Seasonal Items at Starbucks and McDonald's

There is something really comforting about eating food from brands that you know from back home. It's great trying out foods in foreign places, but sometimes you need a touch of familiarity! I'm very fortunate that my city has both a McDonald's and a Starbucks. While these brands are familiar to me, they both offer very specific items that are very specific to Japan during certain seasons! It's kind of in the same way that McDonald's does the McRib or Starbucks does the Pumpkin Spice Latte in America, but what Japan offers is completely different than what you can get in the States!

First up is the Sakura Teritama burger from McDonald's! I'm been very lucky that I got here as sakura (or cherry blossom) season has started. They are supposed to start blooming here in Niigata in about a week, so there's no better time to try the Sakura Teritama burger at Mcdonald's! 

First of all the bun is pink! That's right pink! I'm not making that up. Not only is the bun pink, but the mayonaise is also sakura flavored! It's a very light sweet flavor on top of the deliciousness that is Japanese mayo. Seriously, if you are ever in Japan, try their mayo! I didn't really like mayo until I got here, but it is seriously the bomb. It's also waaaay more unhealthy than the stuff you get in the States so watch out for that! 

Now that we have the sakura flavor out of the way I should explain what teritama is. Teritama is a mashing of the words 'teriyaki,' like the sauce, and 'tamago,' which means egg in Japanese! As you can see there is a large egg on that burger, and it's actually not that bad. It made the burger very filling! The burger itself is not actually beef, but something like a pork sausage. It is also smothered in teriyaki sauce! Make no mistake this is a messy burger that will require many, many napkins! On a side note. McDonald's has a regular teriyaki burger (without the egg) and it is definitely worth trying out as well! 

McDonald's also had a couple of sakura flavored beverages to gulp down in between bites of your sakura teritama burger: 

Those drinks are the Sakura Fizz Float and the Sakura Fizz. I tried the sakura fizz. It was kind of like a flavored Sprite! It tasted both like regular cherries and like cherry blossoms, if that makes sense. Cherry blossoms taste very light and sweet, and I think cherry is a very overpowering flavor. The drink was really good though, and refreshing! I liked it a lot and at the very least it is very pretty to look at. It has a light to dark pink gradient. 

This year I was a little too late to experience sakura blossom season at Starbucks, (I was insanely disappointed) but the drink they are promoting now is pretty good! 

Enter the Creamy Vanilla Latte with Lemony Swirl! Okay I love the name first of all because the lemony part reminds me of the name of one of my favorite authors growing up (Lemony Snicket). Saying the name in Japanese for a none native speaker is a bit of a tongue twister, but luckily Starbucks, like many other restaurants in Japan has a menu with pictures you can just point at. This drink is very yummy for the spring, but it does taste lemony as is promised in the name, so if you don't like lemons you may want to skip. It is a very refreshing and sweet drink, and I've had it a couple of times! I'm not sure if this drink is being promo'd in other countries but I know it isn't in the States. At least not yet! It definitely should be! It really is just perfect for spring!

So that's a wrap for this March-April segment of specialty foods! I will continue doing this segment though because 1. food! 2. do I need another reason? 

Until next time!

Bunny (^-^)

Liz Lisa in Niigata

I'm going to have to preface this post with the statement that I love the Japanese brand Liz Lisa. I think it is absolutely perfect, and I could easily spend all of my money there. When I found out that Niigata had a Liz Lisa store, I was sooooo excited. I was doubly excited when I found out I could get to it very easily, and triply excited when I found out that Niigata has awesome shopping! It is both so amazing because I love fashion, and so depressing because I need to somehow not buy everything. I don't have that kind of money. However, I did have some to do a little shopping spree at Liz Lisa so without further ado here's what I got+me modeling! 

 I fell in love with these shoes on the website when they came out a month ago, but they sold out pretty fast. I didn't think I'd get a pair, but lo and behold there was one pair left in the color and size that I wanted! I got some super cute socks to go with it.

Shhhh I'm not supposed to wear shoes in the house... well these are brand new and haven't been worn outside yet, so they are perfectly clean. Anywho the t-shirt, undershirt, and shoes are all Liz Lisa. and the skirt was something I got awhile ago from American Apparel.

 Here's the t-shirt again with a bow skirt I got. I really liked the English on front! It says, "Playful like a lively kitten" So cute!

Here's the purple lace top with my new overall/skirt/jean hybrid thingy. I can't explain why I like it, but it's my favorite thing I bought yesterday. 

I got the purse and make up container for free because I bought so much! Ha!

Not pictured was a beige gingham skirt I got and my contents of my fukubukuro. I will post all about fukubukuros and what they are on another post. I have to space out all of my posts after all! But did you see a trend there? Yup lots of lavender. It is a huge color this year and I am quite the fan! 

Until next time!

(^-^) Bunny

My First Blog Post!

Well I've been in Japan for a week and I think I am due to start up my new blog! As an introduction, I am a recently graduated 20-something from America! While I was getting ready to graduate from college I had no idea what I was going to do. I had studied in Japan two years ago, and I knew I wanted to go back. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do, in order to go back. My roommate and friend encouraged me to interview for a company that specializes in providing Assistant Language Teachers to schools in Japan. I was hesitant at first because I wasn't sure I'd make a good teacher, but I really wanted to go back to Japan. I thought more about it, and started to get excited about the idea of teaching though. Last May my friend and I went to go to get interviewed, and badda boom badda bang here am I ten months later sitting in my new apartment in Niigata Prefecture!

The past week I've been here has been hectic to say the least. I had orientation for the first few days before I moved to my new apartment, and let me tell you, it was the most stressful few days of my life. Nothing in college even compares to the stress I had those first few days. Most of the stress came from having to present lessons on the first day to our instructors, without any hints, pointers, or anything really. It was truly awful. They do that though basically I think to gauge your starting skills and to show you that there is always room for improvement. It absolutely crushed my confidence though. I thought I was going to loose it. I was so tired, and we had been in orientation for over twelve hours on the first day! The following few days were equally busy, but they demonstrated teaching techniques and I got a lot of constructive feedback. My confidence grew over the next few days. Before I knew it, it was time to leave!

Now I am all moved in. I will be teaching 6 elementary schools and 2 jr. high schools. I will only be seeing the elementary schools a few times a year, but I will see each jr. high school twice a week. I'm quite nervous about the jr. highs because that age group is so rough! I am very much looking forward to the elementary students! Elementary school kids are a lot of fun and usually enthusiastic. 

I'm very much looking forward to this next year in Japan. This is my first real adult job after college! So much has happened already that I'm having a really hard time putting it all into words and being able to express it to you (I was also super tired when I wrote this). I will continue to update this blog with all sorts of fun things from my life here! First up is an outfit post from my shopping day in Niigata! 

Here is the view from my balcony!