One magical night in Nagoya

After having worked the whole Silver Week holiday, I asked my boss if it was OK to use some vacation days and go back to Sweden for two weeks. He first thought I said one week and was a bit skeptical but relented. After I understood that he though I would be back in five days (which is a bit short since the just the travel to and from my parents' place takes three days) I pointed out that I would actually be gone for two whole weeks. He then said that that was pretty much impossible, but I argued that since I had just lost four public holidays to work and then had my salary deducted too, I did not feel that motivated to work. And since I did not have anything in particular that needed to be done in October, it was also a good time to use up the vacation days, and I was finally allowed to go on vacation.

In Nagoya they had 肉まん風パン, "bread that is similar to steamed buns with meat". I like nikuman (the steamed buns) and tried this bread. It was pretty good, but not as good as the steamed buns.

They also had chocolate that said "blueberry ice cream flavor". Why not "blueberry flavor"? Does blueberry ice cream not taste like blueberries? The chocolate tasted mainly like "chocolate", though.

I bought some surprisingly cheap tickets to Sweden (only 60% of what I paid the last time). I had a very early flight from Nagoya to Europe, so I had to fly from Sapporo to Nagoya the night before. I found a magic bar in Nagoya (there are many) and spent an hour and a half there. It was fun.

On the way to magic bar "Move"

The magician in magic bar Move

Omelette flavored gummi candy

In Japan they come up with the weirdest flavors for ice cream and for candy. My convenience store now sells gummi candy with "omelette" flavor. I figured that was very unlikely to be good, but bought some just to try it out for my blog. It was not good. It does however taste very much like fried eggs, except much sweeter. After trying one piece myself, I put the rest on the table in our lab where it says "Please feel free to eat these" and people put omiyage candy. No one has touched these in the three months since I bought them...

Sausage vending machine and surprisingly thin clothes

When I was walking back to my hotel I passed sausage vending machine. Very German, I guess.

I also passed a shop selling clothes that looked like they would be quite cold in the fairly bad autumn weather.

Drinking cheese cake

Our university sells a "cheese cake drink". It is cheese cake flavored soy milk. Cake is not really a flavor that comes to mind when people ask me for something I would like to drink. I bought one and it was not that good. It is still selling strong half a year later, though, so I guess someone likes it.

Three types of cheese ice cream

In Japan they keep coming up with weird flavors for ice cream. I bought an ice cream that had cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and camenbert cheese in it. It was not good.

Strange shop names and strange products

We apparently have a restaurant in Sapporo called "Eat me". Which, if my knowledge of English slang is up to date, is not a very nice expression. We also have shops selling something that looks like water and is called "Luxury yogurina". Maybe yogurt flavored water?

Plum flavored potato chips

In Japan the like sour plums. They also have weird flavors on their potato chips. I found a bag with sour plum flavored chips. I tried a few. Not good. I gave some to my colleagues. No one liked them. I put them in the "anyone who wants some, take these for free" at the university. They are still there two months later.

Not a dog

I noticed a store selling t-shirts with English text and illustrations not illustrating what was written. There was for instance a shirt that said "dog" and had a picture of a snake. And a shirt that said "sushi" but had a picture of Japanese curry. I assume they are being funny on purpose, but it was still a bit weird, haha.

"I'm sorry" beer

After having seen almost naked body builders, almost naked samba dancers, not particularly naked jugglers, and more, we decided to have some food. My friend took me to a very small place that she likes because they do not allow you to smoke there (in Japan, many people smoke, and they smoke everywhere except outdoors).

This place served some interesting food. We had pork stuffed with goat cheese, "extremely spicy" meat balls (that my friend could not eat because she cannot take spicy food), deer sausage, octopus salad, and some other things. They also had some interesting things on the drink menu. My friend ordered some thing called "I'm sorry beer".

This refers to the maker who says that he will not make "normal" beer, he will only make whatever fun beer he likes to make. I am not sure that is something you need to apologize for. This beer was yuzu flavored. I tried a little, but since I don't like beer, I did not like this either.

After leaving the restaurant, an old woman complimented either me or my friend, or possibly both of us, for looking good in yukatas. At the festival, some other old woman complimented me on wearing a yukata more or less correctly too. She thought that since I was blond, I could not understand Japanese, so she kept talking to my friend as if talking to me and/or as if I was not present, expecting my friend to translate. I kept answering back in Japanese, but the old woman did not seem to realize that my friend never actually translated anything, and that I spoke Japanese to her, and she just kept speaking to me through my friend. This happens from time to time in Japan.

Things aren't always what they seem to be

This looks like a camera lens, but I was told to "try it, open it!" Which sounded suspicious. People were looking at me expectantly and laughed when I nervously opened it up.

It turned out to be a tea cup.

Banana flavored potato chips!

Our university coop sells banana flavored potato chips. They also sell orange (more or less, Japanese "mikan") flavored potato chips. I imagined that banana and potato chips would not work together. I bought one bag of each, and I was right. It was not good. Who comes up with these ideas, and why are they not stopped during the testing phases?

White Sparkling (carbonated yogurt)

Our university coop sells something called "White Sparkling". It turns out to be carbonated yogurt. Not bad, but not that good either.

Almost black bread

Our school bakery sells strange bread. Recently they showed off a new item on the menu called "chocolate bread". It is almost completely black, which looks a bit weird. The taste is fine, though.

I am Sayama tea, and Sayama tea Cola

We visited a tea shop in Sayama, a place in Saitama. There they sold something called "I am Sayama tea". They also sold something called "Sayama tea Cola". They gave us some very nice tea for free, in cups that were super cute. They were made so that the tea ended up in a cherry blossom shape (this being the cherry blossom season in Saitama, and cherry blossom viewing is a huge thing in Japan).

I bought some Sayama tea Cola to see what that could be. It was a green carbonated liquid that tasted neither like tea nor Cola. It was not very good.

Outside the tea shop they had goldfish or carps swimming around. One of them was much fatter than the others. It looked like it had swallowed a tennis ball or something. They were very quick in their movements, though, so I could not get a good photo.

Chicken wing flavored potato chips, and gyoza flavored ones

In Japan you can find potato sticks (pretty much the same thing as potato chips) with "chicken wing" flavor. They also had regular potato chips with gyoza flavor. Who comes up with these weird combinations?

Tough gummy and cheese flavored popcorn

Our university coop sells something called "Tough Gummy". It tasted pretty much like normal "gummy" candy. The texture was the same too. Not sure what makes them tough.

I also saw that the convenience store located in the building where I live sells cheese flavored popcorn. That is weird to me.

Espresso tea

The vending machines just outside the room we did our presentations in sold something called "Espresso Tea". It was not that good.

Naked, but not very good

There was a line of juices in Las Vegas called "Naked". Some of them were pretty good, and some where not. The "Protein zone" was not good. It tasted like drinking sawdust put in water. But it was very healthy.

Candy

These gummy bears were huge!

American candy is quite different from Japanese candy.

I tried buying one pack of Twizzlers, but the guy at the counter said I would get two packs. Luckily, they said "Low Fat"... Since this is basically eating sugar, "Of course it is low fat!" I thought. And also, I don't think the problem with candy in general is the fat content, haha.

I did not know there was such a thing as Swedish fish.

Underwear made from candy you can find in Japan too.

Niche stores

This is an "oxygen bar". There were many such places all over town. Not sure what the point is.

In Las Vegas, you can find all kinds of strange places.

This place looked tempting, since the desert was too hot for me. My friends did not think we had time to go chill down though.

The Coca Cola shop looked nice and had many funny things on sale.

There was a big polar bear that walked around and took photos with customers there too.

These bags are made from the pull tabs from Coca Cola cans.

Coca Cola salt and pepper shakers

This place let you drive around in expensive cars.

I almost bought some very real looking but soft hamburger magnets.

This placed sold things like guitars signed by celebrities.

Strange things on sale.

This place sold hats, some stranger than others.