Adaptation of Studio Ghibli masterpiece will hold live streams on the final days of its Japanese tour.
Tuesday was bittersweet for fans of theatrical anime and anime theater, as the amazing-looking live-action stage play of Spirited Away held its final performance at Tokyo’s Imperial Theater. The silver lining, though, is that the production is now headed to Osaka for a 12-day run starting in mid-April, with performances in Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Nagoya to follow.
While those locations had already been on the schedule for some time, the Spirited Away stage play has just added a new venue: online steaming service Hulu.
This summer, Hulu Japan will stream two performances of the play, both part of its engagement at the Misonoza Theater in Nagoya. Why two? Because Spirited Away uses what’s called a “double cast” system in Japanese theater, where the role of a single character is shared by two performers who appear in alternating performances.
Hulu will stream performances on July 3 and 4, the two final days of Spirited Away’s currently scheduled Japanese tour. The cast on the first day will be: ● Chihiro: Kanna Hashimoto ● Haku: Kotaro Daigo ● No Face: Koharu Sugawara ● Lin/Chihiro’s Mother: Miyu Sakihi ● Kamaji: Tomorowo Taguchi ● Yubaba/Zenibaba: Mari Natsuki
July 4’s cast will be: ● Chihiro: Mone Kamishiraishi ● Haku: Hiroki Miura ● No Face: Tomohiko Tsujimoto ● Lin/Chihiro’s Mother: Fu Hinami ● Kamaji: Satoshi Hashimoto ● Yubaba/Zenibaba: Romi Park
Both performances will stream live, as their actors are on-stage in Nagoya, at noon.
We can’t believe it’s not butter, and that it’s actually chocolate-y goodness!
Tirol chocolate is a must-have staple in any Japanese candy fan’s collection. The iconic chocolate squares have been a part of Japanese confectionary aisles for over 50 years, and during that time, Tirol have wowed us with some… creative flavours like eel and curry. This time they’ve gone with a much more appealing sounding taste, though — butter mochi.
Butter flavoured chocolate is enjoying a surge in popularity at the moment, so when our Japanese reporter Saya Togashi came across a box of Butter Mochi chocolates in her local branch of Japanese megastore Don Quijote, she assumed Tirol had jumped on the buttery trend, too. But on closer inspection, these didn’t appear to be just your run of the mill butter chocolates, but a collaboration with Hokunyu, a dairy company based in Hokkaido Prefecture, which is known for its dairy products. One of their famous products, Hokkaido Butter, comes in a package that looks like this:
▼ Here’s the Tirol Butter Mochi chocolates, which cost 321 yen (US$2.64)
The packaging similarities don’t end there, though — inside the box are 12 individually wrapped chocolates, that also have some familiar packaging…
▼ They look like little packets of butter, but don’t be fooled — they’re chocolate!
And as an extra sweet detail, the chocolate wrappers have a mini map of Hokkaido on the back. Tirol’s chocolates always come in cute packaging, and these are no different!
▼ A buttery Hokkaido outline
So the wrappers and packaging definitely passed the butter check for our reporter, but how did they taste? Saya unwrapped one eagerly and was met with a butter-y coloured chocolate on the inside. Her mouth already began to water as she imagined how it would taste — should she be popping it in her mouth or spreading it on some fresh toast?
But while butter flavoured chocolates are somewhat commonplace these days, these chocolates were butter mochi flavoured.
And while butter mochi is perhaps more associated with Hawaii, here in Japan it’s a famous specialty from Akita Prefecture. It’s made by adding a generous amount of butter to rice before it’s pounded into mochi, and is said to have been eaten by the Matagi people, traditional winter hunters based in the northern regions of Japan.
Real butter mochi has a soft, fluffy texture, and Tirol recreated this by adding some gummy candy to the centre of their chocolate.
Tirol’s gummy mochi, while quite different in texture to real butter mochi, is chewy and addictive, and Saya reckons it was a perfect match for the creamy, buttery chocolate on the outside. The thick, gummy centre meant that Saya spent more time chewing the chocolate than she would have a normal Tirol, so it felt like it was a lot bigger than a regular Tirol, even though they were the same size.
Tirol have brought out some delicious chocolates in the past, but for the most part they tend to be a ‘one or two at a time’ chocolate. Maybe you’ll pop a square on a co-worker’s desk when you walk past, or bring in a box to share with your friends. Saya equates them to an old friend from school whom you don’t really keep in touch with — sure, they’re nice enough when you see them once in a while, but you tend to forget about them the next day.
But the butter mochi Tirol was a different story, and Saya quickly made her way through the whole box in one sitting. They were definitely more than an ‘old friend’; in fact, Saya decided they were easily the most delicious Tirols she had ever tasted.
The butter mochi Tirols went on sale on March 8, and like the eel and curry versions before it, are a limited-time only flavour; once they’re gone, they’re gone. Anyone wishing to try what Saya describes as ‘the most delicious Tirol she’s had in her entire life’, get yourself to your local branch of Don Quijote, or affiliated stores.
And if Tirol are looking for any follow-up flavours and still want to ride the butter train, we’ve got a pretty out-there recommendation for them — sea urchin butter!
Kitchen Dive continues to be the most generous bento boxed lunch shop in Japan.
We’ve talked before about the shockingly large portions and amazingly low prices of Kitchen Dive, a bento boxed lunch takeout shop in Tokyo’s Kameido neighborhood. This Saturday, though, Dive is doing something pretty incredible even by its own standards. It’s giving out free food.
Here’s where things get really impressive, though. The offer isn’t just a gesture of generosity to Kitchen Dive’s customers, but also to Japanese farmers.
It came to the attention of the owners of Dive that some farmers growing negi (long green onions) were having trouble finding buyers for their crops, and so Kitchen Dive stepped in and bought them.
▼ Negi
So how much negi did Dive buy? A full metric ton, 1,000 kilos (2,205 pounds).
To clarify, Dive didn’t buy 1,000 kilograms of negi to use in its bento. This metric ton is outside of what it’s going to cook with, purchased out of the goodness of its heart to help the farmers who were in a pinch. Dive isn’t trying to flip the green onions and make a profit off of them either, as it will be giving the entire ton away, with its tweet reading:
“Can you…hear us? Help…please. The farmers…had an extra-large negi harvest…couldn’t find buyers. So we bought…1,000 kilos…one ton. This coming Saturday…we will be giving out the 1,000 kilograms of negi…for free. Please…come grab some for yourself…We’re drowning…in negi…save us…”
Other Twitter users who have heard the call for help sound happy to do their part, with comments like:
“Things like this are why I love Kitchen Dive!”
“Even with all the bad things going on in the world, check out this.” “Well now I’ve gotta go.” “What a beautiful sight.” “I bet that room smells crazy.” “I’m getting fitted for my wedding dress on Saturday morning, but I hope I can make it there before all the negi are gone.” “Somebody tell Hatsune Miku about this!”
But wait, when Kitchen Dive says the negi are “free,” do they mean “free with the purchase of a Kitchen Dive bento?” That’s what one commenter wanted to know, asking “How much do I need to spend to get the free negi?”, to which Dive replied “You don’t need to buy anything. Coming just to pick up free negi is OK! The reason we’re doing this is to help out the farmers.” The only negi-related surcharge is if you need a bag to put them in, which will cost you 50 yen (US$0.40).
Kitchen Dive is open 24 hours a day, but hasn’t given any official starting time for when customers can start getting their free onions on Saturday, so making a pre-noon negi run is probably the smartest choice.
Shop information
Kitchen Dive / キッチンDive
Address: Tokyo-to, Koto-ku, Kameido 6-58-15 Land Sea Kameido
東京都江東区亀戸６丁目５８−１５ ランドシー亀戸
Open 24 hours
Creator of Love Hina is gearing up for a run at Japan’s upper parliament house to protect freedom of expression.
A few months ago Ken Akamatsu, creator of manga hits Love Hina and Negima, said that he’s planning to run for election to the House of Councilors, the upper house of Japan’s Diet, as the country’s parliament is called. This wasn’t just some idle Twitter musing on Akamatsu’s part either, as he’s now opened a campaign office in Tokyo…though it’s one that doesn’t look like any other aspiring politician’s.
As you might guess, Akamatsu’s office, which opened last week, is in Akihabara, Tokyo’s otaku district. At first glance, the signage makes it look like the place is a specialty shop selling merch or dojinshi for Love Hina or one of Akamatsu’s other series, but there’s a bit of a tipoff in that the sign’s sole text says “honnin” (本人 in kanji), meaning “the person himself,” and sure enough Akamatsu is indeed waiting in side the office for several hours a day to talk with visitors.
▼ Akamatsu can be seen on the left in the lower-left photo here.
▼ The office is located just a short walk from Akihabara Station on the main Chuo-dori road.
In addition to being a campaign center, the office is also serving as a manga art archive. Akamatsu says he was inspired to do so by what’s happened with ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock print paintings which were considered cheap, disposable entertainment media for the masses in their heyday but are now considered cultural treasures, with many historians lamenting that the once-plentiful examples weren’t better preserved.
▼ No word on whether or not the Love Hina opening theme plays on an endless loop.
Akamatsu says he hopes to archive other artists’ work in the space as well, but currently it’s his own illustrations on display, with art from Love Hina and Negima making up the majority. Visitors will also find illustrated panels outlining Akamatsu’s intended policies should he get elected, such as protecting freedom of expression by shielding anime and manga from unnecessary content regulations and foreign pressures and preserving dojinshi culture, as well as fostering economic development and international goodwill through exporting and overseas promotion of manga, anime, and video games.
At around noon on 30 March, someone in the Aoba Ward of Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, spotted a suspicious person rummaging through a parked minivan and called the police emergency number 110. Officers quickly responded and caught the man while he was still in the apartment complex parking lot and in the process of stealing the vehicle’s navigation system.
The 38-year-old suspect was arrested and questioned by police. During this time he admitted to the attempted theft, telling police, “What Russian President Vladimir Putin did was unforgivable.”
▼ The plot thickens…
Although the Russian leader has certainly been the focus of headlines worldwide, this was certainly a surprising confession by a would-be electronics thief. The owner of the minivan was determined by police to have no connection to Russia nor to the suspect, leaving his condemnation of Putin a bit of a mystery.
Readers of the news were also left puzzled by this person’s seemingly political motivation for stealing a car navigation system and expressed their confusion in the following comments:
“I have never not understood something as much as this.” “Lol, what does Putin have to do with this?” “The real weirdos always come out when the weather warms up.” “Is this like a butterfly effect thing? Russia invades Ukraine and a car navigation system gets stolen in Japan.” “Putin, how dare you!” “This guy clearly watches too much TV.” “I think it’s an indirect manifestation of his anger over the Ukraine invasion. Just like what Will Smith did.”
While it doesn’t seem likely that President Putin will be called to task for this crime, it does raise an interesting question of where police draw the line when looking into matters like this. For example, if he had said something about a neighbor motivating his crime they probably would have looked into it and maybe knocked on a door or two, but a call from the Aoba police department to the Kremlin seems unlikely.
Then again… Maybe that’s exactly what Putin was counting on in order to get his hands on some sweet after-market car accessories.
When the new Sakuramochi Pie went on sale at McDonald’s in Japan on 23 March, we knew they’d be popular. However, we didn’t realise just how popular they would be until we got in line to order one, only to be told they’d sold out.
So it took us a few days to get our hands on one of the pink pies, and in the meantime, we found out about another pink pie on the market, from rival chain KFC. That immediately had us wondering which one of these pies would be best, so we ended up getting both of them for a taste test, along with a standard McDonald’s Apple Pie to act as the benchmark.
▼ The Sakuramochi Pie (left), is priced at 150 yen (US$1.23), while the KFC pie (pink version of the chocolate one on the right), is priced at 230 yen.
If the McDonald’s pie hadn’t sold out when we visited, we never would’ve learned about KFC’s pink pie, as it’s flown under the radar without so much as a poster or commercial to alert us to its existence.
While the McDonald’s pie has been all the rage on social media platforms like Twitter, nobody’s been talking about the KFC pie, but is this due to a lack of marketing or a lack of flavour? Well, there was only one way to find out, so our reporter Egawa Tasuku got to work on to investigating the sweet specimens.
It seemed unfair to compare them on taste alone, as they contained very different ingredients — the McDonald’s pie comes with a sakuramochi and adzuki red bean filling, while the KFC pie comes with a strawberry chocolate centre.
▼ So he started by comparing the packaging.
The Sakuramochi Pie came in a box that was slightly bigger than the one used for the Apple Pie, as shown above, and it was definitely the cutest of the bunch as the pink-and-green exterior resembled the edible pickled sakura leaf wrapping seen on genuine sakuramochi.
▼ Sakuramochi, as it looks in the Kanto region in and around Tokyo (left) and the Kansai region in and around Osaka (right)
The KFC package on the other hand was a bit…well, if we’re being honest, it was a bit meh.
Having determined that the McDonald’s pie was the clear winner in terms of whetting appetites with its packaging, it was time to compare the look and texture of the pastry.
The McDonald’s pastry had a tough exterior and a bumpy, bubbly surface, and cutting it in half revealed it to be surprisingly thin.
The KFC pie, on the other hand, kind of looked like a sausage roll, with its smooth crust and triple-slit appearance.
However, cutting it in two revealed a much thicker pastry, and a flakier texture throughout.
Comparing the two cross-sections side-by-side showed one was flatter and the other much rounder.
Egawa wasn’t expecting the KFC pie to hold its own like this against its giant competitor. Not only did the KFC pie look more like a delectable flaky pie, when he bit into it, it had a lighter, airier texture too.
▼ The McDonald’s Apple Pie cross-section, for comparison.
In terms of texture, the KFC pie was the winner here, but if we had to compare the two on flavour, well…it’s hard to beat the taste of sakuramochi.
▼ Especially when it conjures up the taste of a magical sakura scene like this.
Whether you prefer the taste of sakura or strawberries for spring, both these pies have different strong points so they’ve definitely got what it takes to satisfy your sweet urges as the weather warms up.
They’ll only be around for a limited time, though, so be sure to stop by the arches and the Colonel if you’d like to give them a try, and you might want to sneak in a Teritama springtime burger while you’re there too.
A new way to make the customer feel like God in Japan.
It’s often said that the customer is God in Japan, with their word taken as gospel and every effort made to please them.
One supermarket has taken that ethos to another level, by letting customers play God in their meat section, giving them a pile of discount stickers to stick on any type of meat that takes their fancy.
The stickers sit in three bowls beneath a few signs that read: “Meat Day Sale“, “15 percent off at the register. Stick the 15 percent off sticker on up to four products you like and take it to the register” and “Over four products per person is okay too!”
▼ This image of the discount area was shared online by Twitter user @Ux_xUmm_
The photo was taken at a local branch of Japan’s “Gyomu Super” supermarket chain, which is aimed at food service professionals with its large packs and close-to-wholesale prices, although regular shoppers are welcome to shop there too.
Ordinary shoppers love the low prices and interesting finds at the chain, but this stick-it-yourself discount system took things to the next level, with people leaving comments like:
“Wow, I’ve never seen this before!” “This makes discounts even more fun!” “This is great for customers, and staff too as they don’t have to waste work time putting all the stickers on everything.” “I’d go and put a sticker on the Wagyu steak!” “I’d get great joy out of sticking a discount sticker on something.”
The do-it-yourself concept does give the customer a sense of excitement and satisfaction as they take charge of their discount selections, making it a great marketing idea. Not only does it let the customer feel like God, it encourages them to buy more while also getting them to do the work of staff for free, creating a happy win-win for everyone.
After a two-year pandemic break, Japan’s biggest motorcycle show makes its long-awaited, thoroughly masked return.
Last weekend, the Tokyo Motorcycle Show took place. That, in and of itself, would be enough to get gearheads’ motors running, but this year’s event was an especially happy one.
That’s because the 2020 and 2021 iterations were both cancelled due to the pandemic. With public health conditions gradually improving in Japan, though, the Tokyo Big Sight convention center hosted the show for its return from hiatus, and our reporter Haruka Takagi was one of those in attendance.
However, Tokyo isn’t entirely out of the pandemic woods just yet, and so there were a multitude of precautionary measures in place. The most noticeable was that not only guests, but also presenters in close proximity to attendees were required to wear masks, and that went for the booth models too.
While a few models who were situated further back from public walkways were maskless, the rest had face coverings in place, often with the logo or colors of the company they were promoting.
Haruka also noticed that the booth layouts were decidedly less cramped than in previous years, which along with daily attendance caps, helped to keep the convention hall’s population density from getting too high.
There’s been a bit of a camping boom during the pandemic, something that Haruka herself has been enjoying, and so she was happy to see presenters showing off new selections of outdoor goods.
She also noticed a lot of casual yet fashionable-looking rider apparel, functional and protective but a bit toned down appearance-wise compared to full-on racer-style suits.
JAF, the Japan Automobile Federation, was also on-site providing information about their organization’s roadside assistance services, providing peace of mind to those touring Japan’s scenic backroads and mountain passes.
Haruka also spotted some riding shoes she wouldn’t mind wearing as everyday kicks around town.
In another safety precaution, this model who was handing out pamphlets had protective gloves on.
As Haruka’s day at the show wrapped up and she headed for the exit, she couldn’t help feeling impressed at how even though everyone was wearing masks, the warmth of their smiles still managed to shine through, so a big thanks to everyone in these photos for their warm hospitality at the show.
Photo © SoraNews24
