Kristen on the Case

My grandmother is 100% Japanese. She met my grandfather when he was in Japan shortly after World War II. My dad's been showing her pictures of my time in Japan via his fancy iPad. She has solved a couple of mysteries for us :

The Mystery of the Kit Kat Bar Flavor

The case: I mentioned this Kit Kat bar in my blog post last night. When I picked it up in the 7-11, my American friend told me he thought it was wasabi flavored. I had my doubts because 1) why would a candy be wasabi flavored (but I still wouldn't put it past the Japanese) and 2) The picture just doesn't look like wasabi to me...it looks like mochi.

The truth: The written Japanese next to the Kit Kat logo says "zundafume." Thanks to my Japanese language course, I was able to read "Zunda" on my own, but couldn't find a translation, so I gave up on figuring out what it meant. My grandmother confirmed that the last two kanji characters read "fume" or "flavor." So this candy bar is Zunda flavored.....well, what's that? After some light Googling, I learned that Zunda flavored is a type of mochi flavoring.

Please note, mochi IS NOT a Japanese ice cream (for some reason the term mochi has become synonymous with Japanese ice cream...please go forth and dispel this rumour). Mochi is rice pounded to a pulp and reshaped into cubes or spheres. These rice shapes can then be coated in flavoring (such as ice cream) or a flavored paste. So Zunda mochi is these pounded rice balls covered in soybean paste...so it's an edamame flavor. Therefore, this Kit Kat bar should taste like edamame.

On that note, I found this blog about one girl's quest to try all the Kit Kat bar flavors she can during her three year stay in Japan: Jen Ken's Kit Kat Blog. If you click on the link, it will bring you to a post about her experience with the Zunda flavored Kit Kar bar.

Case Closed.

The Case of the Weeing Boy

The case: I came across this in the automotive section of a large all-in-one store. When I first saw it, I thought it was something to wipe the rain off your windshield before you drive away. However, when I took a second look a the picture, I couldn't figure out what it was.

The truth: My grandmother says this is a package of pills to help deal with things like motion sickness or traffic jam anxiety. Why the weeing angel? No one knows. It may be some sort of cultural reference that American's don't understand. To put this is perspective, let's think of some American logos that have nothing to do with the product:

Chuck-E-Cheese - A pizza place with a rat as a mascot. Make sense? Didn't think so.
Aunt Jemiamah Syrup - I'm not even going to touch this one.
Kentucky Fried Chicken - Old southern man with a white moustache, we get it, but do foreigners?
McDonalds - The golden arches are easy....but think about the clown. What does a creepy clown have to do with fast food?

Case closed.

Now I'm off to the 7-11 to get a pork filled dumpling. See you guys later!