R2-D2 & Madeleines

Three plain and three chocolate from Ginza Cozy Corner. Oishii desu, they're delicious!

Star Wars Pastries at Ginza Cozy Corner

Cookies need to dry, the weather is perfect and a chain bakery, Ginza Cozy Corner, has a promotion with "Star Wars" going on until December 21st. I ventured out and found one up in Yokohama. This particular store didn't have everything pictured on their website, but I was happy to find what I did. I'll post more pictures soon...I did buy something. :)

I'm sitting on a train heading home and wanted to share this. Thank you, Blogger for iOS!

ETA more pictures at 2 pm JST.

Keirō no hi (敬老の日)

September 21st is Respect for the Aged Day in Japan. Here's today's Google Doodle; a bento box for each Grandma and Grandpa. 

Strawberry Adult Sweetness Kit Kats

That's right...another adult Kit Kat. They're white chocolate. Adult or not, I loved these. And good thing...they're a bag of 12 minis!

Kit Kat Easter Fun Run in Tokyo

Have any plans for Sunday at 9 am?

Participants have to apply by March 31st and are chosen via lottery. They're encouraged to dress up as the Easter Bunny and will get a bag of the Easter Kit Kats after the run/walk.

I Want One

We were shopping at Homes last month and came across two walls of the wonderful Japanese toilet seats. This was the closest he's come to taking me seriously about buying one so I'm [a tiny bit] optimistic. I wrote about my weird obsession with fancy Japanese toilets in 2009 and you can read that post here.

On a side note, Homes is a cross between Target, JCPenney, Home Depot/Lowes, Marshalls and Petco.

Kit Kat Sandwich at First Kitchen

Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat....sandwich?!

First Kitchen is a fast food chain in Japan. Today was my first time in one and I would compare it to a Burger King in the U.S.

Not only do we have a plethora of Kit Kat flavors, but now we have a Kit Kat sandwich! The details can be found at First Kitchen's website.

This became available on Thursday but between school field trips, homework, making cookies and rain I wasn't able to make it out until today.

You can see the size of the sandwich with my hand in the first photo. I think it's comparable to the size of a Thomas' English Muffin. The bun was spongy and a little sweet...almost like a steamed pork bun. The description says it has whipped cream but it was more like Cool Whip to me. Not very sweet and not much flavor (for an American palette). The orange peel was great...it looked (albeit larger) and tasted like the orange peel Starbucks used with its Orange White Mocha in January. The Kit Kat was Kit Kat Café which is made for dipping in hot drinks. It seemed to be more crunchy than others I've had. I bought one from the display in front of the register and will have it tomorrow morning with a cup of coffee.

It was good and once my daughters taste it they'll try to convince me to pack this "sandwich" in their school lunches instead of the usual turkey or PB&J.

Apple Pie with Carrot Easter Kit Kats

That's not a typo, they really are apple pie with carrot flavor. I didn't taste much carrot and wonder if they added the flavor since rabbits are synonymous with carrots.

There aren't many Japanese Christians, but what I noticed when we lived here from 2008-2010 and again this time around, the commercialization of holidays is becoming the norm. Check out this post or this one, both about Santa Claus and Christmas from December 2008. This is the first time Nestle has connected Kit Kats with Easter.

In a recent post about Japanese Kit Kats I talked about them being popular and marketed to students. These continue to do so. I asked a man on the train platform to translate the packaging for me. According to the kind gentlemen who spoke excellent English, Nestle is saying Easter is an ii sutaato or "great start." April also happens to be the start of the school year in Japan, so they're playing that up.

There are 13 different designs in all and 12 minis in each bag. One in every 30 has the "Lucky Easter" design. We only opened three, but the first was that one. Lucky me?!

I thought they were very good and sweet. I didn't taste much carrot though; probably for the best. One of my daughters didn't like them and the other wouldn't try. They reminded me of the Nagano Apple Kit Kats I got on our trip to see the Nagano Snow Monkeys. You can click here to see that post.

I hope your spring is off to an ii sutaato!

Adult Cocoa Kit Kats

No, not "Fifty Shades of Gray" Kit Kats! Not adult as in adult. In one of my recent posts I talked about Kit Kats being marketed for exams and students. Well to balance that out and remind adults they haven't outgrown them, Kit Kat/Nestle Japan has one just for us. The word "cocoa" is on the front of the box and I asked the cashier exactly what it meant...she said it's dark chocolate. I think they tasted like a cup of hot chocolate, but wouldn't consider them dark chocolate compared to what the average American palette is used to.

Yokosuka & Ikego Floor Plans with Dimensions

I had a very hard time finding interior pictures of houses and floor plans of Yokosuka and Ikego housing in 2008. Having lived here from 2008-2010 we knew what furniture to bring and what to store this time around. Below are what you'll find in Ikego and the tower layout is the same as the three bedroom tower on the main base of Yokosuka. You can click here to read my post about the Yokosuka Housing Office and how the process worked for us in January 2015.

Ikego three bedroom townhouse first floor

Ikego three bedroom townhouse second floor

Ikego three bedroom tower/high rise/apartment (nine floor buildings)

Ikego four bedroom townhouse first floor

Ikego four bedroom townhouse second floor