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Monday, July 02, 2007

The Many Drinks of Japan

Japan has ever changing trends. Never to be outdone is the food industry, which regularly changes the flavors of their products to keep consumers interested. Drinks are no exception. As the season of summer is well upon us, corporations have been coming out with a slew of new drinks. One of which is the Minute Maid Pineapple drink containing Lactobacillus Plantarum 122. According to the quote on the little 210 mL bottle, "Plant Origin Lactic, Lactobacillus Plantarum 122 is plant origin lactic acid bacteria discovered from Pineapples".

Because literal translations of Japanese for the most part just create more confusion for the English reader and because I am completely clueless when it comes to reading Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana, the subject intrigued me and I decided to do some research.

Putting additives to drinks is nothing new. Jamba Juice has been doing it for a long time (hence, "Would you like a free boost with that?" and just in the last 2 years Minute Maid has been experimenting with adding different additives to it's drinks for their US consumers. In Minute Maid orange juice you can find calcium, fiber and "mild" versions of orange juice. The later promises to be gentler on the drinker's stomach.

While I couldn't necessarily pinpoint specifically why Minute Maid added this particular chemical, I know it has something to do with stomach and digestive health. Which is all the rage in a country where stomach cancer and other aliments are one of the leading causes of death among it's citizens. After looking up Lactobacillus Plantarum 122 on Wikipedia and struggling my way through all of the scientific jargon, I found that this chemical or something closely related is found or used in yogurts and cheese. A certain bacteria that promotes health. Very general, I know. If anyone could shed some light on the subject, it would be much appreciated.

The drink itself was pretty tasty. Sort of like a pineapple milk type drink. Mild and not acidic at all. It comes in a small 210 mL bottle. About 100 kcal per bottle. In other food news, the new Kit Kat flavors lately have been banana, orange, and melon. I really like the orange. It reminds me of Christmas time and enjoying the Toblerone Chocolate Oranges.

We've also just recently purchased a new computer. Our old one was about 7 years old so it was time. I'll leave the technical stuff for Mike to talk about.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought I saw a post somewhere about cucumber Pepsi flavor being released in Japan (apparently it was a seasonal thing).

At first I thought, "how strange?" But then I was thinking...honestly...that might be something I would enjoy. Too bad I couldn't get it here in the States.

I've got this funny habit of mixing drinks from the fast-food soda-vending machines. Putting a blast of lemon-aid soda in my unsweetened ice-tea, mixing Sprite with my Diet-Coke. Stuff like that. Alvis thinks it is a kick!

Can't wait to hear the details on the new computer. Is is Vista or maybe...an Apple pc? Was it bought via mail/web or did you to Akihabara and pick one up? Details! Give us details, please!

Cheers!

Mon Jul 02, 12:10:00 PM GMT+9  
Blogger Jeff D said...

Please try the cucumber Pepsi. Someone needs to tell me what it tastes like.

Also, what's up with the Billy Blanks rage in Japan right now?

Mon Jul 02, 02:39:00 PM GMT+9  
Blogger Unknown said...

Oh my gosh. It looks like I will be on a mission! I have no idea about the cucumber Pepsi but will definitely look into it. Billy Blanks....hmmmm. Again, no idea but something I'll look into. Despite my best efforts, we did not get a Mac. Maybe next time. This one has vista though and Mike has been having some difficulties getting all of our things on the computer. He's got to look a lot of things up on other sites to figure out what needs to be done to convert. Despite it being a slow process, the conversion from our old computer is getting done. Unfortunately, Mike has a 3 year old and his wife competing for attention when it comes to the computer.

Mon Jul 02, 03:46:00 PM GMT+9  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I remember that Yakult has some sort of "good for you" lactobacillus. Any relation maybe?

Mon Jul 02, 06:30:00 PM GMT+9  
Blogger Ginny said...

When I lived in Japan vitamin drinks were very popular. Now 20 years later we have vitamin water here and it's a big hit. Cold coffee was also very popular in cans in Japan when I was there. It took along time for me to see that here in the states. Are we that far behind or just not adventurous?I also heard about the cucumber pepsi. Give it a try and let us know!

Mon Jul 02, 08:23:00 PM GMT+9  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Mike and crew,

I've been collecting a lot of good "Vista-Tips" websites as I recently got a Vista laptop.

Tonight (if the misses lets me near the pc after work) I'll drop a new comment in here with them. I've found them all to be VERY useful in helping this old XP pro get used to the new Vista environment.

What Vista version? Windows Home Premium?

Mon Jul 02, 11:24:00 PM GMT+9  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks, Claus. It's way past my bedtime here and I'm still trying to configure the new one to have the same programs, files, etc as our old one. I'm also finding new things on Vista that I've never heard of, like Windows Defender and Rhapsody.

Yes, we have Windows Home Premium. The new system is an HP Pavilion. I'm no computer genius, but I can read this from the box:

E4400 processor
Intel Viiv Technology

2048 MB Memory

400 GB Hard Drive (much better than our old 40GB drive)

DVD Burner with lightScribe

NTSC/ATSC TV tuner

The selling point for me was that it came boxed with a 22" HP w2207 widescreen flat-panel monitor that is absolutely beautiful.

Now, my goal is to see what kind of useless stuff came bundled with the good stuff. I know I won't use MS Works because we already have MS Office 2003 (hesitant to buy 2007 just yet).

My big problem to date is that all the software/driver CDs that I have keep telling me that they don't work with the current version of Windows. So I've been online a lot looking for the most recent versions of things.

Any ideas/help/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

-Mike

Mon Jul 02, 11:34:00 PM GMT+9  
Blogger Claus said...

Hi Japan Years crew.

Lavie is letting me on the laptop -- the Vista one :) -- for a quick post.

These mini-comment boxes of Blogger are just too small! Gotta work out something better for longer comments...

Anywho...

Lightscribe is the "cool" feature where you can flip your cd-writeable disk (only the ones that say "lightscribe") upside down and "burn" a label directly on the disk surface. It is fun, but seems to take a horribly long time to complete...even for simple graphics. Fun to try but not likely to be used regularly...and the disks are more $ than the plain ones.

The system sounds very sweet! I saw some HP flatpanel displays in BestBuy a few weeks ago and they did have very beautiful display quality. I know you will really enjoy them. Bet DVD movies will look great as well on it.

Here are some websites I have in my RSS feeds that specifically have tons of great tips for Vista users. There may be others, but these are the best-of-the-best (to me!):

TweakVista.com - Latest Tweaks & News

ITsVISTA

Windows Vista for Beginners - Windows Vista tutorials

VistaBase

Here are all my posts that are related to GSD Vista Posts. Just in case you find something useful.

Advice: I HIGHLY encourage you to grab a USB 2.0 memory stick (2GB) and use it only as your "ReadyBoost" device for Vista. It won't make an awesome difference, but I can tell a performance increase in using it. See this post for more details: Vista ReadyBoost (or: a Tale of Two Techies)

Firewall: I'm just using the Microsoft Vista firewall that comes with the system for now. If I had to use a different software based Firewall two free ones that are Vista compatible are: PC Tools Firewall Plus 2.0... and ZoneAlarm Free version. I'm waiting for the Comodo or Kerio ones to ship before I stop using the plain Microsoft one.

This post covers some "tweaking" software utilities for Vista: Vista Tweaking Software...all free I wouldn't recommend getting into these just yet...get familiar with Vista first...but these might help you "adjust" it more to your liking.

Drivers: This seems to be the biggest complaint that most Vista adopters have. Frequently, they find their "older" hardware doesn't have good (or any) drivers for Vista. This website tries to track many Vista drivers all in one place: Free Vista Drivers - RadarSync. Best bet is going to just be to try the hardware manufacturer's website.

One last thing: I didn't need to use this myself, but you might want to check it out for transferring programs and files from XP to Vista: Microsoft Download details: Windows Easy Transfer Companion (Beta). "Windows Easy Transfer Companion enables you to automatically transfer your most important programs from your Windows XP-based PC to your new Windows Vista-based PC."

Here is a link with lots of screen-shots of it in use (walkthrough) to give you a taste: Trying out the Windows Easy Transfer Companion Beta

You will need a Easy Transfer Cable (USB) or a home network to make it happen, though. Might be a deal-breaker depending on how things are set up in your home.

Hope something in here helps.

I really do like it and it sounds like a REALLY nice system.

Good Wishes!

Tue Jul 03, 10:37:00 AM GMT+9  
Blogger Darlene Miller said...

I'm really into the jelly juice. Certainly not good for you genki drinks but fun. Hey, look at it this way. It's the drink you eat!

Fri Jul 13, 06:46:00 PM GMT+9  

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