Valentine's Day Chocolate Yakisoba Taste Test

Recently even instant noodle makers have been trying to get in on the Valentine's Day action.

Last year the Ippei-chan Yomise no Yakisoba line of instant yakisoba by maker Myojo had a "Choco Sauce" version that was pretty terrible.

The problem was that it simply added chocolate sauce to standard yakisoba sauce and toppings--not a good match. (See RocketNews for another review.)

This year, a different maker, Peyoung, also decided to try their hand at chocolate yakisoba, just in time for Valentine's Day: Peyoung Chocolate Yakisoba Giri. (*Giri means obligatory, a reference to giri chocolate which is chocolate that females give to males on Valentine's Day out of a sense of obligation rather than actual feelings of love/affection--e.g. chocolate female co-workers give to male co-workers.*)

Since neither of us had tried this particular brand of instant yakisoba before, my husband and I decided to eat both the standard Peyoung Sauce Yakisoba (MSRP 170yen) and the Valentine's Day Peyoung Chocolate Yakisoba Giri (MSRP 185ye) for dinner on Valentine's Day.

Surprisingly, the chocolate yakisoba was pretty good once I got over the weirdness of eating sweet noodles. The freeze-dried strawberry pieces and "crouton" (more like rusk) toppings complemented the sauce pretty well, and the sauce itself wasn't excessively sweet. In fact, I probably liked it better than the regular yakisoba, which was too salty for my tastes.

The key difference betweeen the Peyoung chocolate yakisoba this year and last year's Ippei-chan chocolate yakisoba was that the Peyoung yakisoba was yakisoba in name only. Whereas the Ippei-chan version tried to combine regular yakisoba with chocolate sauce, Peyoung's approach was to make a tasty chocolate sauce that just happened to be on yakisoba noodles. As a result, it was surprisingly not bad, and I think it was worth trying.

But I probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy it again.

McDonald's Japan Chocolate Fries

McDonald's Japan Chocolate Fries Part I: "McChoco Potato"

From late January to mid-February, McDonald's Japan offered a limited time Valentine's Day menu item of fries with regular and white "double" chocolate sauce. As soon as I read about it on RocketNews24, I knew I had to try it.

So you're moving to Aomori...

Nine years ago I was waiting for a message/call from my parents to tell me when my JET Programme placement letter arrived and where I was being sent while touring Europe with two friends. We were in London when I got the call from my dad.

- "You're going to Towada City in Aomori Prefecture. It's got a university so it can't be too small/rural."

- "What kind of university?" I asked.

- "An agricultural* university," I believe he replied.

- "It's definitely a rural placement!" I thought.

(*Actually, it's a veterinary university.)

So if you opened your placement letter and freaked out a bit when you saw the words "Aomori Prefecture," don't worry, you're not alone.

As you will soon be tired of hearing, "every situation is different" (ESID), but from my personal experience as a five-year JET ALT turned lifer (I got married so the move to Towada became permanent), I can say that Aomori is a great place to live.

To be honest, all of Aomori Prefecture is basically by definition rural, but there are definitely benefits to rural placements. The main thing is that you will get to experience a side of Japan that few outsiders get to see. If you need to, you can always visit a big(ger) city and get a decent sense of city life/the city experience, but you can't really get the full small town experience just by visiting. I've been able to plant and harvest rice, pound rice into mochi (rice cakes) using a giant wooden mallet and mortar, dance bon odori (a kind of folk dance) in a yukata (light cotton summer kimono) in an outdoor art park, and do so much more that I probably wouldn't have had a chance to experience in a bigger urban placement.

And the food here is so much fresher and cheaper than Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc. Sure, if you want a specific type of international cuisine or ingredients from back home, Aomori can't compete with bigger urban cities, but if you're buying seasonal, local produce, Aomori beats Tokyo for quality and cost any day hands down. Every time I travel to a big city in Japan, I come back to Towada and am amazed at the deliciousness of simply seasoned (if at all) fresh, local vegetables, fish, &etc..

Heard about the crazy expensive giant tuna from the Tsukiji market fish auctions? Chances are that came from Aomori (Oma Town) and you can eat it freshly carved right before your eyes for a reasonable price at the Oma Super Tuna Festival in October.

If you're not yet convinced that life in a rural prefecture will be your thing, well, just try to keep an open mind. Hopefully you'll see when you get here what a great place it is.

(The local JET community is great too. Although I didn't hang out with many people from outside of my city/local area even when I was still a JET, I still keep in contact with the current JET community through Facebook, etc. Even though I haven't personally met most of them, from my online interactions with them, they seem like a pretty good bunch.)

Speaking of which, my number one tip if you are coming to Aomori on the JET Programme this summer is to join the Aomori JET Facebook Group (assuming you use Facebook). You will be able to find your predecessor (or someone who knows them) and/or a re-contracting JET in your placement city/town/village or at the very least someone who lives nearby.

If you are planning on getting a car, you should also join the Jet Lemonade Stand (青森) as leavers will probably start listing their cars there within the next couple of months. TIP: Even if you don't need to drive for work, if you have a license and can afford to get/maintain a car I would highly recommend considering getting one. Aomori is big and spread out and the population isn't big enough to support a highly developed public transportation system. Lots of interesting places are not easily accessible by public transport. Having a car will give you freedom to explore all the various places and events** Aomori has to offer. Also, having a car will make life in the winter (which lasts almost five months) a lot more bearable

(**Shameless plug: if you're interested in getting an idea as to the types of events we have in Aomori, check out my other blog Towada & Beyond for a sampling. Although I haven't been able to post events from every single city/town/village in Aomori yet, I've got at least one event for most places. See the Aomori Events by Location page for a list of annual events in your specific placement location.)

And while I am dispensing unsolicited advice, I would also recommend relying on your predecessor or other ALTs living in your placement city/town/village for specific advice as much as possible.

For example, when it comes to choosing a cell phone provider, even within the prefecture there is a lot of variation in terms of which companies get good reception in specific areas. For example, when my husband lived in Hirosaki City, he used AU and it was cheap and had good reception. But in Towada AU reception is not very good so he switched to Docomo after we got married. (After the big 2011 East Japan Earthquake & Tsunami, Docomo phones could still receive and make calls, but AU lost reception almost immediately and nothing came through until a couple of days later.) Softbank has better reception than AU (although still not as good as Docomo), but the Softbank store in Towada has rather poor customer service. So even though it is a little bit more expensive, we generally recommend that Towada ALTs stick with Docomo for its reliability (we have lots of schools far from the city center) and good service.

Other places are probably different, so it's best to get advice directly from the people who know your specific placement the best--current JETs and/or other people living there.

Oh, and for those anxious to hear from your contracting organization (CO), in Aomori, COs are officially allowed to contact new ALTs from Thursday May 26, 2016, so you might want to start checking your inbox (and junk mail folders, too!) to see if you have any messages. (Note: Some COs might not email you first, but mail you information directly instead.)

Anyway, I've rambled on quite a bit, so I'll end here. Feel free to get in touch via the comments section if you have any questions about my experience (past as a JET and/or ongoing as a permanent foreign resident).

(Note: All comments must be approved by me first, so don't worry if your comment doesn't show up immediately--I will see it! Also, if you don't want the comment to be published but instead would like me to email you a reply directly, just mention that and include your email address in the comment and I'll email you and delete the comment without posting it.)

2015 Japanese Population Census

The Japanese national population census is taken once every five years in October. The previous one was done in 2010, so this year, 2015, is another census year.

There is a very helpful webpage made by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that provides information in Japanese, English, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean: http://kokusei2015.stat.go.jp

I recommend looking through the website on your own, but here are some quick, basic facts about the census:

**All residents of Japan (as of October 1st, 2015, including non-Japanese residents) are required by law to fill out and submit a census form.**

This year is the first time the population census can (and is in fact recommended to) be submitted online.

Census Timeline:

• September 10th-12th: Census takers provide households with "A Guide to the Online Census" document and online user ID and password
• September 10th-20th: Period to fill out the census online (using a PC, smartphone, or tablet) using the provided user ID and password
• September 26th-30th: Distribution of paper census documents to households that did not complete the census online
• October 1st-7th: Deadline to submit census forms (either to census takers or by mail, depending on the municipality) 
• February 2016: Preliminary census results scheduled to be released
• October 2016: Detailed census results scheduled to be released

Beware of Fraudulent Census Takers!

• Census takers never ask you for money. They also never ask you for information such as your bank account or credit card numbers.
• Watch out for suspicious persons visiting your home and claiming to be census takers. Also beware of suspicious phone calls, e-mails or other communications. If you encounter this sort of suspicious person or communication, do not provide any information and promptly contact your municipal government to report the incident.
• Census takers wear official "Population Census Taker identification card" with them.
  *In some areas, census taking duties is assigned to building managers, and they carry "Census Taking Authorization Certification" with them.

If you would like an idea as to the type of information required for the census, see my 2010 post about "Filling out the national census form (国勢調査調査票) "

And again, the 2015 Population Census official website address: http://kokusei2015.stat.go.jp

Nameko's Hanami Adventures, Part 2 - Towada

After a fun but tiring Saturday at Hirosaki (see Nameko's Hanami Adventures, Part 1 - Hirosaki), Nameko's hanami adventures continued on Sunday, April 27 at the Towada Spring Festival (春まつり haru matsuri). (The day out in Towada was in fact more about the various festival events than actual flower viewing.)

Around noon Nameko head out to watch horseback archery (流鏑馬 yabusame) in Towada Central Park. It was an especially lovely sight with the cherry blossom petals raining down upon the archers and their horses.

 

After watching a few rounds of the yabusame competition, Nameko headed to the food stalls! He got pig's foot, mini meat buns, and fried pig's ears among other things. And since it was a hot day, he ended off the meal with "hanabi ice," different coloured sherbets/sorbets layered on the cone to look like hanabi, fireworks.

Then it was across the street to the Sakura Hiroba to watch the Yosakoi Genki Matsuri. There were a lot of people so it was a bit hard to see, but the dancers' energy and excitement was nonetheless contagious.

Once the yosakoi was finished, Nameko was feeling a little tired and overheated so he headed to a nearby bakery and cafe, Shiroi Mori, for a break. Along the way to the cafe, he noticed that some of the trees along Kanchogai Dori already had leaves coming out.

 

At Shiroi Mori, he enjoyed a cake and mini chocolate parfait set with iced tea to end off the weekend of flower viewing and festival fun. 

Nameko's Hanami Adventures, Part 1 - Hirosaki

In Japan, the start of spring is marked by cherry blossom trees in full bloom. People young and old gather to picnic, drink and frolic under the cherry blossoms. Such cherry blossom viewing parties are known as hanami (花見 literally "flower viewing").

The blooming period for cherry blossoms is very short (just a little over one week from when the flowers are almost in full bloom until they start falling off the trees) so it can be difficult to hit the sweet spot of a weekend with good weather and nice looking cherry blossoms, but this year the timing was perfect.

So Nameko decided to spend the weekend of April 25-26 enjoying hanami !

One of Japan's top cherry blossom viewing spots is in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture: Hirosaki Castle Park. There are over 2500 trees in the park, including a "Sakura Tunnel" that is particular impressive at night when illuminated by large free-standing lanterns during the Cherry Blossom Festival (さくらまつり sakura matsuri).

Hirosaki Castle Park Sakura Tunnel by Day

Hirosaki Castle Park Sakura Tunnel by Night

Hirosaki Castle (a 3-storey castle tower reconstructed in 1810 after the original 5-storey was struck by lightning burnt down in 1627).  The stone walls under/around the castle building are undergoing repairs so this year is the last year where the castle will be visible from the red bridge. The moat surrounding the castle was drained and prepared for construction starting in Autumn 2014, so this year's Cherry Blossom Festival was the first time the moat area was open to the public to walk around in!

Not wanting to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk around the moat (and the last chance for about 10 years to see the castle in its original position), Nameko spent the first day of the weekend, Saturday, April 25 in Hirosaki Castle Park.

He entered the park from the northwest, crossing a lovely green bridge, Ichoubashi. The outer moat was filled with sakura petals and simply gorgeous.

Hirosaki Castle Park Ichoubashi

Hirosaki Castle Park Ichoubashi

Once inside the park, Nameko made his way through the crowds and past many delicious looking food stands until he eventually was able to enter the inner moat for a previously impossible view of the castle.

Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival Food Stalls and Crowds

View of Hirosaki Castle from the Inner Moat

View of Hirosaki Castle from the Inner Moat

After the inner moat, Nameko made his way to Honmaru (paid area of the park) for more cherry blossom trees and a great view of Mount Iwaki. It was a hot day so he stopped to get some 100% apple juice from a vending machine along the way.

Hirosaki Castle Park Honmaru (paid area)

Hirosaki Castle Park Honmaru (paid area)

Apple Juice from Vending Machine in Hirosaki Castle Park Honmaru (paid area)

View of Mount Iwaki from Hirosaki Castle Park Honmaru (paid area)

Before leaving the paid area, Nameko ran into Takamaru-Kun, Hirosaki City's cool but also cute falcon/hawk mascot character! After that he went for a walk through the Sakura Tunnel, stopping to take pictures of the many people taking rental row boats out on the West Moat.

Hirosaki Mascot Takamaru-Kun

Hirosaki Castle Park West Moat

Hirosaki Castle Park West Moat

After all the walking, Nameko needed a break. So he headed to some food stalls for a steamed bun filled with sakura-flavoured bean paste, and Hirosaki Park's famous "Jumbo Konnyaku".

Sakura Man Steamed Bun

Sakura Man Steamed Bun

Jumbo Konnyaku

Jumbo Konnyaku

Later in the afternoon it got rather chilly, so Nameko headed into town (stopping for more pictures of the outer moat) for a break at a cafe, Mother Leaf Tea & Waffle located along the central Hirosaki shopping arcade, Dotemachi.

Hirosaki Castle Park Outer Moat

Hirosaki Castle Park Outer Moat

Waffle with Vanilla Ice Cream Topping and Lychee ＆ Grapefruit Tea at Mother Leaf

After the short break, it was back to the park to enjoy the yozakura (夜桜 cherry blossoms at night)!

Sakura Matsuri Lantern

Hirosaki Castle Park West Moat at Night

Although still rather full from the waffle, Nameko had to have some Dakekimi Corn Tempura right before leaving for a delicious end to the day.

  

More Information:
Towada and Beyond, "2015 Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival":
http://towada-city.blogspot.com/2015/04/2015-hirosaki-cherry-blossom-festival.html

Sources:
Japan-Guide.com, "Hirosaki Castle": http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3700.html
Hirosaki Tourism and Convention Bureau, "Hirosaki Castle, reconstruction of stonewalls schedule": http://www.hirosaki-kanko.or.jp/en/edit.html?id=edit12

Apology Burger

(Note: This is a follow-up to my previous post about "McDonald's Japan's Unbelievable Customer Service.")

So the call from the McDonald's manager came on Sunday around 11:20am--a good 25 minutes earlier than I was expecting. He asked if I would mind if he left/came over a little bit earlier, which was fine by me since I was up anyway and had not yet eaten anything.

As promised, he came bearing not only my 690yen refund for the Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger (Set) that wasn't, but also with a freshly made replacement set.

The conversation was about as awkward as you would expect it to be--with him apologizing again in excruciatingly polite Japanese and ending with a 90-degree bow. Thankfully it was a very short conversation--quite a bit shorter than the phone conversation. Not an experience I would want to repeat, but some did good come out of it.

Having had some time to think about what I would say, I was glad that I was at least able to somewhat apologize for having inadvertently made it into such a big deal with comments along the lines of: "I"m sorry, if only I had noticed it while I was in the store..." and "Thank you and sorry for making you come all the way out to deliver this to me."

Also, I was glad that he did in fact come over to our apartment instead of me going over to the McDonald's (as my husband suggested I should call back and say that I would do). If I had gone into the store to pick up the refund, all of the staff would know my face and I doubt that I would feel comfortable eating there again anytime in the near future. But this way, only the manager can connect my face to the complaint. And since I had never seen him before I opened the door, I think it's fairly safe to assume that the manager isn't usually out front, seeing customers.

As for the "proper" Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger itself, well, it probably wasn't worth all of the fuss. There wasn't even all that much pulled pork on the burger anyway--I had to look twice after taking off the top bun to confirm that I hadn't somehow managed to get a pork-less burger a second time. The pork definitely did make the burger tastier the second time round but it didn't improve the taste enough that I would bother going back to eat it a third time.

So yeah, if you're going to make a complaint at McDonald's, I would highly recommend doing it in person while you are at the restaurant, rather than escalating things by filing a complaint through the McDonald's Japan's online comment/inquiy form (which I forgot to mention in the previous post was a bit of a pain to find anyway). My husband said that the apology wouldn't have been so over the top if I hadn't gone higher up the command chain with the complaint, and I tend to agree with him. 

The idea of the personal apology and hand-delivered replacement meal sounds impressive and makes you feel like the company values its customers in theory, but in real life it is just a really awkward and embarrassing situation all around.  And if--as my husband suggested (I hadn't even considered the possibility until he pointed it out)--it was indeed only by command of the McDonald's headquarters that made the manager apologize in the way that he did, and it wasn't something that the manager genuinely felt that he should do, then that definitely changes my perspective/feelings on the matter. It would suck to work at a company that makes you apologize so abjectly over such a small issue. Valuing customers is important, but it is more important to value your employees and to treat them with respect!

I would like to think the best of the manager and McDonald's, though. Even though I would never ask or expect someone to go so far in apology--especially over such a minor matter--I would like to take the gesture at face value as a sign of the amount of respect the Towada Aeon McDonald's has for its customers. 

And to end the post on a lighter note, have fun playing a game of "Spot the (Pulled) Pork"!

 

 

 

 

 

McDonald's Japan's Unbelievable Customer Service

The high quality of Japanese customer service is well known around the world and a point of pride within Japan as well. I admit that after living here for nearly eight years, excellent customer service is something I have come to take for granted.

But McDonald's customer service has just blown my mind.

The background:
McDonald's currently has a limited time Hawaii-themed menu. I've been interested in trying out the "Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger" since I first read about it on RocketNews24. A friend of mine tried it out last week and he recommended it, so I decided to try it for myself while I was at the local Towada Aeon Shopping Center last night.

That pulled pork on the wrapper looks delicious, right? Well, I opened up the wrapper and was disappointed with how small and plain the burger was.

 

No pulled pork in sight! I thought that was kind of odd, but I figured the picture was just supposed to be an image of what the patty was supposed to taste like. That was not the case, though, as it tasted like a plain old pork burger with some BBQ sauce. I was quite disappointed (and doubting the tastes of the friend who had recommended it to me).

I had some ice cream at Baskin Robbins to salve my disappointment before going to do my grocery shopping. But as I walked past the McDonald's on the way to the Aeon (grocery and everything store--the Japanese equivalent of Wal-Mart), I had a look at the big poster of the Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger and hey! there was the pulled pork! (It had been a couple of weeks since I first read the article, so I had forgotten what it was supposed to look like.)

Well! At this point I started to think that I had gotten ripped off. After grocery shopping, I went home and checked out the McDonald's Japan website and read the description of the burger, and sure enough, it mentioned "horo horo pork" (ほろほろポーク) as well as the pork patty! I hadn't gotten a Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger at all--just a pork burger with BBQ sauce!

After a bit of searching, I managed to find a form to get in touch with McDonald's regarding any comments, questions, etc. I wrote a very polite but blunt message (in Japanese, of course) along the lines of:

 I ordered a Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger Set for the first time today and was very disappointed because even though the picture of  the burger showed delicious-looking pulled pork, all I got was a pork patty. I should have said something to the staff at the time, but I thought that was just the way it was supposed to be. It wasn't until I got home and checked the McDonald's webpage that I realized that there was supposed to be pulled pork on the burger. Since I didn't actually get the Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger that I ordered, would it be possible to get a refund or something? (If necessary, I have photos of the burger that clearly show there was nothing but a patty.)

I filled in the date, time, and location of the McDonald's I had been at, as well as my home address, email address, and home phone number and submitted the form.

From my limited experience with making complaints to stores (I once found a bug baked into the corner of a Chinese bun I had already bitten into, and all I did was pull out the part around the bug and finished eating the bun), I figured I would get an email back saying that they would send me a voucher for a free burger or meal or something.

The customer service:
Instead, when I checked my email this morning, I had a message from McDonald's saying that someone from the Towada Aeon McDonald's would be calling the number I had put down in the form. Unfortunately that was my home number, so I missed the first call, but thankfully I have an answering machine so I got the message that the store manager would call me back.

I was expecting that he might ask me to come into the store and bring the receipt for the meal and the picture of the offending burger so that he could process a refund for me. Oh boy, was I wrong.

Around 8:30pm, I got the call. The manager was very apologetic and asked if I would allow him to come to my house to personally deliver the refund. All this and no question whatsoever about proving that the burger had indeed been made missing the pulled pork, or that I had truly purchased a set (and not just the burger).

But here's the real kicker: since I had been disappointed with my first Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger experience, he wanted to make it up to me by also delivering me a freshly and properly made Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger Set together with the refund.

?!?!?!?!

Being completely surprised and having no experience with this kind of conversation in Japanese, I couldn't figure out a polite way to refuse the offer. Ironically, I ended up feeling extremely apologetic about the fact that he was being so apologetic about the whole thing.

So yeah. This Sunday afternoon, I will get a refund and a freshly made Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger Set hand delivered to me by the manager of the McDonald's. Oh, and even though we confirmed the date and time for him to come, he will also call me before coming over on the day of, just in case my plans change or something.

Never again will I think that people are exaggerating about how over the top Japanese customer service can be.

@_@

Looks like I won't be giving up the (bad) habit of always wanting to try out McDonald's new special menu item anytime soon. I'm still not a fan of the company overall, but I do have respect for McDonald's Japan now.