New limited-edition sweets bring a dash of luxury to Japan’s top doughnut chain.
Back in the first week of January, Godiva and Mister Donut sought to break all our New Year’s resolutions with the announcement that they would be releasing a limited-edition range of chocolate doughnuts.
The decadent four-piece collection that debuted at Mister Donut stores on 11 January was only a taster for the full course, though, because now the collection is complete with two new doughnuts, shaped like a pair of hearts.
Called the “Premium Heart Collection“, this duo uses a newly developed premium chocolate dough that’s said to melt in the mouth, with Godiva’s bitter ganache and raw chocolate adding a dash of elegance and luxury to the mix.
The Heart Chocolat Fraise sandwiches ganache, strawberry jam, and chocolate inside the doughnut, with strawberry chocolate icing and crunchy strawberry bits for textural contrast.
The Heart Chocolate keeps things equally decadent with bitter ganache, whipped praline, and chocolate sandwiched inside the doughnut, and milk chocolate icing and candied almonds for a nutty crunch.
The new heart-shaped doughnuts are priced at 345 yen (US$2.34) for takeout or 352 yen for dine-in. Alternatively, takeout customers can combine both of these new doughnuts with the Galette des Rois and one of your favourite Chocolat doughnuts from the first collection, for 1,370 yen, which gets you a free collaboration-branded paper bag as well.
The new doughnuts will be available at Mister Donut stores around Japan from 31 January to late February, while the first collection will only be around until early February. If you’re watching your waistline as well as your back pocket and wondering which of the first collection is worth the calories, then this guide to the range might help you!
Clever design lets you recreate a famous movie scene with your broth, and watch No Face swimming beneath your noodles.
One of the most iconic scenes in Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away involves a train ride on water, and just before it, No Face can be seen making its way through the water to join protagonist Chihiro on the platform, during which time the train passes by, throwing a wave of water on the silent character.
The charming scene is one that remains in the mind of the viewer long after the film, and now you’ll be able to relive the moment at mealtimes, with Studio Ghibli’s new Unabara Chinese tableware collection.
“Unabara” translates to “sea” and contains the kanji for “sea” (“海”) and “field” (“原”), making it a perfect description for this particular movie scene, where shallow waters appear to flow over the railway and its fields during the train journey. It’s apt that this scene was chosen for the new tableware range, because the bowls are designed to hold liquid-rich dishes such as soup and ramen, so when you get to the bottom of your meal, you get to see No Face swimming under water.
The collection consists of a ceramic noodle bowl, priced at 2,860 yen (US$19.35)…
▼…a smaller bowl for side dishes, (1,210 yen)…
▼…a ceramic spoon (924 yen)…
▼…and a side plate.
▼ All the items in the range are made in Japan, with the film’s Japanese title, “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi” (“千と千尋の神隠し”), printed on the underside.
Both bowls have No Face swimming at the bottom, and an adorable little image of the character jumping, which recalls the scene where it leaps from the bathhouse into the water.
When you position your food just right, you can make it look as if No Face is sitting on your eggs or leaping into your soup.
▼ And you can recreate the wave scene from the movie with your spoon.
The clever design opens up a new world of opportunities for No Face to be holding on to, or running away from, your food.
Completing the set is a cloth placemat, beautifully adorned with No Face on one side…
▼ …and a wave pattern on the other, giving you two ways to style your table settings.
Hidden within the wave pattern are cute characters like Boh Mouse, Haedori…
▼…and Aogaeru, whom No Face spits out into the water during the Unabara scene.
Those who want to purchase the entire collection can do so with the five-piece set, which retails for 8,844 yen.
Diehard fans of Spirited Away who want to add even more No Face to their lives can also pick up a noren curtain for 2.750 yen, which, unlike the newly released tableware collection, is a restocked item, but features the same Unabara design.
The clever placement of the character allows you to have fun with the design, so you can act like you’re shocking No Face every time you pass through the curtain.
The new collection went on sale at Donguri Kyowakoku stores and online from today, with the five-piece set and the placemat proving to be so popular that it sold out online within hours of being released.
However, as we’ve discovered with sold-out online items in the past, you can still get lucky with stock available at stores, but this collection is already proving to be very popular, so you’ll want to seek out these items soon to avoid being left as glum as No Face if you can’t get your hands on them!
Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Featured image: Donguri Kyowakoku Insert mages: Donguri Kyowakoku ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
The iconic scene from Sega’s over-the-top series might look like the sort of thing only video game tough guys can do, but Mr. Sato shows how to do it in real life.
On January 26, Sega released Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the latest installment in the Like a Dragon video game series (previously known as Yakuza in English-speaking markets). Our ace reporter Mr. Sato is happy for the opportunity to once again step into the shoes of yakuza-turned-vigilante protagonists Kiryu Kazuma and Ichiban Kasuga for another multi-course meal of dramatic main story content and wacky sidequests.
▼ Mr. Sato, SoraNews24 reporter
But first, there’s a question that’s been on his mind for some time: How do the Like a Dragon characters do this?
For those who haven’t played them, within the Like a Dragon games Kiryu and ichiban, plus a lot of their foes, spend a lot of time wearing suits. Eventually, though, the time will come for a mano-a-mano showdown with one of the major bad guys, at which point both hero and villain will throw out an arm to dramatically, and instantly, remove their jacket and shirt, so that their upper-body muscles and tattoos can be on full display as they fight.
It makes absolutely no sense, but it also looks absolutely awesome, making it Mr. Sato’s latest obsession, and something he’d like to recreate in real life, if only he could figure out how.
After much pondering of this dilemma, Mr. Sato finally had a plan. Obviously, it’d require a suit, so he ordered one off of Rakuten and had it shipped to SoraNews24 HQ.
As he opened up the box, he caught the attention of one of his coworkers.
▼ Ikuna Kamezawa, SoraNews24 reporter
▼ “Oh my God, what is THAT?!?”
Mr. Sato can explain. His idea for how to recreate Like a Dragon’s suit-tossing scene would involve making some alterations to the jacket, so he wanted a cheap one. Not surprisingly, there’s not such high demand for camouflage-pattern suits, so this one was available for just 2,000 yen (US$13.80) while still being of pretty decent quality in terms of the fabric and stitching.
Similar to Kiryu erasing his name in Like a Dragon Gaiden, though, Mr. Sato had thought his days of dressing up in that iconic outfit were over, and he tossed the gray suit out a while ago.
Getting to work, Mr. Sato realized that he was going to need a way to get the jacket off his body without pulling his arms out of the sleeves. To do that, he made incision to the jacket under both armpits and on the underside of the arms.
Once that was done, he slipped the jacket on, and…
It worked!
Mr. Sato was just getting started, though. See, the Like a Dragon characters don’t just throw off their jackets in one swift move, but their shirts too, and now another of Mr. Sato’s allies appeared with a suggestion.
▼ Yoshio, SoraNews24 big shot
After making similar cuts to a dress shirt, they then stapled the sleeves and collar of the shirt to those of the jacket…
…and once again, it looked pretty good in testing!
Still, there was room for improvement. Mr. Sato didn’t want to button up the shirt, since it would take too long to unbutton, but having his shirt just hang open was spoiling the sense of style, as were the long loose flaps where he’d made the incisions. To remedy this, he picked up some adhesive fastener tape from Daiso with which to close things up.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the Daiso tape worked a little too well…
…because now he couldn’t get the jacket off!
Eventually, he figured out that the problem was stemming from the sleeve of his right arm, the same-side hand that he was pulling with. Once you get that slit open, everything else will come apart pretty easily, so he switched from the special Daiso adhesive tape to regular old cellophane tape and left it relatively loose…
…which solved the problem nicely.
After a few more practice tosses, it was time to do it for real, and where better than the streets of Kabukicho?
Standing just inside the gate that marks the entrance to the neighborhood, Mr. Sato struck a dramatic pose…
…and let it rip!
What’s that on Mr. Sato’s back, you’re asking? Well, since the Like a Dragon characters always have elaborate tattoos covering their backs, Mr. Sato felt like he should get some ink too.
And when we say “ink,” we mean of the magic marker variety, as Ikuna volunteered to draw a majestic dragon on Mr. Sato’s back.
▼ We…we don’t have a normal office…
And with 2024 being the Year of the Dragon, Ikuna and Mr. Sato also decided to stick a “Happy New Year” message in kanji in as part of the design.
Plus it’s always nice to have a visual marker for when Mr. Sato’s crazy antics took place, since it really is hard to keep track of all of them.
The green mermaid invites us into a thrilling polyamorous romance, tinged with danger.
At Starbucks in Japan, big annual events like Christmas and Valentine’s Day are celebrated with not one but two limited-edition Frappuccinos, released within a short space of each other in the lead-up to the day.
This year, however, we’re being spoilt with even more Frappuccinos than usual, thanks to the chain releasing them in twos for Valentine’s Day. After being seduced by the first duo — the Opera Frappuccino and White Opera Frappuccino— Starbucks has now revealed the second Valentine’s Day pair, also based on France’s famous layered chocolate cake.
▼ It’s time to get cosy with the Rouge Opera Frappuccino.
Like the first Valentine’s Day release, these two beverages come in white and dark versions, with a blend of chocolate chips and chocolate in the body of the drinks, and a hit of coffee combined with almond milk to capture the flavour of an opera cake.
The real scene-stealer, however, is the bright red topping, which the chain says will “add excitement” to your Valentine’s Day celebrations. Sitting atop a layer of whipped cream, the glacage topping is thick and glossy, recreating the look of an opera cake, with raspberries, strawberries, and cranberries in the mix for full-bodied flavour and deep red colour.
▼ Topped with a dusting of gold powder, these are two of the most luxurious-looking drinks we’ve ever seen at Starbucks.
The harmonious blend of sweet and sour notes in these drinks is said to be as luxurious as their appearance, but they’re tinged with danger as we fear won’t be able to stop drinking them when they’re released around Japan from 31 January.
Thankfully, they’re only available while stocks last until 14 February, giving us time to restore our waistlines before the next round of limited-edition Frappuccinos sweeps us off our feet again. Priced at 776 yen (US$5.25) for takeout or 790 yen for dine-in, these chocolatey beverages will soon be stealing hearts everywhere, especially when combined with the chain’s’ new limited-edition Valentine’s Day cake collection!
Source, images: Press release ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
