Going on Vacation - Bring Me Back A KitKat!

I have to admit that I really like KitKat chocolate bars, not so much because they are a chocolate bar, but because they aren't.

But here in Canada, we don't get too much of a variety. Yes, they are in different sizes and occasionally I can find them made with dark chocolate or even in a chunky format - and even though there was a March 22, 2013 warning that the Chunky bars could contain plastic bits (health warning!) - I still love the darn things.

But in Japan... they do thing differently. The Japanese distributors of KitKat provide variety - perhaps too much variety - but they provide variety nonetheless.

Because the Japanese love to (or have to) bring back omiyage - souvenir gifts whenever they travel for family, friends, and co-workers, there's a whole Japanese industry out there.

I'm unsure who came up with the concept of omiyage - to me it's a right royal pain in the ass to have to - and I mean HAVE TO - bring presents back when one is already traveling on limited budget, but the folks at Nestlé have come up with a nice light snack alternative that may actually be light on the pocket book for the weary cash-strapped traveler.

Yes - if you are traveling about Japan, you can now pick up local flavor and varieties of KitKat chocos as gifts.

Some of the special KitKat bars for the different parts of Japan, include:

• The Tochiotome - a type of strawberry grown in the Tochigi-ken area. I must admit that I never had a Tochigi strawberry;
• The Amao - another strawberry type grown in the Okinawa and Kyushu area;
• The Beni-imo -purple sweet potato - I've eaten this sweet potato and it is one of the most delicious and sweet things I have EVER eaten! - from the Okinawa and Kyushu area;
• The Zunda - creamy edamame soy bean paste from the Tohoku region;
• Strawberry cheese cake - from the Yokohama area;
• Wasabi - why is this a flavor - from the Tokai area;
• Azuki red bean sandwich - from the Tokai area;
• Eitaro Kuromitsu - brown sugar syrup - Tokyo area;
• Rum raisin - Tokyo area;
• Maccha - green tea made for Kyoto;
• Hoji-cha - Roasted green tea made by Kyoto’s tea makers - Kyoto is famous for its tea-making;
• Yatsuhashi - cinnamon-flavored cookie for the Kyoto area;
• Iyokan -a sour citrus fruit (a bit sweeter than a grapefruit) grown in and for the Shikoku area;
• Le lectier - a smooth textured pear with a high quality fragrance (originally from Niigata) grown in and for the Koshinetsu area - how the hell do you have a pear with the letters "L" in it when there is no letter "L" in the Japanese fricking alphabet - and there are three fricking alphabets??!!;
• Blueberry cheese cake for the Koshinetsu area;
• Apple - for the Koshinetsu area;
• Ichimi - a Japanese red chilli pepper for the Koshinetsu area;

YES - Tochigi-ken is an important prefecture. Why? Because that's where Matthew and I taught English for three years (more for Matthew, who taught privately after the JET Programme finished for us).

Nestlé has also created special seasonal KitKat bars:

• Maccha - Green tea flavor, though I am at a loss as to what season it is for - winter?
• KitKat with messages written on each bar to cheer on students - what? Like study hard or be a miserable loser and never get into a good university and embarrass your father so that he himself can never progress farther thanks to you being a failure? - I wish I knew more about this.

And, there is a special Sweetness for Adult series (Otono no Amasa) featuring a Dark Chocolate and a White Chocolate.

I can see all of these being quite popular in omiyage mad Japan, not to mention greedy bastards like myself who have an obsessive personality to want to try everything at least once - I just don't like being left out.

Still, this is a Japan-only kind of thing, so once again, your less than humble host is being left out. Sorry Rudolph, you can't play in our reindeer games.

While I admit to being less than wowed by all of these damn KitKat strawberry varieties - how different can it taste under the chocolate? - and the same goes for these stupid spicy hot concoctions like wasabi or ichimi - I would like to try at least one strawberry flavor and see how it stacks up to a North American variety I CAN find here. As well, I would like to try the sweet potato and read bean varieties - as I do have a sweet tooth. Just one. That's all that's left after all the dental work and diabetes. Kidding, of course. Though I do have to be careful with the amount of sweets I eat - which sucks, being such a sweet guy covered in chocolate.

Oh well. I guess I'll just have to make do with some chocolate Pez.

Cheers
Andrew Joseph