It's getting to the point where I should just change the name of this blog to "unusual stuff that Pepsi produces in Japan", however they make it so easy that I have no other option but to post about it.  Anyway, today we have the Pepsi Strong Shot.

The Strong Shot is essentially Pepsi with a whole lot of caffeine in it. It's only 190ml but apparently the extra caffeine and extra carbonation make up the "Strong" part.

The carbonation is apparently so extreme that the big yellow warning at the top demands a 15 second rest time before the can can even be opened.  That's vague though. Is that 15 seconds from moving it? 15 seconds from buying it? 15 seconds from thinking about drinking a lot of caffeine? The world may never know.

The taste is pretty much just like Pepsi though. In all honesty I would have preferred a Coke Strong Shot.

It's summer and of course summer in Tokyo brings a lot of things with it. Ridiculous heat, even more ridiculous humidity and of course a new, bizarre flavor of Pepsi.

In previous years we've had Cucumber Pepsi, White Pepsi, and Azuki Pepsi to name a few.  This year, the flavor hasn't strayed much from the same path as the ones above (ie. unusual). We have the flavor of the summer: Baobab.

Baobab is a kind of African tree that produces fruit. I am not sure if the flavor is supposed to be the flavor of the leaves, which are used in soups or eaten raw, or if the flavor is supposed to be of the fruit which has a variety of uses (including making cream of tartar apparently).  The flavor is good though. It's kind of like a less strong version of ginger beer but with a slightly different spice set going for it.  I don't know how else to explain it.  It's kind of sweet yet kind of spicy.

The packaging has a kind of African motif going on.  Actually the text in Japanese refers to the cola's "African Motif" as well as it's abundance of refreshing flavor.

It is actually a pretty good cola. I would normally drink this if it were always available as a "something different" alternative to ginger ale.

A sea of pink, white and black.

Over the weekend at the Christon Cafe in Shinjuku, Lolita fashion brand Angelic Pretty held a tea party for lolitas. Basically this is a cake and tea kind of party for their customers. I was not there or obvious reasons (not a big enough pink frilly dress to fit in), but I was able to get a few pictures from an inside source.

First we have a shot of the madness:

It's lolitas for as far as the eye can see.

As I mentioned, this was a tea party for lolitas, of course, what kind of lolita tea party wouldn't have a cute cake to go with the tea?

Apparently there were 100 of these cakes made especially for the event. They aren't normally on the Christon Cafe menu so anyone who wants one will either have to make a special request or go without. Sorry fans of cute heart shaped shortcake.

International Pole Dance Fitness Championship

Last night after work I took the train directly into Shinjuku for the International Pole Dance Fitness Championship. I was invited by a friend and got a discount so, even though I had little real interest in going, I gave it a shot and went.

I arrived with a few friends to find a long line outside of the venue, the Shinjuku Christon Cafe (I swear they don't pay me to mention them in every other post, it's just that lots of stuff happens there). We eventually got inside and while everyone else was putting things in a coat check I talked to one of my friends who was working there and I got a booth and started ordering food.

I was eating with one other person for the the first few performances so I didn't get to see any of the show, though there was a brief but loud "USA!!", "USA!!" chant after one of the US performers went. It was like stepping into a wrestling show or a teabagger cavalcade or whatever it is you call a group of those people.

After finishing dinner, I watched a small portion of the pole dancing. It was pretty impressive in terms of what was going on. I mean hanging off a pole horizontally is no small feat. However, there is really only so much you can do with pole dancing. There's a pole, you can climb and spin and hang and that's about it for using the pole. What some people can do is pretty amazing but not 3 hours of my attention amazing.

This means that I ended up back in the dining area with some other people while most of the event was going on. I did occasionally pop my head out of the dining area and even went out and talked to a few other friends during the performances but for some reason I can't recall seeing much in terms of pole dancing. I saw some kind of cliche unattractive singing going on, then I saw a Taiko performance and even an appearance by the New-Half Ninja doing the New-Half Ninja show. (Have I ever mentioned what a new-half is? It's basically a half-op transexual or in other terms a ladyboy. The new-half ninja is a ladyboy ninja.) Not so much pole dancing though.

The crowd was kind of weird and seemed to consist of mainly businessmen, foreign businessmen and girls who looked like they were fans of pole dancing. It wasn't the normal crowd that I am used to for events so I didn't really know many people. I did run into some friends though so that was good. The food, as always was good, and I had a good time of it.

Don't stop mario now!

Found this on another site and felt that it was sufficiently awesome enough for a repost.



Yes, this is Queen's "Don't stop me now" played via a Mario World hacked rom. Not only that, it's all four parts played simultaneously. I've seen a few of these types of videos before but none have been quite this impressive.

Some people, when they have too much free time, are prone to awesomeness.

Tokyo Decadance Halloween special

Sorry I've been a bit busy as of late and haven't really had a lot of time or energy for posting. That is unfortunate really because I'm sure I had some good stuff to talk about that I have long since forgotten. I should take notes.

Anyway, a video featuring me at the Tokyo Decadance Halloween special is up on youtube made by my good friend over at Telemak Films. You can check it out below:



Find the creepiest guy in the video, that's me!

Michelin Star Dining: Cerise by Gordon Ramsay

So not everything I write about here has to be weird of wacky or sub-culture related. I mean, I do other things beyond hanging out at the convenience store or dressing as a zombie sex goat or whatever it is that I'm normally doing on weekends.

This post is a pretty standard, non-wacky thing that I did. I visited Cerise by Gordon Ramsay, the newly Michelin starred fine dining establishment here in Tokyo. Gordon Ramsay actually has two restaurants in Tokyo, Gordon Ramsay at the Conrad and Cerise by Gordon Ramsay (also at the Conrad but whatever) but Cerise is the less expensive of the two.

Anyway, my dining companion and I opted for the course menu which is a three course dinner with an option at each course. For sampling purposes, we got every option so that everything could be tried. I'll review the meal course by course.

Here is the menu listing for the first course:

Click on the picture if it's cutting off for some reason.

Here are pictures of the dishes:

This one is obviously the goat cheese and fig salad. I only sampled this one but it was light and flavorful as well as having a nice contrast between the cheese and the sweetness of the figs.


This one is the ox cheek. Readers of this blog will note that it looks similar to the Mammoth snacks I posted in a different entry. The taste however what a million times better than those. It was a nice savory flavor intertwined with the saltiness of the bresaola. The horseradish cream was actually very subtle in flavor considering the strength of horseradish in general.

Second course menu:

here are shots of the dishes:

This is the sea bream. Actually, I am not a fan of fish in the slightest but I gave this a try just to test if the magic of fine dining could fix my hate of seafood. Nope. Everything that wasn't fish tasted good though but the fishy-ness which wasn't overpowering was still too much for me.

This is the lamb, which I ate. It was spectacular. The lamb was extraordinarily tender and didn't really require a knife for cutting. The bacon and braised lentils rounded out the flavors quite well.

Final course was dessert, which I forgot to take pictures of before eating so the ones below are half eaten. Sorry.

Dessert course menu:


The desserts, in their half-eaten state, look a bit like this:

The tiramisu is essentially an ice cream dessert with various toppings. It was actually quite good. I don't like espresso so I didn't sample it with the topping but the ice cream was delicious.

What I ate was the apple dessert. It was bavarian cream, which is delightful but I wasn't overly impressed with the ultra strong sour apple flavor of the crushed ice on top. It wasn't bad at all but it probably could have served the overall flavor better if it used some kind of fresh apple instead. Just my opinion though.

Overall, the dinner was great. The restaurant itself was relatively empty and the staff was very attentive and helpful. The cost per person was about $60, not including drinks (expect to add a lot more if you drink a lot) which makes it not terribly expensive in terms of fine dining. I'd recommend a visit if you are into delicious food in a high class atmosphere.