There’s no refusin’ this delicious transfusion!
There are plenty of strange festivals in Japan, from straight up “literal rock festivals” to “farts of beautiful women festivals.” But usually at these off-the-wall festivals, it’s the entertainment that’s strange, not the refreshments.
But when we recently visited Tokyo’s Asakusa Temple to take part in the Sanja Festival, something odd caught our eye.
▼ It was called “Tenteki Juice” (I.V. Juice) as in “Intravenous
Fluid Packs” you usually get at the hospital… but filled with juice.
There was a huge line for the bizarre item, so naturally we had to queue up ourselves to see what all the fuss was about. Our morbid curiosity took over: what could it be? Blood? Nurtient water? As we slowly approached the order window our heart started being so fast we thought we might be in need of an I.V. ourselves.
▼ But then we saw that it was just juice being poured into
I.V.-shaped bags, not anything taken from a hospital’s wastebin. Phew!
▼ The juice came from these cute metal containers in four flavors:
orange, lemon, Calpico/Calpis, and acerola (similar to cherry).
▼ And at only 500 yen (US$4.50) a bag, we had to get one!
▼ Although they could’ve matched the blood types to flavors better! O for orange and
A for acerola work, but maybe banana for B and, uh, avocado blend (???) for AB.
The bag comes with a colored ribbon, allowing you to wear it dangling around your neck, and the straw is long enough that it really looks like an actual I.V. bag. The straw even has a lock on it so that you can seal it up and not spill anything if you want to just wear it around and not sip out of the sack.
The juice itself was cold and had ice in it, making it nice and refreshing on a hot Tokyo day.
▼ Who knew the future of juice lied in the present of hospital bags?
One of the best parts of buying the drink wasn’t even the drink itself, but the attention it drew from other people. We quickly got used to it hanging around our neck, but the people we passed would burst out laughing or have their eyes bulge out every time we went in for another sip.
It almost seemed like the drink was intended to entertain other people more than the purchaser! We had several people come up to us and ask what it was, and we pointed them in the direction of the stand to get their own ingestible I.V.
We have to admit that being able to carry a drink around your neck was pretty convenient. It definitely beat having to reach into your backpack, pull out a water bottle, open it, drink, close it, then put it back every time. All we had to do was unlock our straw and we were in flavortown!
▼ We brought it home and washed it, hoping to use it again. The bag itself was
reusable/resealable, but the straw was quite long and hard to clean fully.
It may not be the most recyclable vessel for liquid in the world, but it definitely made for an interesting and unique trip to the temple. If you see them available, then definitely give it a try yourself!
Now if we could only get them to add some truly strange flavors, like octopus or curry ramune, that would take it to another level.
Images: ©SoraNews24
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