Yakisoba and chocolate : Valentines match made in heaven?

Japanese manufacturer Myojo is well known for selling their popular and super convenient 'Ippei-chan' yakisoba noodles. They apparently thought that their marketing needed something completely wild and crazy and jumped on the Valentine's bandwagon, by adding...chocolate sauce, what?

As soon as I saw the promo for this on the internet I decided on the spot that I HAD to eat this. Who the hell thinks of chocolate and noodles together? Typically yakisoba is ramen noodles fried in a slightly salty soy, Worchestershire kind of sauce. Some flavour combinations just naturally don't work together. You aren't going to add whipped cream to your squid and you won't put baked beans on a chocolate cake. So how anyone decided to make this combo is beyond me. But I remained faithful, after all, adding chocolate to a curry is a great way to add some bitterness to it, maybe this would work?

My local supermarket had an ample stack that was larger yesterday.

Sites like RocketNews have gone for the 'sensational' OMG it's so gross, so unique, rare and hard to find reporting approach. Whilst it will certainly disappear quickly like all limited edition flavours here, within a week or two max, I could find them in pretty much every convenience store and supermarket. Interestingly, it is a good 50 yen cheaper than the standard flavour, I guess even the most adventurous need a little cash incentive...!

So you buy a packet, what do you get inside?

You get the standard packet with the cool drainage lid and 3 packets that you simply need to add after boiling the noodles and draining them, then just mix the hell out of it. Adding the furikake packet last, which is kind of the crunchy topping. Even if you don't know Japanese, the instructions are crazy simple.

So you mix it all up, wait with anticipation and you see this...oh.
I'm sure the obvious comparison is very clear...I tasted a quick sample of the sauce before putting it on an it did indeed taste like legitimate chocolate sauce!

Appetizing?

However, if you go beyond the visuals and mix it up, the taste is pretty surprising.
The texture is very much the same as your standard yakisoba but with a little added crunch from the topping. The starchyness of the noodles actually helps to mellow out the chocolate taste into something a bit more natural.
My immediate comparison would be a standard chocolate mister donut's donut. What I hadn't realized until I had began eating is that it is noodles plus chocolate AND cinnamon. This was a real deal breaker. The cinnamon, for me actually added a nice after taste and complimented the natural noodle taste. You could even say it was pretty good!

Mix, mix...!

That's a bit more natural looking...!

It became one of those dishes where the more you eat it, the more you begin to like it. I found myself saying "Hey...I could actually eat this again!" and not just to be edgy. I have had worse tasting regular yakisoba's. Perhaps I have a more forgiving palate but for that combination and for so cheap, it was a nice surprise!

If you want to try this novelty noodle dish I really recommend you go out and grab one within a week or so otherwise you will have to hunt hard. It has been released for valentines but often it seems that Japan removes these items way before the event has actually finished, marketing is weird.

If you give it a go, let me know what you think! 

Bottle Sized Panties

Imagine the scene. It is a humid hot day, you head to the vending machine and get a nice chilled bottle of water, it glistens, moist and sparkling in the sunlight. As you raise it to your lips for a sip you suddenly realise it is missing something...it's not wearing any panties, so lewd.
But fear not, bottles have always been naked, until now.

I recently read online that a set of 'bottle panties' or ボトルのおぱんつ was due to be released at the end of May, as a follow-up to the highly successful underwear series that was released for the iPhone's touch button. The iPhone series' of panties proved to be such a popular novelty gift, that it actually spawned 4 further series with different designs. Therefore it is no surprise that they are finding other ways to exploit the perverted masses.

Imagine my excitement this morning on the way to Costco, when I randomly stumbled across one of the panty machines. I showed no hesitation in dropping 200yen into the machine as elementary school kids were getting Dragonball toys nearby.

But what design would I get...!?

Maybe the Shimapan? (Striped Panties?)

Ta-da!! It turns out that I got the 'Frilled Lacy' panty design. As I took it out of the plastic ball I immediately felt a sense of shame and bewildered amusement. I just bought a miniature pair of panties, for 200yen. I'm actually surprised at the quality, its legit lace and the band is elasticised just like the real deal...perfect for peeling them on, and off. What. But how does it look?

Straight tea - complete with innocent frills.

When you stand the bottle up, it looks kind of ridiculous, sort of like a really feminine beer cozy. Unless your really yank the panties up, you can't really tell that it is a pair of underwear. I didn't want to give my tea too much of a wedgie though!

いやーん！そこで見ないで！

It is only when you tip the bottle backwards, feeling like a complete pervert in the process that you have the eureka moment, this is underwear. Miniature underwear, for my drinks container. I felt like one of those otaku who tilts a figure back just to see up their skirt, kinda wrong. Haha.
Although the design is meant for bottles, I was curious if it works with cans too.

Size Zero panties

It actually looked better on a can, since the leg holes were more apparent. Size zero if you will, I wonder if the plus size cans will protest against double standards.

Overall, it was an amusing and shameful experience, totally worth my 200yen, although I was hoping for the striped one as that is the anime stereotype set. You can see the various designs below, I'm really curious as to what the mystery special edition pants are but I doubt I will drop another 200yen on a pair, my lack of shame only has so much limit.

The designs are 40mm in size and you have a chance of receiving either the plain white pants, striped, polka-dot, strawberry, frilled, leopard print, or the unknown mystery set. I can imagine that this run will sell out fast, but if it proves popular enough I imagine they will release more.
These would make amazing souvenir gifts for friends back home, or just as a general joke gift. So if you have no shame, are a panty fetishist or just want a hilarious and weird experience, go hunt for a machine near you! I found mine in a specialist gacha gacha machine zone.

...Don't judge me. (>_>;)