Snack Time

Now for a section I'll call J Train's Snack Time Review....It has been a slow day.

At times, Japan's economy seems to run entirely on food. Because of this, I eat more than my fair share of snack food.  Much of my excessive munching comes from the fact that tons of snack foods are both seasonal and regional in Japan. This is great if you like a fantastic selection, but sucks once you find something delicious because it will not be around forever.  For this reason, when I see something that looks good, I buy it in bulk and I suggest you do the same.  I still have dreams about those apple flavored Kit Kat that go away...

My top 5 favorite snacks (until they disappear in favor of something new) in no particular order are as follows.

Jyagariko, Cheese Curry Flavor:  I've always been a huge fan of Jyagariko.  The Ume flavor was pretty good, but that was seasonal a while back, so I haven't seen it again.  You can always find Salad and Cheese flavors, but they get old after a while.  Cheese curry isn't very spicy, but you can definitely taste the Japanese curry.  Buy these before they're gone!

Wild Curry Pringles.  Yes, wild curry.  They aren't too spicy, but you can definitely taste the curry.  It has more of a Japanese curry than an Indian curry taste, but that is to be expected.  I've been dipping these in hummus and its ridiculously すばらしい!

 Lime Soda Gummy.  I've loved Pure Gumi since I had them 4 years ago. They are kind of like Sour Patch Kids, just with more unique flavors and you can find them EVERYWHERE.  Check out the above website, they have Lemon, Grape, Bitter Orange Squash, and Lemon Cola flavors.  Bet you didn't think I would say Bitter Orange Squash.  Kudos Japan.

Tomorokoshi Pretz.  For you gaijin, that means a thin pretzel flavored like corn and eel sauce (tomorokoshi).  Real tomorokoshi is popular around festival time.  It is just grilled corn and they top it with sweet-ish sauce, but will cost you around 300yen on the street.  Thank you Pretz for making this flavor much more affordable.

Don't be confused, the "BEER" label at the top of the bag just implies that it is good with beer.  I love how you can actually advertise that in Japan.  You hear that kids?  Buy these pretzels, they're great with booze!

Last and certainly not least, Umaibo.  For just 10yen you can buy yourself an over-sized Cheetoh.  Well, not a real Cheetoh, one of those fake cheese curls.  They have cheese, teriyaki,banana chocolate, kimchi and other sweet flavors and are sold in just about every convenience store, supermarket, and UFO catcher.  You'll know what I'm talking about when you see the guy on the package that totally looks like Doraemon but isn't doraemon.  I love Jyagariko but sometimes the prospect of 16 giant cheetohs for the same price as one Jyagariko is too hard to resist, especially when you can buy 16 completely different flavors.  And they're great with Chu-hai kids!


I guess the only thing left to say is "why can't I buy these things outside Japan??"  America had Wasabi Doritos for about a month but then they disappeared from the face of the earth.  Does anyone know if they still sell those?  They were delicious!!  The only company that seems to actually be trying are Skittles...Too bad I only use skittles to make Skittle Vodka...