Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Dagashi !! Japanese snacks

I am such a space cadet, here i am moping to you guys about delayed boxes and i completely forgot about a dagashi pack i ordered on ebay a while ago and it came today :-D

Dagashi are pocket money sweets and snacks that cost around 100 yen.They were traditionally sold in little specialist dagashi shops but now they tend to be sold in 100 yen shops.

I bought this one on ebay for £4.88 free postage so whilst it's a lot for something that is sold for about £1, it's important to remember that they usually sell for around £10.00 on ebay and you get quite a few wee treats inside that are hard to come by and usually different to what you get in the subscription boxes.


So firstly i wanna show the lovely little bonus items included by the seller in the bag.


Inside the bag was a little orange bonbon, a business card and a snack that i love 'Kabayaki Taro'. Kabayaki Taro is supposed to be a dried eel snack however due to increased eel prices it's actually a dried fish past snack. However don't let this fool you! it has a super sticky chewy texture yet it has this wonderful soy/sweet glaze that is bliss. I love this stuff and it's very low in calories too! i hought it was all a very nice touch by the vendor.

Inside the bag the first thing i removed was this monkey packet.
 
I'm not entirely sure what flavour it is but it feels and looks like a cheaper version of the umaibo brand. It's a large corn puff tube (think giant wotsit- british snack) and this one is just a little wider and flatter than a normal umaibo. I love all flavours of these except the corn one (i find it a little sweet). Actually i'll give it a taste just now it has a strange very very mild salty sweet taste, i think it is just salted maybe and the sweetness is from the puff itself, nice though. These things are great for lunchboxes too.


Next in the box was a double pack of ramune whistles, again love these wee sweets.


There was a pack of hard mini orange bon bons as well.


Then there was another little pack of corn puffs.


A tiny little strawberry bon bon.


And finally a tiny packet of orange coloured pill shaped sweeties


I'm not sure what flavour these ones are, they are called kuppy ramune but they melt very quickly on the tongue leaving a sweet taste that is a very mild ramune flavour. All in all i'm quite impressed with the pack will def keep me going till my boxes come. If you are tempted to buy snacks on ebay please make sure that you check postage, i would never pay more than £7 including postage for one of these. Also be sure to check the sell by date of anything when it arrives and ensure that the packet is sealed and has not been tampered with. I'm super intrigued by the business card as it states 'i find what you need' and i'm very tempted to put that to the test, so if i do i'll let you know.

Feel free to leave me a msg if you want more info or want to see something in particular featured on this blog, thanks!

Tuesday, 8 March 2016

Japanese subscription box update

Okay just a quick wee update....

Tokyo treat have lured me back and i subscribed to their premium April box for one awesome reason!!!!

Inside they will have the brand spanking new, limited edition Sakura Pepsi!!!


I am so excited to try it! Having tasted the previous reviews snacks i wasn't overwhelmed it was a lot of the same flavours and some items were not very good i.e the strawberry shortcake thing. So i think that this next box will definitely be make or break for me, as to whether i buy it again or not.

The Okashi connection sumo box shipped on the 4th so i reckon I'll get it around the 21st. They also had a surprise announcement to say that they had added to each sumo box a whole bag of mini kit kats - the new limited edition pancake flavour.













I am really looking forward to trying these and you usually get around 12 mini kit kats in a bag like this, meaning I'll be able to share these out more. I've struggled to find any reviews for a sumo box so I'm really intrigued to find out how good it is.

Lastly Japan crate emailed to say that their box is delayed by a week so i will likely get it at the start of April, they said they will add an extra bonus item to the April box to make up for it. However I'm a little worried about this box, there has been a lot of murmurings online that their boxes often turn up late and with items missing so whilst I've not had a japan crate before, i have had crappy boxes before and I'm getting that sinking feeling :-(

Anyway as soon as each of the boxes arrive i will post an unboxing and let you see what i got. I'm thinking of trying oyatsu box next but if you have any other suggestions let me know in the comments below.

thanks!

QQ Sweeper Vol 1.

For a long time now, I've been dying to read 'Dengeki Daisy' by Kyousuke Motomi. It's one of those things that whenever i intend to buy the series i inevitably end up buying something else. So when i heard the author had a new manga series, i decided to check it out. There were several five star reviews on amazon so i bought issue one.

The story revolves around a girl called Fumi Nishioka whose path crosses with a boy named Kyutaro Horikita. Kyutaro turns out to be a sweeper whose jobs is to clean the negative energy from people's hearts and soon Fumi becomes his apprentice.

I always judge a manga on five things;

1. It's plot
2. It's artwork
3. It's script
4. It's potential
5. How i feel when i put it down.

So I'll start with the plot and the script since they go hand in hand.

The setting of a high school may not be new in the shojo world but the way in which it's handled in QQ Sweeper is different, the school building is part of the intrigue and doesn't limit the story. I like that the plot focusing on the torment in peoples hearts brings a darkness to the manga to bring something a little different than the normal romance.The heroine felt to me a little two dimensional, i didn't see a great amount of personality from Fumi, though we should sympathize with her i never grew to care about her in any way. The fact that she is a gold digger perhaps didn't help. It felt like even though there was a sense of mystery to both the characters future and past it was quite superficial meaning it lacked the ability to hold my attention. In fact it took me three goes to finish the volume as i kept getting bored.

As for the volumes artwork there was no coloured insert but there were plenty of full page art pieces, Five in fact. Some where really nicely done, others were a Little flat (see below). However where the artist really impresses is in the tiny details such as the pattern on the shirt or futon. These little details really make an image more complete.

 

However when i put the book down i felt underwhelmed, i can see where the book is going but i never got excited by it, i never felt like i couldn't put it down and i think it will be a slow burner.

Overall i know lots of people love it and i respect that but for me it just wasn't a good fit and i don't think I'll buy anymore of the series.(incidentally i may give this volume away in a future prizedraw if that is something you are all interested in.


Monday, 29 February 2016

Tokyo Treat

My Tokyo Treat box came!!!!!!!!

Tokyotreat is a Japanese snack subscription company ran by a group of Japanese people in Tokyo where the boxes are shipped from.They are apparently quite a new company so I'm quite excited to see what they have to offer.
Like most Japanese snack boxes they do three different sizes with prices ranging from £10.82 ($14.99) to £25.25 ($34.99), the smallest has 5 to 7 candies and the largest 13-17. We ordered the premium size which is the largest so we get the contents of the small and medium box plus some extras :-D

First lets start with the box itself !!!


It's amazing as far as boxes go!!!  it has this adorable design that is super cute, according to the site it was designed by the artist called Kinuten who designed the CD cover for  Mayu Watanabe of Akb48! It is so detailed!!


and even the inside is decorated!!!


The box is super sturdy which is great as I've had a few squashed boxes from other companies in the past. Inside the box we get this super cute brochure.


As well as describing the treats in the box it also gives an insight into Japan in March.


Some further information on their lucky crate (that subscribers are automatically entered to win)  and extra information about life in japan.


Now lets get to the best part the contents!!!


I'll start with the things you would have got if you ordered the small box ( guilty confession last night was movie night and we ate two of the snacks already #supergood #superguilty)

So first we got these Hello Kitty pocky-esque sticks, these aren't branded pocky but are very similar. The box has a cute comic strip on the back and even the plastic bag inside has little hello Kitty's on it. As for the product itself the sticks don't have a very thick coating of icing so you miss the creaminess but they do have a really strong strawberry taste that is really nice and not the nasty chemical strawberry flavour you sometimes get these days.


Next is the other product we ate, it's BBQ flavoured scones. These are described as 'delicious savoury slivers of bread'. I don't know if they are bread? but they have the same texture and look as a brand in the UK called nik naks, except not as hard. What i do know is they taste superb! really full on flavour, it's a huge bag but they were super addictive and didn't last long at all Nom- Nom!


Next we have these Strawberry wheat chocolates, they are basically pieces of puffed wheat dipped in a strawberry flavoured cream, they look OK it's a small packet, not too excited by these.

up next is Punifua's it's hard not to be happy with old-grape taste gummies, the packaging on these is super cute, though the pack is quite small again. They are little gummy paws.

Next we have caramel corn in a peach flavour. This packaging is really cute and it's a good size. I've never tasted caramel corn so I'm quite excited to try these! the book has some extra info on these as well.

that's everything you would have got in the small box! which would have cost you  £10.82 ($14.99). So it's five items of which I'd say two were full size and three were small. I reckon the value of the products is around £4-5 and then with postage fees and production costs it probably gives them a small profit so i reckon it's not bad value for money as it is still difficult to buy these items here, though personally i think the best value comes if you buy the largest size.

Anyway moving on, for the medium box you would have received all of the above plus the following five items.

First there is a Tyrol sakura shiriejo little chocolate like candies in the shape of a panacotta with a sakura blossom flavour. It's a small packet again but it looks interesting and i haven't tried a sakura flavour product before so I'm looking forward to tasting these.


Next up is strawberry cotton candy, does what it says on the tin and it's a decent sized portion.


Next up is some Hi-chews and it's a new limited edition flavour of honey and kumquat. Hi chews are a lot like chewits (UK sweet) in texture but with a stronger flavour.


Then we have some Bourbon Usuyaki mix, 3 flavours onion, tomato and spinach. I've had these before they are small very thin crackers with a very mild flavouring, they are ok tastewise.


Finally in the medium box is the Kracie's kneading land grape soda diy kit. I love DIY kits! i really do,they're a lot of fun and can taste great, especially the marshmallow like foam ones, however this one just misses the mark for me, the candy is very play dough like and reminds me of eating sugar paste on a cake as a child and being horrified at the taste. I just don't like these ones but i know lots of people do love them.

That's it for the medium sized box which costs £18.04 ($24.99). So for an extra £8 you get three more full size items and two smaller.

For the large box you also get a special item that i think they will rotate, but this month it's a sushi magnet :-/ not sure what to make of that!

Also in the box is a melon cream soda, can it's a small can but it looks really sweet, i've never actually had a japanese soda so i'm excited to try it and see how it goes!

Then there is Alfort's Mini Blonde chocolate in Milk flavour. these are little chocolate topped biscuits and it's quite a big box. They remind me of the german biscuits you get at aldi (choco leibniz) which are like malt biscuits that melt in your mouth.So if it's anything like that i'll love these! mmm!


There is also this strawberry chocolate taiyaki wafer snack. Now I've had these before and they're pretty good it's like a wafer in the shape of a taiyaki (traditional japanese fish shaped pancake filled with red bean or custard) it's filled with an aerated pink chocolate similar to an aero.

Finally there is a Bonus snack which is one of three possibilities ( i think you get a random one in your box), i got the hello kitty sweet rice puffs i think they are sakura flavour as they are dressed like they are attending the sakura festival but it doesn't actually say. i'm not a huge fan of sweet puffed rice but i'll definitely try these. The other two options you could have gotten were collon biscuits which i would have loved as they're little wafer tubes that are filled with cream and taste awesome or these baked choc bakes which are hard baked chocolate (kinda like the crispy outside of a brownie) with a cream filling- they're also good but with a unique texture.

well that's all that is in the box, altogether i think it's value for money. i love the booklet and will keep it and i can reuse the box too, i'm confident i'll like all the snacks so i definitely don't feel cheated in anyway but i did feel the snacks were a little safe and maybe too similar so this month i ordered okashi connection (sumo box) and then i saw an ad for japan crate saying that they were doing a special savoury sweet box in march full of unique flavours. That got me super excited as i'm always looking for new flavours and to try something different which is why i buy these boxes so i bought the premium one too :-( my bank balance is hating me but i'll get those reviews up as soon as they come which i think will be around the 24th maybe later for japan crate as it's coming from america.

Anyway i hope you enjoyed my review, let me know in the comments what you thought of the box and my review or if you have any suggestions for other subscription boxes.





2016 time to start over!

Hey guys!

It's time to give the blog a fresh start and start anew and keep it totally updated. I'm putting the drama of 2015 behind me and looking ahead. Here's a sneak peek at whats coming up;


  • A few new series of manga i've started collecting, including Komomo confiserie, demon prince of momochi house, QQ sweeper, LDK One and a few other new series.
  • I've recieved my March Tokyo treat super early so will post an unboxing review and i've also ordered okashi connection and japan crate for march, so will post when they arrive too!
  • Still watching anime on crunchyroll so will post some reviews soon, also purchased some new dvds and ordered a few pre-releases such as brynhilder in the darkness, so will review those too.
I hope 2016 will be a great year for me and for you. Hopefully you'll see something you like here too! look forward to talking to you again!