Ginbis Big Bar Z

I pretty much picked this up for no other reason besides it being a bargain bin item at 59 cents... yup. But hey, I've had some good luck with Japanese crispy chocolates before so maybe this will be good. And as it is the big bar, there is a lot of it, yum... I believe this is also made by Ginbis, the same company that made the shimichoco corn that I was impressed with. I'm hopeful my impulse bargain purchase turned out well.

Baked Ice Cream Kit Kat

So this I believe marks the first Japanese exclusive Kit Kat flavor I've had and boy is it a flavor. For those who don't know Japan has tons of exclusive Kit Kats. It's actually not fair. If I knew this I would've gone back in time to tell mama wolf to swim to Japan before having me but nooo, that's an impossibility. So it's still possible to get them here, but it's more inconvenient for sure. I'm interested to see how they get an ice cream flavor in this, and you can bake them! Luckily Japan Crate provided two so I will be trying one as is and one baked.

Christmas Black Thunder

I've heard a lot about this chocolate but haven't gotten to try it until now. I'm assuming because of this it's good or at least popular. According to what I've read it appears to be a crispy chocolate bar with rice puffs. So maybe like a Krackle? I must say though, Black Thunder seems to menacing a name for this, both in packaging and content (shoutouts to the demon Rudolph on the package by the way). That would be like calling me Black Thunder... and I'm tiny and not menacing at all!

Jin Jin Jelly Straws

Nijiya Market surprisingly enough is not the only Asian market near my den, 99 Ranch is also rather close. This place sells items from a bunch of Asian cultures though, and this instance I picked up this Taiwanese snack because who doesn't love jelly? As explained before jelly snacks are basically a shot of a flavor delivered in a sweet somewhat-liquid form, nice for a really quick refresher after a meal. These ones come in straw form, which is a very convenient delivery mechanism.

...for humans. For paws it's not the best as I struggle to open the grape one. Even for humans it seems to be a bit of a flawed design because the perforation is a little bit below the jelly, meaning every time you're going to get some on your hands. I can just lick it off my paws I guess! Anyways the grape one has a really nice flavor that's like a grape Jolly Rancher except softer. I like how refreshing it is, sometimes candy leaves your mouth dry but this one requires nothing afterwards.

Onto the strawberry one which drips down onto my back leg (sigh), the taste reminds me of a strawberry tea. Once again very nice, and plenty of sweetness but not too sweet. The pineapple one on the other hand is just like sweet neutral flavor jelly. I don't get much pineapple. So it can be a mixed bag, but overall these are really nice ways to put a sweet flavor into your mouth. I would say without hassle, but there's always a little bit of hassle and mess opening them. Please fix?

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

Orangina Cassis Orange

I must admit, I've never been the biggest fan of orange juice. It's tolerable enough, but sometimes it's not sweet enough or the pulp gets in the way or I'd rather just have grape or apple juice. But this isn't just any orange juice, it's cassis and orange. And I know about as much about cassis as you probably do. Apparently it's a black currant, considered a super food, and has a sweet tangy flavor. Will it be an orange juice that finally appeals to me?

Ginbis Christmas Shimichoco Corn

The December Japan Crate, included not one, but two puffed corn, and with this one we have chocolate corn! I've been told these ones are chocolate corn puffs that are then also covered in chocolate icing. Double chocolate? Yum! Sticking true to my name, I love me some chocolate, so I'm excited to try these. They also come in star shapes as evidenced by the smiling rainbow star on the bag.

Meiji Meiji Takenoko no Sato Chocolate

I'll be real, I mainly got these on a trip to my local Japanese market because they were on sale. I'm an economical wolf. And I had to look up what these were at first to make sure they weren't some weird flavor! But nope, just biscuit and chocolate here. There was also a variant that looked like mushrooms, but who really sees mushrooms out in the forest and thinks that they want chocolate on them? So I went with these horn-tip-whatever things dipped in chocolate. The name though, actually has something to do with bamboo shoots, which we definitely don't have here in the California wilderness.

Christmas Fueramune

It's another whistle candy! I'm going to take a guess and say that fueramune means whistle ramune or something like that because I think I remember the pineapple one having this name too. This one though, is not any particular flavor so I have no idea what it's going to taste like. Pretty sure I've seen ramune soda but haven't drank much of it, at least it's been to long for me to have a sense of the flavor. But at the very least, we've got some fun Santa packaging and whistling to go along with the candy!

DIY Minions Furifuri Shake

Okay I should give this a 1 just for the Minion but I won't. Like seriously, if you're going to put up a cute goofy creature on a package it should be me! I get into plenty of trouble but can give puppy eyes with the best of them. I'd sell way more DIY shakes than this yellow abomination. But hey, I guess it kinda makes sense since this is a banana flavored shake. And as my 2nd DIY item, I'm pumped to give this a try, because as much as I love eating I love making and playing with food just as much! Oh yeah and milkshakes. They make me feel like a cat lapping up milk (how disgraceful), but they're so good.

Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

It hasn't been evident from the things I've reviewed here, but this puppy loves pumpkin. I've probably eaten enough to practically turn into that pumpkin dog from Steven Universe. Pie, cheesecake, butter cake, ice cream, cereal, pasta, you name it. Pumpkin just makes everything better. That's why I pounced on these pumpkin cheesecake cookies in the store. You have to get this stuff while it's there because it all goes away after December making for one sad pup. But hey it's good while it lasts right?

Christmas Chocolate Daifuku

Unsatisfied with my chocolate seeking endeavors, I pull another treat out of the Japan Crate. This one is a daifuku, but I have heard this term before and it actually wasn't, just a marshmallow. Which I am TOTALLY okay with because Japan knows their way around a marshmallow. But this one doesn't seem to say for sure. Looks like a marshmallow to me. It also has another Santa-Rudolph combo on the package which I am loving! Wow I wish I had a special feature like him. Maybe a red stripe on my tail.

Christmas Chocolate Umaibo

While umaibo seem to be part of the "cheap candy" in Japan, the first umaibo brought me a really interesting flavor and texture that I quite enjoyed. I also haven't tried anything chocolate in a while and I'm salivating at the chance to have some chocolate candy right now (my name is Brownie after all)! Hopefully the crispy texture translates over to chocolate as well as it did the corn.

Tohato Christmas Caramel Corn

Tohato is back once again, and seems to be the Japanese go-to for crispy corn-based snacks and biscuits. This time it's caramel corn, which from the looks of the package is likely not popcorn but instead puffed corn snacks. And they're in fun Christmas tree shapes! I don't have any business dealing with trees as a wolf, but this packaging and the shapes are surely making me feel a bit more festive.

Sour Cream and Onion Scones

Usually scones refer to baked goods, but I guess in Japan they refer to stick-shaped chip. Crazy how each country has their own interpretations on snack food names,with Britain having the different usage of chips from the US. These snacks seem very American, both the sour cream and onion flavor and the cheeto style take on it. Both of which I haven't been much a fan of in the past. Can Japan do it better?

Petit Pudding Jelly Custard

It's definitely common knowledge now that this pup loves pudding, and on my run to Nijiya Market to get some pudding I also saw this and couldn't take my paws off of it. So here we are, with more pudding, this time in jelly form. I've also noticed that many Japanese sweets have this jelly format, and it's nice for a quick sweet burst of a flavor. While I'd rather have pudding flavor around all the time, I'm sure this will be quite the pleasant burst.

Christmas Fugashi

This one has a really cute design on it! The letters are arranged in a really pleasing way, and on the top some of them are a little out of place (I spent forever looking for the missing "E" that's actually in the top right corner). And the Santa and Rudolph on both sides are really nice. I had a phase once where I'd try to make my nose red like Rudolph and pretend I was the chosen reindeer to help Santa's sleigh fly. Not a position for wolves though, maybe I should be taking inspiration from Olive the dog instead. Anyways fugashi is a sugary wheat puff, which I've never heard of. Doesn't sound particularly appetizing, but who knows with this stuff?

Meiji Hello Panda Matcha Green Tea Creme

Chances are most people who have seen the Asian section in a local supermarket know what Hello Panda is. It's one of the most recognizable snacks, along with Pocky, Hi-Chew, etc. And normally being the curious puppy I am, I like to try the more unique things Japanese snacks have to offer but when I saw at my Japanese market that they made these in matcha flavor I had to try. While I haven't reviewed anything green tea flavored yet, I love this flavor! Whenever I'm baking in the den I always throw some matcha powder into my treats.

Yaokin Strawberry Daifuku Marshmallow

Another marshmallow! With the two highest rated things on this blog so far being marshmallows, you know I'm already salivating for this one. This is strawberry flavored, which doesn't appeal to my puppy senses as much as pudding or churro but I'm sure Yaokin is cooking up something great with this one too. This treat comes courtesy of market-tokyo, who actually gave this as a bonus with my order of their pudding marshmallows. Imagine my surprise! So here we go, another marshmallow to review.

Pine Awadama Fizzy Candy Red

This may be the most enigmatic thing in the December Japan Crate because I can't see what it is from the wrapper, and all I know from the infozine is that it's apple flavored and fizzy. Though I did look up what Awadama means and it translates to "bubble ball." So I'll assume this is one of the many Japanese hard candies associated with soda. At this point I think there are more associated with soda than not over there. What is it about the two that are so similar? I have no idea.

Yaokin Butter Cream Roll Cake

Yaokin! Good to have you back. This Japanese brand has already shown me the wonders of pudding and marshmallows, so I have high hopes for this treat. This is the first Japanese pastry-type snack I've had, and I love me some pastries. Trust me, it took a huge amount of self control to not pounce on the matcha cake rolls at my Japanese market. This particular one though is butter cream flavor, and it looks like it has a wonderful yellow filling. Which suggests lemon, but I guess not. Yellow butter can be a thing.

Smashmallow Cinnamon Churro

As I mention in my description I'm not limited to reviewing Japanese snacks, because the Americans put out some fun and interesting things too. Why ignore them? This in particular got my hungry puppy senses tingling as I saw it at my grocery store. Marshmallows? Cinnamon? CHURRO??? I'm down. What's even nicer is that these are only 80 calories per serving, important to me as I try to stay in good shape to hunt or play or do whatever I please.

Hapi Pudding

So after that wonderful pudding marshmallow I've been itching to try real Japanese pudding. Maybe the flavor was everything I could ever hoped for and I'll devour pudding for the rest of my life, or maybe the marshmallow was a one-time miracle. Regardless, I'm wagging my tail already and panting happily at the thought of getting to try the origin behind that filling I know and love. Thankfully on the prowl at my local Japanese market last night, there was a 3 pack of these right there and I knew exactly what to do.

Constellation Chocolate

One of my favorite nighttime hobbies is watching the stars. I sneak out when all the other pups are resting and lay there in the darkness, and observe the vastness of the night sky. And of course, try to connect the stars into constellations, but that's not a subject I tend to research so I'm very bad at it. But I try, at least the dippers, okay? This all relates because this chocolate displays one of the constellations on it at random. As someone who lies between a Scorpio and Libra I'm hoping for one of those.

Christmas Corn Potage Umaibo

Puppy's first umaibo? Puppy's first umaibo. I had heard of these when I was looking up what dagashi was. Dagashi is essentially the Japanese version of penny candy, probably not a penny because inflation but the low cost snacks of the Japanese world. So I'm about to discover how well-off those Japanese kids are when they have a low amount of money but need a bite to savor. Umaibo is essentially a crispy, crunchy bar of some sort. And considering there's also a chocolate one in this pack as well, there seems to be no flavor limitation. Savory snacks like these have not always tasted the best to me, but let's see what we've got.

December Japan Crate

I've been absolutely itching to get to this box that arrived at my den last Monday! But the November crate came first. Now it's gone so, onto the new! This dark green box contains (in reading order, top left to bottom right):

• Tohato Shimichoco Corn
• Sour Cream and Onion Scones
• Constellation Chocolate
• Minions Furifuri Shake
• Awadama Red
• Christmas Chocolate Umaibo
• Christmas Corn Potage Umaibo
• Tohato Caramel Corn
• Christmas Fugashi
• Ice Cream Mini Bake Kit Kats (x 2)
• Christmas Black Thunder (x 2)
• Butter Cream Roll Cake
• Christmas Chocolate Daifuku
• Christmas Fueramune

Oh yeah and Orangina Cassis Orange, not included in here. Whoops. I hope you're as excited to hear about these holiday themed treats as I am to eat them! Probably not though, let's be real here.

Yaokin Pudding Marshmallow

For once I'm going to cut the fancy introduction and just say these things are incredible. So incredible that this was actually the first thing I ate when I first got the November Japan Crate a month ago, and it was so good that I immediately ordered two of these giant bags of them. This is a real gem, in fact my tail is already going a mile a minute at the chance to try these again. In fact I think my instincts are taking ove---AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Sono Manma Cola Gum

Another gum item in this Japan Crate, and it's also cola flavored. C'mon guys, there are enough Japanese candies out there to spice up the variety more than that, right? Nevertheless though, I enjoyed the first cola gum well enough, so I have good hopes for this one. And the cute gum characters on the packaging are certainly beckoning me to try it. The catch with this pack is that there are three pieces of gum, and one is sour. A sense of mystery, how scary!

Fue Ramune Whistle Candies: Pineapple

Yep, you read that right. Whistle candies! Seems like Japan likes to have a little more fun with their food, so they created these candies that are basically like Lifesavers, but you can whistle through the little hole in them. Cool right? They probably don't have these in America because American children are annoying and loud as it is, so this would make it even worse. Bleh. Good thing the alpha wolves scare them away every time. As a side note, there are actually 8 in this package, but I've already tried a few out of sheer curiosity. They're fun, I'll tell you that much!

Update - Ratings!!!

It has come to my attention that I should be assigning numeric ratings to everything I eat as well as describing them, because how else are visitors supposed to know exactly which snacks are better than which? Obviously as a ravenous puppy I'm going to scarf everything down, but some of you might be more picky. Therefore I've decided to use this rating system.

1 - Awwwrrrr...
2 - Awrr
3 - Rrr
4 - Boof!
5 - Ruff!
6 - Aruff!
7 - Aroof!
8 - Rowf!
9 - Arooooo!
10 - AWOOOOOOO!!!

I will update previous entries accordingly. Ruff!

Tohato Harvest Sweet Potato Biscuits

It's our good friend Tohato once again, here to bring another dose of sweet potato to me eager panting tongue, this time in biscuit form. I'm intrigued, and the biscuits themselves on the bag art are smiling at me. I hope that's not how they are actually do. It's quite hard to eat cute things. It's also worth noting that I found these at Nijiya Market in many different flavors, most of which I can't distinguish. If this is good, I look forward to scarfing down more flavors in the future.

Taberundesu-Hi

Yes, do not be fooled, it looks like a camera. A little weirder looking than the one I nabbed at the park one day to take these pictures for sure. But instead of dispensing film it dispenses candy. Not only does it dispense candy, but it's a fortune telling camera. These are the possible outcomes:

• Green: Things are looking up!
• Pink: Popularity is coming your way!
• Orange: Uh oh! Mom's gonna be mad at you.
• Gray: Something will make you anxious.
• Yellow: You'll have good luck tomorrow afternoon.

Um, pretty random outcomes, especially since I assume there's more than one of some colors in here. They I assume I have an angry mother then, but mine is nothing of the sort. Regardless, I guess I'll try to interpret what these outcomes might mean. It's also worth noting that the word Taberundesu means "I'm gonna eat it" which is a rather odd name to pair with a fortune telling camera. What were the humans behind this thinking? No idea. Strange creatures, they are.

Fujiya Home Pie Chocolate

Everything I've got my paws on so far has been from Japan Crate, but thankfully there are also Japanese delights I can go on the hunt for just outside my den. One such place for these is Nijiya Market, a local Japanese store. Walking in here the first time to try some snacks was confusing. I mean c'mon, learning one human speak was hard enough, now I have to learn another to understand what I want to shove in my mouth? Or I can just take risks and buy things. This particular item was a half-risk. I saw the word pie and I love me some pie, and there's chocolate, so among things I didn't understand I pounced on this one.

Rapoppo Farm Sweet Potato Candy

More sweet potato! Not that this pup is complaining, whether alongside or instead of a hunk of meat the vegetable never fails to delight. This candy comes from Rapoppo farm, which I'm told is a sweet potato themed bakery. Just another item on the list of things I ask, "why isn't this closer to my den?" Doing my research, they have bruleed sweet potatoes, cookies with sweet potatoes, and sweet potato custard among other things. Now I'm a dignified wolf, but I would certainly sit and beg and do whatever for any of these confections... not that I can. Maybe I'll have to concoct some myself.

Tohato Sweet Poteko: Honey Sweet Potato Flavor

Again a larger item to the delight of my always-empty belly, these sweet potato rings promised to be one of the more savory items in my November Japan Crate. Sweet potato is definitely one of my favorite flavors to munch on, so my eyes opened wide with delight at three sweet potato items being in this box, but they have to do it right. I've seen many a sweet potato fry ruined by way too savory seasonings. I know I've already seen the brand Tohato repeated in the December Japan Crate with their caramel corn, so they must be a popular brand of puffed delights in Japan. Let's see what they got.

Mike's Popcorn Brown Sugar Caramel

One of the bigger items in Japan Crate to my delight, Mike's popcorn supposedly is a Japanese staple, and being made by a snack food giant like Frito-Lay I guess it only makes sense. They come in many weird varieties, but my first exposure to the brand is this pretty standard flavor. In the spoiler for this box, I was also told that this popcorn uses brown sugar and caramel powder, so I wouldn't get sticky paws like traditional caramel corn. What is caramel powder exactly? I have no idea, sounds like magic. Those humans can do anything with their food.

Hapi Gummy Candies Mini Hot Dog

As an item part of Japan Crate, I'm not quite sure why they'd include this. It's... a hot dog gummy. Seems positively American. But nevertheless, it's a gummy and shaped like a hot dog, and as I write this it's giving off a tantalizingly sweet smell with some fruit flavors that my not-yet-fully-developed sniffer can't distinguish. What could go wrong?

November Japan Crate Odds and Ends

Aruff! Hi everyone, this is my first blog post so thank you all for reading as I begin this journey. I have quite the appetite, especially for new and out there stuff, and like any good boy I want to share all my food adventures with you.

But before we begin I'd be amiss if I didn't talk about the Japan Crate that just arrived a few weeks ago, and that would be my first Japanese candy box, the November Japan Crate. I started off getting a three month subscription and we'll see where things go for there. I'm all for whatever gets me the yummiest snacks at the best value.

Now since I've already scarfed up most of the snacks in here I won't do a full review for everything, but I'll give mini reviews for ones that I ate long ago.

Kagikko Chocolate Key - This one's pretty self explanatory - it's a bunch of chocolates arranged in a key shape. Why? I have no idea. It seems there are a bunch of these out there all in different shapes. The candies themselves tasted exactly like M&Ms, maybe a bit smaller. I ate them almost immediately because nobody eats just one M&M. Cool idea to arrange them in a shape I guess, but I wish the candy itself was more unique?

Rating: 3 - Rrr

Rilakkuma Gum - Okay first of all this packaging is ADORABLE! I love how cute Japanese packaging can be and this one certainly made me whimper in adoration. The gum itself surprisingly had a ridge shape to it, but once in my mouth it behaved like any other gum. It had a nice cola flavor which at first was pretty strong then it lost flavor quickly, which is kind of sad. I suppose I'm used to Extra.

Rating: 4 - Boof!