Chicken, Chicken, Chicken

Apparently in a bid to try to crush KFC’s hold on the fast food chicken market, McDonald’s Japan has now added three new chicken items to their menu. The best being the mysteriously named “Aurora” chicken burger.

Apparently the sauce is called “aurora” sauce, hence the sandwiches name. I thought the sauce tasted strangely similar to the Big Macs sauce……Anyways chicken and bacon is always a great idea.

The also good, but subtly flavored  “Salt & Lemon” chicken burger is no bad either. I just wish the lemon flavor was a bit stronger.

Lastly they have some new chicken strips, called “Juicy Chicken Selects”. I’m not really a big fan of these. They’re quite fatty actually. Too fatty for my liking.

You’d actually be surprised at how much Japanese people love super fatty meat. And I mean really love it! Who says Japanese people have healthy diets? They obviously haven’t seen the tower burger!

Dragon Quest IX

This past weekend Dragon Quest IX was finally released in English, almost a year after the Japanese version. Any long time readers of my blog will know that I’m crazy about Dragon Quest. I managed to acquire a copy, and I have to say it’s quite fantastic. So far I’ve sunk almost 14 hours into it! The story is quite good, and I really like that the appearance of your characters change when you change equipment. You can make them look really cool and cute! The only bad part is since it came out so long ago in Japan, I can’t seem to be able to use the WiFi tag mode where you can meet other players when you’re walking around town, because no one here is still playing it! I tried it on Monday walking around Sendai in some of the busiest sections of town, but came up with zilch. Oh well. The trailer is below. The theme music is so good, it always gets me excited!

Kimchi

I just found out that Lotteria also has a new Kimchi burger. I haven’t tried it yet but I plan to very soon. Looks delicious!!

This makes sense since the owner of Lotteria is Korean.

Hot and Spicy!!

Lotteria added a couple new things to their menu recently. In the fine tradition of Japanese fast food adding spicy items during the summer, they now have a “Tandoori Chicken” burger.

Looks yummy doesn’t it? Well I’ve had it and it’s amazing to say the least. It’s surprisingly spicy for Japanese fast food, and the chicken is amazingly authentic tasting. They also added “Hot Fried Chicken”.

It’s also very good, and pretty cheap at only 120 yen. About a month ago they also started serving this monster too…

The ten patties, “Tower Burger”. I don’t know who would be crazy enough to eat this, but thankfully the size is adjustable. The burger actually starts at two patties, and the price climbs as each one is added. The full ten costing a whopping 990 yen!! That’s an expensive burger! I ate just the double, and it was pretty delicious.

3DS

Nintendo announced today at E3 a new DS, called the 3DS, because it’ll be in 3D! The best part is you won’t have to wear any stupid glasses to have the 3D work. It looks really good. I can’t wait to get one.  I like that the top screen is not wide-screen. Oh I want this badly!!

Historie

I’ve been really enjoying this new manga that I found recently. It’s called “Historie” by Hitoshi Iwaaki. The story is about the life of Eumenes, who was a general of Alexander the Great. Eumenes was famous for being supremely clever, and very skilled general. In the manga his character often finds clever ways of tricking the enemy, or accomplishing goals. I have to say it’s a really interesting read, especially for someone like me who likes historical type stories. Unfortunately you can’t buy the books in English, but you can find them floating about on the internet. I highly suggest checking it out.

Kebabs in Sendai!!!

Thanks to a tip from one of my students, and a through search of the internet by my wife, I have found what I consider to be the “Holy Grail” in Sendai. An actual kebab restaurant!!

As you can see in my hastily taken, extremely poor quality photo (I accidentally took it at ISO 1600. That’s what happens when you last took star photos, and you’re in too much of a hurry to check the setting dial) its name is テラトルコ which is “Tera Toruko”.  “Toruko” is the Japanese name for Turkey by the way, hence the crescent moons in the windows. The shop apparently just opened up in March. Well, the day after I found out about it, I rushed post haste to sample their wares. I had two different sandwiches, a chicken with yogurt sauce and a beef with chili sauce. They were both super  good. I recommend that anyone living in Sendai area, and is in the mood for some Middle Eastern food check it out!  A couple of websites that have some info on the shop are right here (TeraToruko Blog, Sendai blog info) it’s all in Japanese by the way.

Cold Zao

Here’s a rather chilly picture I took of Zao Mountain back in April, when my brother was visiting me. It’s quite amazing how much snow was left at the top of the mountain. Sometimes it was twice the height of our car! Even though it was a hot day, it was super cold at the top. The bad part of the trip however was the near two-hour slog up the mountain in traffic. They really need to do something to fix that problem.

Ipod Touch

I recently bought a 32 gig Ipod Touch. I have to say it’s really enjoyable to use. It’s become my default device for e-mail, Facebook, and even replying to comments on my blog with the Worpress app. It’s also great for carrying all the photos I’ve taken over the years. So far my favorite apps are:

IMDB: gives you a nice and easy graphical interface with access to all the info on the website.

Kotoba!: a free Japanese to English / English to Japanese dictionary. Very handy when you live in Japan. It can also do other languages like German and French.

WordPress: you can do almost everything you can do on the real site, including writing posts, managing and replying to comments, etc.

PathPix: a very fun puzzle game, kind of similar to Picross, but instead you’re drawing lines.

Plants vs Zombies: great funny strategy game. Defend you house from zombies with you garden.

Espgaluda 2: fantastic  “bullet hell”  shooter made by the legendary Cave.

Tap Tap Revenge 3: like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but free and portable.

Canabalt: a really fun and simple arcade game.

Life Magazine: a great app where you have access to pretty much every photo that has appeared in Life Magazine since it started. Great for seeing really interesting pictures.

Smart fm: great for learning some Japanese and also free. It ties into your site account, so you can study on the go. Unfortunately it’s not available in the Japanese ITunes store. Who’s going to need it more than foreigners living in Japan, but they can’t get it? I had to make a “special” Canadian account to get this one.

All and all a great device. It’ll probably serve me well when I take my vacation in Europe this summer. I already have a ton of tour guides, maps and transit ready for the trip. Plus I’ll be able to surf the internet and check my e-mail at the hotel, and it’s like a million times lighter and smaller than a laptop. Bonus!

Tokyo Food

When we went to Tokyo in February there was two restaurants that we particularly enjoyed. Well one of them was actual a food stand, but who’s counting.

King Kebab is in Akihabara, and they sell kebab pita sandwiches. Middle Eastern food being kind of a hard to find item in Japan (especially Sendai), this was quite a treat. It was incredibly delicious! Next time I go back to Tokyo, I’m going straight back here first. The other place we went to was the Court Lodge.

They serve Sri Lankan food. It’s similar to Indian food, but also quite different. Using very different spices, the curries tend to have a very unique flavor when compared to Indian curries. Sri Lankan curries are also quite spicy too.  If you’re in Shinjuku, and want some good food, I highly recommend it.