Random Memories #5

As those who know the story of my romantic history from what I've shared on this blog, from late July 1987 to June 1988, my husband and I were conducting a long distance relationship between Tokyo and Pennsylvania via old-style correspondence. I have two enormous photo albums which I put together during our separation as well as a huge box of written correspondence. At the time that I was being sent these things, I could not understand a word of the written Japanese, nor could he.

The albums and letters were in storage for 23 years and I recently have had access to things I had forgotten existed. Looking back at them after my time in Japan provides new insight because now I can read much of what is on the bits of Japanese memorabilia that he sent me. It's very strange knowing now and knowing that I didn't know then.

The above is the paper liner from a tray he got at a McDonald's in 1987. He wrote a letter to me on the back of it which indicated that he felt this was an option to choose different flavors of shakes, but I think now that it was about having the option to mix and match flavors. The interesting thing to me is not that they offered this type of shake as it's pretty mundane (well, except for the melon flavor, which is not all that common in Western countries). It's interesting to note that the price of a shake hasn't changed in the last 23 years. They were about 200 or so yen then and they still are now, barring any sales. 

Will Miss #439 - McDonald's weird burgers

A "sakura teritama" burger. It's a ginger teriyaki pork burger with lemon sauce. The "sakura" part doesn't mean it's stuffed with cherry blossoms, but rather that there's a pale pink sauce which is supposedly infused with sakura flavor and it's like biting into spring. I'm not sure what spring tastes like, but there you go.

I try hard not to think something is strange because it suits Japanese culture, but not others. This is why I'm not clapping my hands together in girlish glee or extolling the adventurous nature of Japanese sweets and their supposedly "exotic" flavor. Peanut butter ice cream would be exotic in Japan. Kinako ice cream would be exotic in America. Both have fairly similar tastes and neither is exotic in each respective culture. That being said, McDonald's in Japan always came up with weird and strangely named burgers for their various promotions. I have numerous pictures of signs showing such offerings. Many of them, like a pasta croquette burger composed of cooked elbow pasta in a cream sauce, formed into some sort of mutant blob, breaded, and then deep-fried, are bizarre even by Japanese standards.

Though I never ate them (as I don't like fast food), I always got a kick out of the bizarre burgers that McDonald's Japan offered, and I'll miss seeing them.