Morinaga Chestnut Cake: The Japanese snack aisle is full of seasonal items, and it looks like we're now in chestnut season, with a variety of chestnut-flavored cakes and desserts. I purchased the Japanese version of Choco Pies from popular brand Morinaga, consisting of a circular cake base filled with a layer of creme and covered in chocolate. Overall, I prefer the texture of Choco Pies, whose cake is less crumbly (most of the individually wrapped cakes in my Morinaga box were not in one piece when opened), and t... (read more) 2.0/5.0
japanese inegaya morinaga chestnut cake 2.0
Calbee Black Pepper Potato Crisps: There are two Japanese versions of Pringles that I've seen on the shelves from major brands Calbee and YBC. Both come in familiar tennis-tube packaging and feature a hyperbolic paraboloid-shaped stackable chip. The differences are minor: the Japanese chips are a bit thicker and tend to taste more of fried potato than of their powdered flavoring. These black pepper flavored chips have a decent spiciness to them and are otherwise fairly expected – neither good nor bad. I recently learned t... (read more) 3.0/5.0
japanese inegaya calbee black pepper potato crisps 3.0
Lotte Strawberry Toppo: Toppo is another staple convenience store (kobini) snack in Japan. I read somewhere that they're like inverted Pocky sticks, but they're not so much inverted as redistributed: the snack consists of long straws with a neutral biscuit exterior filled with flavored hardened icing such as chocolate and strawberry. The strawberry flavor has a good balance of sweet and tart, reminding me of the Koala's March snacks but less sweet as there is a more balanced biscuit to icing ratio. Like many Jap... (read more) 3.0/5.0
japanese strawberry inegaya lotte toppo 3.0
Lotte Chocolate Caramel Choco Pie in Ginza : The iconic snack Choco Pie from Korean brand Lotte is available in most places shops in Japan. This particular Ginza chocolate caramel cake flavor is part of a special edition "around the world" series which takes iconic desserts from various cities around the world. For example, it previously featured the NYC cheesecake. I've never actually heard of a Tokyo-specific chocolate caramel cake (and a quick Google Search comes up empty). This is a very decadent Choco Pie, with chocolate cake i... (read more) 3.0/5.0
japanese desserts inegaya lotte chocolate caramel choco pie in ginza 3.0
Luna Vanilla Yogurt with Summer Hyuganatsu Citrus: This brand of yogurt comes in 3-packs, all with a different primary-colored label. Unfortunately, my inability to read Japanese made it impossible to know what those colored labels meant, but this particular yellow one shows a bear hugging a large yellow-colored fruit resembling a pomelo, which I assumed to be the flavor. Only after doing some research after I got home did I find that the fruit is a Hyuganatsu, which is a type of Japanese citrus hybrid between a yuzu and pomelo. I was sur... (read more) 3.0/5.0
yogurt japanese inegaya luna vanilla summer hyuganatsu citrus 3.0
Morinaga 俺の白くま beverage: This cute packaging caught my eye, with a familiar polar bear face I've seen on popsicles everywhere from convenience stores to supermarkets. Though I haven't tried the popsicles before, they seem to feature a variety of fruits along with red bean, all in a milky white bar. The combination of flavors always seemed like they wouldn't necessarily go well together, which is why I hadn't felt a strong desire to try them up to this point. I found this carton in between the milk and yogurt secti... (read more) 2.5/5.0
drinks japanese inegaya morinaga 俺の白くま beverage 2.5