conbini
The unaccompanied kitten is winning hearts for looking just like Jiji, the cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service, out on a magical errand.
June 6 was Roll Cake Day in Japan, and while we’ve never needed an excuse to stuff ourselves full of cake, we took full advantage of the occasion anyway by sampling TEN convenience store roll cakes!
Convenience stores in Japan really do have everything, including a meal from the world’s only Michelin-starred ramen restaurant.
When you work in a customer-facing role, you can expect to deal with some difficult people from time to time. Being hospitalized by one of them, however, should never be a concern…
Convenience stories in Asia are known all over the world for actually living up to their name. Whether you need an emergency swimsuit, want to grab pretty much any drink ever made, or just have a hankering for some Evangelion donuts, a nearby conbini will suit your needs.
But sometimes there are items available in conbini that don’t seem to make any sense… and yet people still buy them. Japanese netizens shared their most confusing yet surprisingly useful convenience store finds online, and we have them here for you. Would you ever admit to buying some of these?
Walk in to any Japanese convenience store, and you’re bound to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choices at your fingertips. Even taking a stroll through the drink aisle will leave you open-mouthed as you stare at the myriad interesting flavors and varieties to be tried.
Of course there’s green tea, barley tea, roasted tea and more, but how do Japan’s black and flavoured teas measure up? We decided we needed an expert’s opinion, so we turned to one of our English writers for help. With a sampling of 15 different teas, we put our parched taste-tester to work.
The Japanese are known for not being able to handle spicy food. While it is true that traditional Japanese cuisine tends to have rather mild flavors and limit the use of spices, and there are still many who don’t have the tongue to tough out a bit of heat, times are a-changin’. Now, many Japanese people are more than happy to sit down to a hot plate of Indian curry, a fiery bowl of Korean tteokbokki, or enjoy a kick from a spicy snack like Karamucho (カラムーチョ).
These popular hot chili-flavored chips have been around for years, but they’re now being revamped into six new, unique meal items, from bento to fiery chicken, to be sold at the Ministop convenience store chain throughout Japan. So fire up your taste buds, foodies, and come take a look at the hot, new lineup!
If you are unemployed and living in Japan, we may have found a perfect job for you. No experience is necessary, it’s a pretty safe gig and you won’t have to do anything too difficult. You will, however, be a savior, a hero, and a knight in shining armor for one overworked, stressed-out, and understaffed, 7-Eleven store manager in Tokyo.
Rice balls, called onigiri or omusubi in Japanese, are a quintessential staple of Japanese lunches for people of any age. Convenience store shelves are always stocked full of many different varieties, and there are even specialty shops that sell nothing but rice balls for take-away. They can be as simple as rice flavored lightly with salt, but are more commonly found with some sort of filling like konbu (kelp with a salty-sweet soy sauce flavoring) or salmon, and wrapped with a sheet of nori seaweed.
Convenience store chain FamilyMart recently released what they call a “sando omusubi“, or a sandwich rice ball, though it doesn’t quite seem to make it to the rice-ball level…
Convenience stores are easily a part of everyone’s daily lives in Japan. So long as you’re in an urban area, you’re probably never more than a five-minute walk away from one. More commonly known as “conbini” in Japanese, they really are just as handy as their name suggests. Need to pay a bill or for an online purchase? Do it at the conbini. Want to print some photos or scan something? Get it done at the conbini. Late-night alcohol- or munchies-run? TO THE CONBINI!
While some convenience store chains can only be found in certain regions, others can be found nationwide. After opening its first stores on Friday, March 6 in Kouchi Prefecture, 7-Eleven only has three more prefectures to go until they’ve got the entire country covered.
How complicated can a cup of self-serve coffee be? Well, it depends who’s making it. Sometimes little kids and tech-phobic older folks might benefit from a little extra guidance, but your average coffee drinker isn’t too likely to get themselves into too much trouble when using a conbini coffee machine.
So it’s understandable that some people were, quite frankly, shocked and insulted by the plethora of “helpful” stickers plastered all over this 7-Eleven coffee machine. Who knew brewing a cup of machine-made joe required so many complicated steps?
When you get change after paying for something in cash, do you ever actually count it to make sure you received the right amount? I sure don’t. Maybe I’m just too used to Japan, where the person working the register will count out each bill and the coins in front of you before handing the change over. It’s just a simple measure taken to double-check that the person at the register isn’t short-changing the customer.
Thorough as it may be, it’s not a flawless method, leaving room for human error, like not being able to tell the difference between a 1,000 yen bill and 10,000 yen bill. But really, who would make that mistake?
Apparently a teenager working the register at a convenience store in Nara recently managed to make that very mistake, but instead of short-changing the customer, he ended up giving 46,000 yen (US$390) in change for a 13,000 yen (US$110) purchase. Fishy! Oh and then, the customer got arrested. Fishier!
With such a wide range of delicious and delectable (and, erm, shall we say unusual) snack foods available in Japan, it’s a little hard to understand when people get whipped up into a frenzy over plainer options, such as toast and bread crusts fried with sugar. Now, twitter users in Japan are getting their tastebuds in a twist over the confusingly-named “English Toast”, a sweet snacklet that first became popular in Aomori prefecture and has now expanded into a whole range of conbini sandwiches. But what on earth is it?
One of the manga/anime items that has long caught the fancy of the Japanese public is, interestingly, a kind of meat that has come to be known as “manga meat” (manga niku), or sometimes also as “primeval meat” (genshi niku). From the mammoth meat that appeared in the 1970’s anime First Human Giatrus (yes, the story was set in the stone age and it was supposed to be actual mammoth meat!) to meats appearing in more recent anime such as Dragon Ball and One Piece, the image of the manga niku has captivated us, making us fantasize about taking a chewy bite of the fictional fare.
Well, Japanese convenience chain Mini Stop is currently offering a product that to a certain degree lets you fulfill that fantasy. It’s the Hammer Chicken Primeval-style Meat with Bone (Hone-tsuki Genshi Niku fu Hammer Chicken) which went on sale just this week, and as you might expect, we hurried over to a Mini Stop to get a taste.
MOST POPULAR
Now
Japan’s best train pass, the Japan Rail Pass, finally being made available for purchase online
Foreign workers respond to survey about changes they’d like to see in the Japanese workplace
New sushi types: chocolate citrus yellowtail and cheddar cheese tempura. Crazy, or crazy good?
Kyoto starts new “Empty” tourism campaign to attract tourists during coronavirus outbreak
Our male otaku tries Japan’s anime heroine mascara, learns what it’s like to be shojo manga star
Did the Akira manga predict the coronavirus epidemic?
New Japanese smartphone prohibits users from taking naked selfies
Cherry blossoms blooming in Tokyo right now! The super-early Mr. Sato sakura party【Photos】
Monster girl brothel anime gets kicked off of yet another Japanese TV station
Wage hell — Japanese office worker reveals soul-crushing past paycheck for 171 hours of overtime
Weekly
Can you solve this crazy difficult, super satisfying math puzzle from a Japanese middle schooler?
Japan’s one-person bento box-sized rice cooker can give you freshly cooked rice at the office
A warning to think twice before taking photos of a crab dinner lying in a Japanese subway station
Japanese man berates American woman for “crime” against taiyaki, ends up converted to her ways
These apartments are crazy-small even by Tokyo standards, and super-popular with young people
Japanese fans ecstatic to see Takakao Matsu perform at Oscars with Idina Menzel and 9 other Elsas
Can a curry shop legally ban you if you don’t finish your rice? A Japanese lawyer chimes in- Japan’s best train pass, the Japan Rail Pass, finally being made available for purchase online
We test the new two-in-one curry rice cooker from Japan that’s got everyone talking【Video】
Controversial My Hero Academia character gets new name, comes with risk of yet another controversy
Monthly
Japan goes beyond rice cookers with new curry rice cooker, the kitchen gadget we need right now- Japan’s one-person bento box-sized rice cooker can give you freshly cooked rice at the office
My Hero Academia creator, publisher make official apologies for controversial character name- Can you solve this crazy difficult, super satisfying math puzzle from a Japanese middle schooler?
Out-of-business Tokyo McDonald’s gets brutal but kind sendoff from rival Burger King branch- A warning to think twice before taking photos of a crab dinner lying in a Japanese subway station
Demon-slaying Dojigiri, one of Japan’s Five Swords Under Heaven, now on display at Kasuga Shrine- Japanese man berates American woman for “crime” against taiyaki, ends up converted to her ways
- Controversial My Hero Academia character gets new name, comes with risk of yet another controversy
Here’s what happened when our biggest male otaku tried out Japan’s new Manga Genic eyeliner【Pics】
Yearly
Adult Cream Pie coming to McDonald’s Japan- Japan goes beyond rice cookers with new curry rice cooker, the kitchen gadget we need right now
Japanese cosplay model shows off thighs, but fans’ eyes are on her Nintendo 64 controller grip
Pokémon fan learns the startling truth about the Wooloo plushie
Free “Language Learning with Netflix” extension makes studying Japanese almost too easy- Japan’s one-person bento box-sized rice cooker can give you freshly cooked rice at the office
- My Hero Academia creator, publisher make official apologies for controversial character name
- Can you solve this crazy difficult, super satisfying math puzzle from a Japanese middle schooler?
We taste the Adult Cream Pie from McDonald’s Japan- Out-of-business Tokyo McDonald’s gets brutal but kind sendoff from rival Burger King branch
RECOMMENDED STORIES
Did the Akira manga predict the coronavirus epidemic?
New Japanese smartphone prohibits users from taking naked selfies
Cherry blossoms blooming in Tokyo right now! The super-early Mr. Sato sakura party【Photos】
Monster girl brothel anime gets kicked off of yet another Japanese TV station
Wage hell — Japanese office worker reveals soul-crushing past paycheck for 171 hours of overtime
Old-school train car and tourist information center in Shibuya set to move to Akita this summer
Free “Language Learning with Netflix” extension makes studying Japanese almost too easy
Starbucks Japan reveals second sakura Frappuccino for cherry blossom season 2020
Can you solve this crazy difficult, super satisfying math puzzle from a Japanese middle schooler?
These apartments are crazy-small even by Tokyo standards, and super-popular with young people
Cool automated Rubik’s cube found at Maker’s Faire floats, solves itself, blows our minds
Parasite ramen challenge: Can you cook the movie’s noodle dish in just 8 minutes?【SoraKitchen】
Man sees figure clinging to bus on highway in Japan, immediately calls police 【Video】
-
