Today is Graduation Day! It’s a very big deal of course, and just a little bit confusing as I try to navigate the cultural differences between Japanese and American customs. I think I got through with only one embarrassing moment, so we’ll call it a success (so far!)
The biggest difference between Japan and the US is Continue reading
As I mentioned on Saturday, we had some really lovely weather here last week. And what better way to celebrate than with a beautiful Sakura Blended Creme Frappuccino from Starbucks?
I’m not usually a Frappuccino kind of girl–I tend to prefer my froufy beverages hot, not frozen. I decided to try this for the sake of good reporting, as I’m sure you’re all dying to know about the extent of Starbucks’s Sakura line. One and then done, that was the plan!
Except, um, I’ve had three in the past week.
Turns out, the Continue reading
I’m thinking about starting this new weekly feature to collect the posts of the week in case you missed any, as well as some of my favorite links of the week. The format is still undecided, and it might not stay on Sundays, but you gotta start somewhere!
♥ So we started off the week by trying Continue reading
It’s a been a gorgeous week here in this part of Japan! The days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, and even the sun seems to be shining brighter. Best of all, the plum trees are blooming!
Plum or Ume Blossoms are sometimes confused with their cherry blossom cousins. They look a bit similar, but noticeably Continue reading
Happy Friday! We missed last week (boo!) but are back this week with a treat from one of my most adorable students on Valentine’s Day. I love when something is spelled correctly, and the grammar is fine, but still, there’s just something about a sentence that makes it hard to imagine a native speaker dropping it into natural conversation.
This particular one is delightfully poetic, and perfectly appropriate for a teenage girl, who’s heart very nearly explodes on a regular basis!
It’s still February for a few more days, but we’ve been getting a wonderful taste of Spring (it’s easily April weather by Canadian standards!) and I’ve been dying to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. What are you guys up to on this lovely weekend?
This is Sean here, giving Alice a break from blogging tonight. Words are hard, but pictures are fun! Thank goodness Japan has finally explained how to eat my dessert, as when I first tried, I was clearly confused!
You probably already have some idea of this, but Cherry Blossoms are, in short, a REALLY BIG DEAL here in Japan. If you’re from the Washington D.C. area like us, maybe you’ve had the chance to experience the incredible sight of hundreds of trees simultaneously bursting forth with glorious, delicate pink blossoms, and our friends at the National Cherry Blossom Festival might have given you a taste of the atmosphere associated with it, but there’s nothing like being in Japan during the blooming of the Sakura.
We’ve had the good fortune to be in Japan the past few years during Sakura season, as it always lines up with our annual business trips for Otakon. Why are we so lucky to have seen the Cherry Blossoms year after year?
We always come for Continue reading
All good things must come to an end, so last weekend we bade a fond farewell to the Idaho Burger, (with hopes that it was sufficiently popular to be brought back at some future date) and greeted the newest offer in McDonald’s insane line of American themed burgers—The Miami Burger.
As the Idaho burger was hilarious for it’s heavy-handed obviousness (Hmm…potato = Idaho, derp!) the Miami Burger is hilarious for it’s misguidedness. In fact, its even created some controversy here on the internets, and in Miami itself. But as Eminem said, maybe we need a little controversy. After all, no press is bad press, and the attention garnered by this silly burger is all the better for the burger giants.
So, is it true? Is the Miami burger racist?
Maybe a little. Its main crime is that it operates under the assumption that all Spanish speaking people are culturally homogeneous. Now, Japan is not culturally homogeneous, but often seems to think that it is, projecting the idealized image of the “small island nation.”
So perhaps that’s why they don’t really see the difference, or didn’t think there would be a difference between different cultural groups that fall within the same check box on the census.
Thus Hispanic = taco/nachos, at least according to McDonald’s Japan. And this ain’t no Taqueria taco, this is a straight up Tex Mex, Old El Paso, crunchy corn tortilla shells and spicy sauce taco. It’s nothing like a Cuban sandwich, there’s no mango, black beans, plantains, or anything of the like. This is definitely not “Floribbean” cuisine. (Side note, how ridiculous is the word Floribbean? Seriously.)
Essentially, the Miami Burger tastes like an unholy union between Taco Bell and McDonald’s.
Recently one of our awesome readers attempted to make his own Idaho Burger in the States, but this one is really easy. Go to Taco Bell, buy a taco, and put it on a Micky D Quarter Pounder. Squirt a packet of taco sauce on it and bam, the Miami Burger is born!
Sean put it best when he said “This is what would happen if Taco Bell thought Inside the Bun.”
In fact, the bun is one of the best parts—it’s the cheesy sprinkled bun they bring out once in a while. Oddly enough though, the bun is way too small for the burger, resulting in what is sometimes called “Fat man in a little hat” syndrome.
The oversized patty, a selling point of the series, hangs of the edges and at times has no topping whatsoever. I fixed this problem by tearing off the over hang and putting it back inside the bun, creating a double-decker effect, and saving me from nibbling on a naked patty.
There is cheese and lettuce, and a spicy tomato sauce (basically ketchup) that tastes just like the taco sauce from Taco Bell. No fresh salsa here!
On top of the burger is where the crazy lives. There is “taco meat”, thus giving the amusing experience of using beef as a burger topping–hopefully it has more beef than Taco Bell’s taco meat! It’s not bad (way better than the Texas2 burger’s ‘chili’) and tastes primarily of cumin. Then there’s the best part of the whole burger: The tortilla chips.
They put tortilla chips on a burger.
This may in fact be better than the hash brown of the Idaho, both in texture and amusement factor. It adds a delightful crunch, and you can’t help giggling at the sheer stupidity of it with every bite. It’s reminiscent of the joy of adding potato chips to your sandwich.
The overall taste is pretty good—a little kick, a little cheese, a lot of beef. And after the Idaho burger it feels surprisingly light—I didn’t want to die and/or sleep for a week after finishing it! For that alone I might actually like it better than the Idaho, amazingly enough.
What do you think, does it sound tasty? Does it sound better than the Idaho? I’m torn between the two, but I’m leaning towards the Miami. Of course, there’s still one entry left in the America series—the Manhattan burger is coming up next, and will apparently include pastrami and sour cream sauce. That actually sounds surprisingly accurate for evoking a cultural experience (Manhattan deli, I choose you!), but I’ll wait to see how McDonald’s messes it up next time.
More importantly than the taste, do you think this burger is racist? Or perhaps just culturally insensitive?
Maybe if they’d named it the Tex Mex or the South West Burger, or even just the Nacho Burger, it would have made more sense, but there definitely isn’t much Miami flavor to this Miami burger—unless you’re talking about the Taco Bell on Biscayne Boulevard.
Read more about McDonald’s Big America 2 series:
As you can probably tell, I enjoy seeing how American companies express themselves on foreign soil. As much as I love seeing what insanity McDonald’s has come up with next, Starbucks is also a great source of tasty and interesting treats.
Their Valentine’s day treat was an adorable little personal sized Viennese Sacher Torte, the traditional chocolate cake I fell in love with during my high school exchange year in Austria.
It’s not perfectly accurate, but it was quite delicious, especially if you paid the extra 50 yen to add whipped cream. It might seem a bit dry without it, but “mit schlag” is a necessity when it comes to Sacher Torte! Does it look yummy? Would you like to try it?
And look at this adorable New Year’s greeting on our latte! That is the kanji for the Zodiac figure of the rabbit, which is the Zodiac animal for 2011. And they made the bunny’s ears into the 11 in 2011! How cute is that?
Are there any particularly awesome treats at your local Starbucks? The new Sakura line just came out for Spring time, and I can’t wait to try it this weekend!
It started on Thursday. Girls started appearing in the Teachers’ room with enormous shopping bags filled with smaller cellophane bags of homemade sweets. At first I thought they were trying to get a jump on the situation— perhaps bringing their treats a few days early would make them stand out? Then I realized that the 3rd Years had Monday off, so they weren’t going to be here for Valentine’s Day proper. In fact, the biggest piles of treats seemed to be collecting on 3 Year Teachers’ desks like sweet, chocolatey snow drifts.
The Japanese celebrate Valentine’s Day a bit differently from how we do in the West. It was first introduced here by the chocolate company Morozoff in 1936, and didn’t really take off until the 70’s. Since then Japan has developed it’s own traditions and practices a bit different from ours.
Evangelion Chocolates
First off, it’s not Continue reading
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