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American Cherry Burger with Sakura soda at ROOFTOPS in Kamakura. They've got a beautiful view of Kamakura Station and I can't wait to go back! #Kamakura #japan #sakura #桜 #cheeseburger #cherryburger #チーズバーガー @rooftops_kamakura

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Orange Coca Cola is available this week! Two distinctive flavors, orange and Coke but an orange after taste. They compliment each other and I liked it! 🍊 #コカコーラ #cocacola #orangecocacola #orangecoke #japan #japanloverme

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Fuji-san is beautiful today! Was covered in clouds earlier but it's cleared up. 🗻 #mtfuji #fujisan #富士山 #Japan #lakekawaguchi #河口湖

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#Bunny butts! Hope you have a Happy Easter tomorrow! #HappyEaster #decoratedcookies #royalicing #icingcookies #icedbiscuits #katieskookies #ケイティのクッキー

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#Soba and #tempura for lunch in #Kamakura today! #Japan #鎌倉

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A snack of Mitarashi Dango in Tokyo last weekend. It's rice balls covered in a sweet and salty sauce...almost like soy sauce but thicker. #みたらし #Japan #snackfood

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via IFTTT

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami 5th Anniversary

Yahoo Japan

Tomorrow, March 11, 2016, marks the 5th anniversary of the Tohoku Japan earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese National Police Agency reported 15,889 deaths, 6,152 injured and 2,601 missing. When we lived here before I traveled up to Fukushima with the girls for the Soma-Nomaoi Festival. The area was beautiful and people very kind and gracious.

On March 10, 2011 we were living in Hawaii. I had LASIK eye surgery that morning and spent the afternoon and evening asleep. I woke up to breaking news about an earthquake in Japan. Shortly after the tsunami warning alarms going off and we could hear them through the closed windows and running AC. We lived on Ford Island, an evacuation zone. We had no idea how severe the earthquake was, but we were able to get in touch with our friends and former neighbors still living here. Not long after the earthquake the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melted. I immediately thought of the people we met and the time we spent there in 2009.

On March 11th Yahoo Japan will donate ¥10 towards the recovery for each person who searches "3.11." In 2014 Yahoo donated ¥25 million or about $215,000 USD. More details can be read here. 

Japanese Sake Kit Kats

日本酒キットカット went on sale today! I searched locally and Yokohama before going up to Tokyo to find them. Nine mini packs came in the sake shaped box I got and three in the normal Kit Kat packaging. These contain .8% alcohol. The sake smell is stronger than the taste in my opinion. Good, not my favorite and with a strong aftertaste. I felt it in my throat too. Bottoms up!

Sublime Gold KitKats - Yup, Gold

Organized very well but I wouldn't expect anything less.

I love KitKats…discovering the plethora of flavors here in Japan has been so much fun for me. When we lived here from 2008-2010 I had quite the collection and was happy to come back and continue hunting for them. They haven’t released one or two flavors each month like they used to, but it’s still exciting to find the new ones.

Wonder if this would work in my living room?

Last month I read an article about gold KitKats coming out at the end of December. They were to release 500 hand done gold leaf covered chocolate bars throughout the country. I didn’t know details, couldn’t find specifics and patiently waited. That day came….today.

I woke up early with one of my daughters and we hopped on an early morning train up to Tokyo. I had a plan, sort of. I knew the station and the store, but didn’t know exactly where to go after that. I read signs and double checked the station map to figure it out. We arrived around 9 am and got in line; the store opened at 10. I knew this store had 80 on hand and once gone, they’d be gone forever…until showing up on eBay for far more than ¥2016 ($16ish USD) retail price. It's a nod to the new year. There was a very long standby line of at least 50 people by the time we got up to the counter at 10:10 am. 

We got our tickets guaranteeing one per until noon. We stayed in line because nothing else, except for convenience stores in the station, were open. The hour went by quickly between people watching, playing Words with Friends and emailing my husband pictures of us. The gentleman above let my daughter hold the sign for a hilarious photo too!

I didn’t think we’d be lucky enough to get one, never mind two, but had to at least try. Glad we did...and will be taking a nap this afternoon :)