Gari gari kun (Crunchy boy)

Hi everyone, it's been pretty hot here in Tokyo and I am half melted.
How’s the weather in your place?

Bearing with this annoying weather, I thought it wound be good to introduce this, one of my favorite popsicle sticks since it may save your life when you visit Japan during summer.

This is called Gari gari kun (Crunchy boy), a soda flavored popsicle stick produced by Akagi.
They produce some other flavors as well, such as lemon, green grape, pudding, chocolate and more. I've seen these flavors usually only during limited times. So when most people hear "Gari gari kun" they will think of the original soda flavor.

It is a square crunchy ice stick covered with ice candy.
This handy, yummy and refreshing shaved ice that costs only 60 yen per stick is the best item you can find during summer time.
It is sold a most places that carry ice cream which shows how popular this treat really is. Even during winter they still sell the Gari gari kun.

I remember a GNT episode the had Matsumoto talking about how much he loves it. It really is a long-time favorite of many in Japan.

Promotional gifts

Another unique item from Japan is these little promotional gifts that sometimes come with bottled drinks sold at supermarkets or convenience stores. I like to collect these little gifts. So far, I have seen key chains, mini towels, little vegetable farming kits, mint tablets, free coupons of MacDonald hamburger or drink etc..

The free gifts in the picture are the little vegetable farming kits. When I found these at a supermarket, I couldn't resist to buy 3. Now, I'm farming one of these, parsley, at work.

It includes a package of seeds and soil. You can use the bottle cap as a container. There are 5 different kinds of seeds along with parsley, which are butter lettuce, sweet basil, negi, trefoil and leaf lettuce.

Don't you think it's pretty cool for free items? I sometimes buy a bottled drink just to get its free gift. Please check it out when you ever get a chance!

Unique flavor of Kitkat from Japan

Here, I will introduce some unique chocolate from Japan.

It is Kitkat with zunda flavor.
Do you know what zunda is? It's like sweet eda-mame bean paste. Nestle Japan used to sell the flavor only in the Tohoku region as Zunda is one of their famous sweets. But to help the people in Tohoku, where the tsunami hit, they started selling it everywhere in Japan with a 10 yen donation included in the price. So now, I can get it at my neighborhood convenience store.

I have never tried the real zunda paste which is usually sold with mochi(pounded rice cake),also only in Tohoku, but I could taste a slight bean flavor in the light green colored chocolate bar. I liked it. It's less sweeter than the regular milk chocolate bar, so those who don't have a sweet tooth might also enjoy this chocolate bar.

Eda-mame is a kind of green beans, which is a must-have snack on Japanese pub menu. It's usually boiled, and served with salt on top. Speaking of mame (=bean), have you ever heard Endo being called Endo-mame? I don't exactly remember which skit it was in (Please ask Z if you want to know!), but someone was calling him Endo-mame. Endo-mame is also a kind of green beans. They seem to love giving each other stupid nicknames. But I love it.