Nordic Farm’s “Nama” caramels from Hokkaido! “Nama” directly translated, means raw or fresh. And that might just be the best description for these yummies. They come in these cute little cheese baskets. These caramels are so fresh that they need to be refrigerated.

The caramels come in several flavors: Fresh milk, Cafe Mocha, Sea Salt (so trendy!), Green Tea, and Chocolat. I got to taste Fresh Milk and Sea Salt.

Taste test!!

They almost feel like creamy butter with a slightly caramelized sugar flavor that instantly melts in your mouth. These caramels will never stick to your teeth because they are gone in an instant OMG, I’m eating butter… But hey, no fear of having those dental fillings pop out…

• Fresh Milk has nice vanilla tones that you will never get tired of. Very elegant and mild. Even if the texture feels like you’re eating butter, they are very light. So light that you can probably eat the entire little box in an afternoon. Hmm… maybe because you eat them cold?

• Sea Salt has a subtler taste compared to Fresh Milk and only a hint of sea salt. I like them but I wish it had a slighter stronger kick of sea salt. The texture is exactly the same as Fresh Milk. It makes me want to dip it in very dark chocolate. Now that’s an idea but the caramels are all gone now… next time!

If you come across them, I highly recommend these caramels! You may have to go to Japan for these but hopefully someone will import these soon.

I FINALLY am in the possession of two of those cool Kit Kat varieties that don’t exist here in the United States: Ginger Ale and Wasabi (whoa!) flavors….I just tried the Ginger Ale one. The Wasabi review will come soon.

It was DELICIOUS. Wow. I’m not the most avid fan of Ginger Ale in general, but this Kit Kat bar was really good. It has  this lemonish minty flavor to it that is just incredible. It also has a really appetizing smell to it, of the lemonish variety once again. I can’t say that Ginger Ale the Kit Kat candy tastes EXACTLY like Ginger Ale the beverage does, but it is at least reminiscent of the drink’s flavor.

I was a bit cautious when tearing open the package, as I’ve never had a Kit Kat bar that was anything other than..well, regular milk chocolate. This Ginger Ale version was really good though, and I’m immediately sad it doesn’t exist here in the States.

The box has the slogan “Have a break, have a Kit Kat” on it, a phrase I’m not familiar with. Upon a bit of research, that’s apparently the slogan used in Europe and other overseas countries to advertise the candy. Here in the US we’ve always had the “Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar” phrase, which is a bit more wordy than what’s written on this box.

The box, coincidentally, is also a change from the packaging Kit Kat Bars have in this country, which is just a plastic wrapper basically. This box is a bit different, as you can see.

Doesn’t that look like normal white chocolate? Well, it’s not, it’s Ginger Ale.

Delicious. I want more now.

I’m usually amused by all the sorts of weird Hello Kitty cross-promotional items that I’ve seen throughout the Internet….but THIS? Really? Why? Is it art? Is it a functional chainsaw? It IS pink, it has a bejewled-looking HK symbol and artistic flourishes on the chainsaw…..but…again….WHY????

I’m so confused.

Asashōryū Akinori (real name: Dolgorsürengiin Dagvadorj), one of the most successful Sumo wrestlers in Japanese history, announced his retirement today. There was talk that he was about to be banned from the sport, because of a recent skirmish he was involved in with a man on the street. As this article mentions, Asashoryu is quoted as saying,

“I have caused a lot of trouble but I have no regrets about my sumo.”

What he likely does regret is having an altercation with a man outside a Japanese bar last Month, as the 150-kg giant was in the middle of a big tournament. Reports say he left a man with a busted lip and broken nose.

But things apparently didn’t get out of hand until the champion refused to apologize to the victim.

He has also been involved in a number of other controversies and scandals, as highlighted on his Wikipedia page:

Asashōryū was criticised for injuring Toyonoshima during some intense practice sessions just before the May 2007 tournament. Some other high-profile wrestlers have avoided training with Asashōryū, fearing injury.

The May 2008 tournament ended on a controversial note, when Asashōryū gave Hakuhō a shove after the bout was already over, and the two glared at each other.The following day the head of the Sumo Association saw both yokozuna separately and gave each a strict warning.

In July 2008 he used his position as head of the wrestlers union to call for all salaried rikishi to be given a pay rise of ten percent (which would be their first pay rise since 2001) to compensate for the rising cost of food and fuel. The Sumo Association were reportedly unimpressed with his remarks.

In August 2009 he was criticised for refusing to board a bus transporting wrestlers to training on the summer tour, saying he did not want to risk catching the H1N1 flu strain which has infected several rikishi.

In both the January and September 2009 tournaments, Asashōryū was chastised by some members of the Yokozuna Deliberation Committee for raising his arms in celebration after winning his championship bout, behavior which they saw as unbecoming of a yokozuna. Both his stablemaster and Asashōryū himself later apologized for these incidents.

It will be interesting to see how he is remembered in the sport, as he clearly was quite a controversial yet massively successful star.

Japan Probe recently posted an article about the search for Japanese Roots music in Japan. One of the videos that surfaced in the search is this video:

A group of Japanese men playing Bluegrass music? Bluegrass is typically a Western (read: American/English) tradition, so it’s somewhat odd to see these gentlemen playing that type of music. But…I like it. It’s just the type of cultural crossover that I think should be more common. The music in this video sounds almost exactly as it does in some backcountry saloon somewhere in the South here in the States. There’s basically no difference, and that’s a testament to the musicians. Nicely done.

ついに 東のエデン の全てが繋がるであろう、劇場版映画 “東のエデン 劇場版II Paradise Lost” の公開が 3/13 に決まったようです。東のエデンオフィシャルブログにて公開された Paradise Lost の予告をご覧下さい！

The New York Yankees, who just won Major League Baseball’s World Series a few months ago, unveiled the trophy in Tokyo as part of its world tour recently. A few players accompanied General Manager Brian Cashman on the visit, although Hideki Matsui was not part of the trip. Matsui, originally a huge baseball star in his native Japan, was on the Yankees team that won the Series, but has since left, signing a contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He was not part of the celebratory visit.

As this article from Rueters details,

The player nicknamed “Godzilla” hit .274 with 28 home runs and 90 RBIs as the Yankees’ designated hitter last season, while amassing 140 home runs in a career limited by injuries.

Cashman said the former Yomiuri Giants star was prized by the Yankees not for his nationality, but for his skills as a player.

“We did not sign Hideki Matsui because he was Japanese, we signed him because he was a true champion and one of the world’s more gifted baseball players,” he said.

Team president Randy Levine also praised Matsui, adding he hoped the Yankees did not lose Japanese fans with his departure.

Despite Matsui’s absence, Japan still has a strong relationship with Major League Baseball and the Yankees, and will inevitably continue to do so for the 2010 season and beyond.

Joystiq posted an article hinting that there may be a United States release of the Super Street Fighter IV anime that is currently only going to be available to Japanese gamers (as we discussed previously). One of the package deals of the game in Japan comes with an anime chronicling the history of the new character Juri, but as this follow-up article mentions,

A Super Street Fighter IV anime project is in the works from the Gonzo animation company. The anime focuses on Juri (and her weird glowing eye), but also contains “great fighting action,” “backstory goodness,” and “plenty of Cammy and the Dolls,” according to Capcom’s Seth Killian.

The article also mentions that the trailer for the anime IS available in the US Xbox 360 Marketplace, indicating that it may eventually be released in this country. Here’s the trailer in question:

I’m sure a lot of American Super Street Fighter IV fans are excited about the prospect of this anime being released here as well as in Japan. We’ll keep you posted.

This is pretty strange but cool….Japan Probe posted this picture, gathered from some Japanese-language blog, of a cat with a cat-shaped design on its back.

The cat looks a bit bothered by the camera being shoved in its face for this picture…but it’s still pretty amusing. I hope it’s real. Since it’s on the Internet, it could be someone’s creation, of course. I hold firm that this is probably a real image, however. I’d like to hope so, at least.

I’d like to take a moment to talk about an awesome new website/iPhone application that is really innovative and, well, fun.

TYPOGRAFFIT takes words you input into the service and reproduces them in artistic ways…that is, you enter a word or phrase into the box on the site (or the app, if you have an iPhone) and it displays your message in a variety of cool different ways. Check out this example from the website, concerning Conan O’Brien:

As you see, the ‘o’ in ‘Conan’ is a picture of the red-haired comedian, and you can make letters or words be represented by a picture yourself. All you have to do is sign up for an account on TYPOGRAFFIT.com, and then you can submit your own words/pictures/letters/creations into the database, which is already rather large. There are so many possibilities, in a variety of languages, as well.

This is a really neat service because so many people love text messaging. This allows them to do so in a new, fun way, and send messages to each other in e-mail and across various SNS sites, as well as usual text messaging.

Check out the TYPOGRAFFIT website for more details and how to use it. If you have an iPhone, you can download the app by finding it in the App store

What do you think of TYPOGRAFFIT?