banana
Believe it or not, this building isn’t abandoned, it’s open for business.
I don’t know about you, but eating fruit as a kid was kind of a chore. Sure, fruit tasted good, but candy tasted so much better. Now that I’m a fully-functioning adult, though, I eat fruit for fun and candy isn’t all that appealing any more.
But this handy device might help to make a lot of people’s childhoods much sweeter since it enables you to combine fruit and sweet, sweet candy into one treat. Behold: the banana-stuffer, aka “Sonna Choco Banana!”
We certainly seem to have an affinity for bananas here in Japan. We love bananas so much, in fact, that we’ve even seen them made into sushi on occasion. So we guess it’s not unreasonable to expect banana bread to also be popular in Japan, which is apparently what the folks at Japanese confection maker Morinaga are counting on with their newly released ice cream product. Yes, their new Banana Bread Ice Cream Sandwich lets you have both banana bread and ice cream at the same time!
They feature so prominently in our Saturday morning cartoons and Charlie Chaplin movies that mankind has simply taken it as gospel that stepping on a banana peel will cause you to comically slip and fall with such a force that birds and stars will circle your head.
But did you know that until recently this was only a theory, unproven by a peer-reviewed scientific study? Thanks to the hard work done by Kiyoshi Mabuchi and his team at Kitasato University who were able to apply a frictional coefficient, we can unequivocally say that banana peels really are slippery when you step on them. Little wonder the group was awarded the 2014 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics.
Starting 19 July Fuji TV will be holding the “Odaiba Shintairiku” event featuring live performances from various artists along with other attractions.
Among these attractions is Izakaya Eguzairu, a bar and grill featuring dishes designed by the members of the top pop group Exile. While much of the menu is standard fare such as Hiro’s spaghetti or Aran Shirahama’s chicken and rice, it’s the dish dreamt up by vocalist Takahiro that has everyone saying “I want to eat Takahiro’s banana” online.
We sent our reporter Nakano-san in to get to the bottom of Takahiro’s Chocolate Banana.
Due to the nature of the Japanese language, it would seem that nearly every date can be somehow punned into a “holiday” from Tofu Day (Oct. 8) to Honey Day (Aug. 3). Of course these aren’t official public holidays but are often chances for companies to highlight their wares such as Pocky Day (Nov. 11) characterized by all the ones looking like Pocky sticks.
The newest on this long list is Gokusen Day (May 9) which celebrates the Gokusen Banana, the apex of Dole Japan’s years of banana growing technology. To celebrate Gokusen Day, Dole will be selling 59 of the very best of their already high-grade Gokusen Bananas.
Earlier this month we highlighted the work of banana engraver Keisuke Yamada. His highly detailed and potassium rich recreations of popular people and characters had made him something of a celebrity around Japan and abroad. In several of his TV interviews he had mentioned how he would like to see an increase in banana artists.
This inspired our own reporter Hotaru to take up the noble art of banana carving herself. So under the guise of a RocketNews24 reporter this future artist arranged an interview with Mr. Yamada, in hopes of secretly learning how to be a famous banana engraver herself.
It didn’t hurt that he was kind of cute too.
Sweet heavens, someone help us because we’re squirming half in delight and half in agony after seeing the newest press release from Starbucks Japan. Half in delight, because we’ve been given a glimpse of the divine-looking new Frappuccinos that will be coming out later this month, and half in agony because we can’t have them RIGHT NOW!
And unless you have a deadly hatred of sweets, we think you just may feel the same way after hearing the description of the two new banana and chocolate based Frappuccinos that were announced earlier this week. Yup, chocolate and banana — you really can’t go wrong with that combination!
Did your mom ever tell you not to play with your food? She was probably right, it’s not a nice thing to do when there are thousands of people who are struggling to afford proper meals each day. However, if you’re able to create an art piece out of your food, then we guess you’re in a league of your own. Like these banana tattoo artists, or this banana engraver from Japan who creates stunning replicas of famous characters using bananas!
The Tokyo Marathon 2014 is just a few weeks away, and hundreds of thousands of people are already pushing themselves that little bit harder during their daily training, not to mention paying extra attention to the food they eat, in preparation.
As in previous years, Dole Japan has stepped forward to sponsor the event, providing piles of hand-grown Lakatan bananas, which contain plenty of citric acid essential during exercise, for runners to munch on. This time around though, the company is awarding 200 runners with a very special bite to eat, or perhaps let sit on the shelf and slowly turn to mush: the Trophy Banana, complete with personalised message printed on the skin.
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