Hwayo X.Premium

I think it was 120,000 won at the duty-free shop.. The price is not all that steep, but if you ask me whether it beats a whisky in the same price range, I honestly can’t say. As a gift brought over from Korea, though, nothing else comes close.

Amanatto cheese ice bar

The portion felt a bit small.

Lunch

A set meal I had while I was out renewing my driver’s licence. Perfectly fine, nothing more.

Jagabee, Hokkaido-grown Inka no Mezame

It’s a potato, but it tastes like sweet potato? Or maybe chestnut. Whether that makes for a good potato chip, I’m not sure. It is distinctive, at least.

Sapporo Park Hotel-supervised Black and White Doria

A doria is basically stew with rice in it, and this one was perfectly decent. Pretty good for konbini food.

Suntory’s Beer Ball

A beer version of the highball, I suppose. It’s made by extracting only the essence of the beer, and once you cut it with soda water it really does taste like beer. It’s easier to live with than I expected: storing it is simple, so you can pour a glass and put the bottle back in the fridge without the fizz going flat, and you can mix your beer to whatever strength you like. Being able to cut the head down or build it up depending on how you pour also seems like a plus.

Nissin Raoh, Rich Truffle Shoyu

A cup noodle with a really deep truffle aroma. It costs a bit, but it tasted good.

Rummy

The fact that you can buy rum raisin chocolate at the supermarket is honestly impressive, and for the price it tastes very good too. It would work well as a drinking snack.

Rummy ice cream

This one was good as well. You need to use plenty of rum to make it taste right, so it’s surprising that they get this much flavour in at this price.

Yamagata La France pear ice bar

La France pears and ice bars go together really well.

Edamame Corn

A McDonald’s menu item: boiled beans that grown-ups would go for. Nice sense from McDonald’s.

Suwada nail clippers

They get their own dedicated display. They seem to market themselves well too.

Cheese Dessert, Amaou strawberry

Winter means strawberries..

Premium Baby Cheese, Almond

I picked it up wondering if it would work as a drinking snack, and it seems pretty good.

Shiroi Koibito

Tastier than it used to be?

The Amour du Chocolat pamphlet

I brought one home as a souvenir, and it’s as thick as a proper book. About 200 pages. An event that brings this many chocolate brands together all at once..

The Matsuzakaya Chocolat Promenade pamphlet

This one is thinner, but it still runs 50 to 60 pages. Japan’s Valentine’s culture just keeps on evolving.

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