the mail today. I didn’t want to chance buying the Japanese version just in case it didn’t have English. Plus the level sharing is supposedly region locked, and I wanted to share with my friends in Canada. It’s also why today’s post is going to be short and sweet.  I gotta go and play.

Farmers Need It Too.

Sometimes when you’re driving in the countryside you’ll see one of these lonely huts on the side of the road.

The nondescript signs on the hut say DVD, video, and book. One might wonder what is contained within.

Taking a closer look inside, you find a large collection of vending machines filled with the raunchiest of dirty magazines and video. It’s kind of strange to find these out in farm country, and it’s actually a lot more of common sight than you would think. Hey, I guess rice farmers need dirty magazines too, and why should they have to drive into the city?

Zao

Today we took a small drive up Zao mountain. Right now the leaves are starting to change color in our area. Japanese people really like fall leaves (and commonly think it only happens in Japan). We didn’t go to the top this time, just about half way. There’s a nice lookout where you can see two waterfalls far away in the distance.

Here’s the second one. It’s a really beautiful scene.

There’s also a very large war god statue too. He’s a rather scary looking chap with flames behind him.

Even though we didn’t go to the top, I can still show you a picture I took when we went in 2004. It’s a super amazing view.

Ketsui

This game just came out yesterday in Japan. It’s a fantastic vertical shooting game made by a Japanese game studio called Cave. Cave is famous for making a specific genre of shooters called “Bullet Hell”, in which the screen if filled with enemy bullets. You have to have very good reflexes to be able to dodge everything. I really like this style of game, and was so happy to find out that one of their games was coming out on DS. Well now that I have it, I can confirm that it’s really good. It’s not like the normal shooter, in that it’s only boss fights, but the multi-level craziness of the bosses make up for it. I highly recommend it. You can check out a trailer of it below.

Print Club

Yes, these are the machines that keep game centers in Japan in business. Print Club machines are basically photo booths that have leveled up. They are beloved by high school girls all over Japan. Girls can take little pictures of themselves and their friends, and then adorn them with cute heart, flowers sparkles, etc. Some also feature touch screens so that you can write messages or draw on the pictures. A lot of girls think that Print Club pictures make them look better than normal photos. I think it’s just the super bright lights.

Chillin’ Bear

There’s a popular character here in Japan called Rilakkuma. He appears everywhere. At games centers in UFO machines, toy stores as trinkets, and at convenience stores on drinks.

Rilakkuma is a combination of the word “relax” and the Japanese word “kuma” which means bear. so he’s pretty much the relaxing bear. I really like how he’s just chilling out on the orange. This little guy is super popular in Japan right now. You couldn’t avoid him if you tried.

On the side of the bottle he’s also chilling on a pillow. He’s saying “Right now I’m working out”, and the strange duck seems shocked and is saying “Really!?”. Very cute stuff indeed.

Sendai At Night

While I was in Sendai on Saturday I took some night time photos of the area around Sendai Station. I was heading home so of course it was night time. All of the buildings have tons of lights and signs on them.

The area around the train station has lots of pedestrian walkways high above the roads. It makes it really easy to get around.

Here’s a picture of Sendai’s newest department store Parco. It’s full of shops mostly for women, so I steer clear of the whole building usually. To the right you can see a brown building. That’s the train station.

Here you can see the Loft department store and the super huge JCB sign. The light from the signs is so bright that street light are mostly unnecessary. There’s always tons of people walking around this area, and it’s the easiest place to spot foreigners.

Amazing

I went to the fast food restaurant Lotteria in Sendai for the first time this weekend. There they had just about the most amazing burger I’ve ever had. Maybe the best I’ve ever had!

It was a really simple double cheese burger. It tastes very much like a homemade burger. They put some mixture of spices in the beef, use really good cheddar cheese, and toast and butter the bun. Yes it sounds really greasy. You can see grease spraying off of it in the picture. I have to say though if heaven has a flavor it definitely tastes like this.

It’s Too Early For Halloween!

As you can see in the picture above, while I was in Sendai yesterday there was a big Halloween party downtown in the shopping district. While it looked like everyone was having fun, they all neglected to look at a calendar, because Halloween isn’t for two weeks! One wonders why they didn’t plan it for next weekend or even on November 1st would be better. I also wonder why that man near the microphone is wearing a maid uniform.

Now that’s something really scary for Halloween!