The earlier posts in this series are all about Japanese convenience/comfort foods that we have been eating some exported versions of them outside Japan (Part 1 is about noodles, part 2 about izakaya, part 3 is about grilled foods as well as tonkatsu and curry, and part 4 is about wagashi.
Japanese snacks is an entire world of new experiences – highly developed, they have fun or luxurious packaging, interesting ingredients, traditional or modern tastes – sweet, salty, spicy, fishy, in myriad combinations, or all at once.
We bought a bag of crackers from a supermarket nearby. It was this slice of squid that caught our eyes. You won’t find this in the brands of snacks sold in Japanese grocery stores in the US.
Some pieces looked like fossils of ancient crustaceans recovered from an archaeological dig.
Marbled with seaweed and bits of shrimps ?, they were briny and tasty.
We must be mad – taking portraits of rice crackers.
well, after a long day of trekking around Tokyo, back in the apartment it was ok to play with food …
In addition to these supermarket products, we tried some fancy shrimp crackers that come in a gift box, ten individually wrapped and cost almost $20. (we ate them too quickly and are not shown here)
Stamped with a squid logo
While eating salty crackers, you might want something to drink. Not a problem around here. The street corner at the end of our street has ten vending machines ! The prevalence of vending machine has no parallel anywhere in the world.
It was the brightest street corner in this neighborhood. The machines sell mostly soft drinks, but also cigarettes.
Pepsi, no Coke. Buying drinks this way is really inexpensive, most are about 120 to 140 yen.
Marlboro and Lark – both made by Philip Morris International. I suspect that a drinks or cigarette manufacturer (owning several brands) can sell in each machine exclusively their products.
One machine sells alcohol, Asahi, and Kirin beer, sake and even whisky.
The vending machines also sell warm/hot drinks – tea and coffee but also this warm sweet corn soup (photo below, in the middle), under the Asahi brand. It was quite tasty and felt nourishing – it is IT’s fav.
There are more than 60 different kinds of drinks available from these machines. Japanese homes are generally smaller than US homes, with tiny refrigerators – it is not surprising that these 24-hour machines are so popular in every neighborhood.
This is my (Chris) favorite, Green DaKaRa by Suntory – a watery juice mix or multi-flavored water. I cannot describe the taste. One can perhaps work out the ingredients by deciphering the icons … ok, it has various citrus fruits, tomatoes, grapes, aloe, honey, white substances, black beans, diamonds and a gold bar ?! It was refreshing.
One of Sue’s fav is the peach water below.
On the way to the airport, we bought all these drinks with the lose change in our pocket without thinking. They were in our carry-on luggage before airport security check … meaning that we had to finish them while waiting in line !