shut up and let me see your jazz hands

1. Did everything on my to-do list LIKE A BOSS.

2. A few days ago Irene noted that I sounded super quiet on Facetime and she could barely hear me. We assumed it was a bad connection or something, but tonight I randomly decided to play with the voice posts thingy and that was super quiet, too, so I was like ughhhhhh fuck is something wrong with my ipod??? Even though I bought it less than a year ago (though it's probably almost a year now, because it was an early birthday present), it was refurbished and not through Apple, so it didn't have a full year warranty, so if I have to take it to get fixed, it's not free. Bluh. Plus I don't want to waste time going to the Apple Store.

So I googled and after a lot of results that were not at all what I was looking for, finally found a thread that sounded similar and people suggested cleaning out the microphone hole with a toothbrush bristle or the round end of a needle. I tried poking at it with a toothbrush, but that did nothing, so I tried a needle and that got out quite a bit of stuff. I realised that the microphone hole is actually supposed to be quite a bit deeper than it was. Apparently it was filled almost to level with pocket grit. >_< Oops. So now it's better. I tested it with the voice memo.

3. I've gotten a lot accomplished and am tiredish, so hopefully if I go to bed now I can get to sleep without too much trouble. (I have work in the morning.) If not, I can always come home and nap afterwards.

4. I had a super delicious snack today! edamame cheese flavor Jagariko. *_* (Jagariko is a type of stick-shaped potato snack. Sort of like shoestring potatoes, but thicker than that.) Even on sale it's $1.98 for a tiny pack, though, so I probably won't be buying too many, but omg so good. SO GOOD. *_*

5. I got caught up on Korra!

Oishisa Hyakkei Shouga Senbei are the ginger senbei I mentioned the other day. I ended up buying another package of them so I could review them (and also because they are SO delicious).

Oishisa Hyakkei is a company that makes a ton of traditional snacks, and as such, their packaging is nothing exciting, relying on the fact that everybody already knows what these are and they don't need to sell the idea of them. But the package is also clear on the bottom half, so you can see exactly what's inside.

Whenever I see this sort of senbei in the store, I always think they look kind of like large, thick Frosted Flakes. The crackers are pretty much the same texture and flavor as fortune cookies, but coated with a strong ginger flavor. They're nice and crunchy and basically if you like ginger, you will like them.

The package claims there are three servings in it, but I have ended up eating the whole thing at once both times. ^_^;; Unlike the other snacks I've been buying, this wasn't on sale and at $1.98 for this small bag, it's really not something I should be buying often, so I will probably not get it again unless it goes on sale (alas).

I've decided to try something new at work at least once a week. The problem is it's often tempting to buy something and eat it there at work when I'm hungry, and then I can't review it. -_-;; Anyway, rather than doing them in batches as I usually do, I think I'll just post each review separately.

(Also I really need to change the tags from candy to snacks, because I definitely want to review things that are not sweet...like today's!)


These Ikameshi Corn Snacks are made by Frito Lay, but alas, not something that will ever see the light of day in the US outside of import shops! People here don't seem to go for seafood-flavored snacks for some reason.

If you can't tell from the name or the packaging, these are squid-flavored crisps. They're not just plain squid-flavored, but squid with some sort of sauce (as seen in the picture), and the flavor is based on an ekiben (train lunch) from the town of Mori.

The crisps are made of puffed corn and are very crunchy. The flavor is, in a word, delicious. It's a strong squid flavor but I can also taste whatever the sauce is supposed to be. The package claims that compared to last year, they have 1.5 times as much squid powder to better approximate the flavor of the ekiben. I believe it! It's definitely not just a generic squid flavor. The one thing I don't like about them is they're very, very salty. I like salty things, but these are a bit on the too-salty side for me.

For an imported snack, they were pretty cheap. On sale for 98 cents. There are two servings per bag, but I ate a whole bag for lunch. :p After work, I bought another two bags (one of which I opened tonight to review) because I liked them so much.

This box of twelve truffles is a little pricey for See's. Usually they charge by the pound, same price for any candy, but this was $18, which is $2 more than a pound box, yet you get way fewer chocolates (the size on the box says 11.2 oz). Still, I had a gift certificate for a one-pound box, so I only had to pay the $2 difference, so I figured it was a good chance to try them, since they don't sell any of these flavors separately.

( Cut for large pics )

I have had these collecting for months and months (at least since late last year sometime) and just never felt like editing and uploading photos. So 3W4DW seeemed like a good time to get off my ass and do that.

It's almost all US stuff this time, except for some chips from the British import shop and one Japanese Kit Kat. Oh, and some cookies Julie sent me from New Zealand. I think the bulk of these are from the 99 Cent Store, which always seems to have some interesting snacks.

I also decided to upload the photos to flickr this time instead of my website, and created a set for them (and future reviews).

( Cut for lots of pics )

I've been writing reviews and photographing stuff as I buy it lately, since I noticed I was really unlikely to review anything unless I bought a whole bunch of candy/snacks at one time, which doesn't happen that often. So tonight I got a few more things from the 99 Cent Store and it seemed like I had more than enough for a post. Doing it little by little made it all seem like a lot less work, too, which was nice. :D

( A random collection of things, mainly from Japanese shops and the 99 Cent Store )

It's been ages since I've done a candy post. I've had a couple new things recently, so today when we went to the 99 Cent Store, I deliberately looked for anything else that might be fun to review (they always seem to have an oddball selection), and found several things.

( Mostly US stuff, but one Japanese one! )

When I was editing the photos from our walk, I finally decided to edit all the candy photos I had sitting around, too. This is mainly stuff from Germany and Australia, with one lone Japanese one we got recently at Mitsuwa.

( Australian candy! )

( German candy! )

( Japanese candy! )

So here's pics and reviews of the stuff kakeochi_umai sent us, as well as some other stuff I had around the house. I think I sized my pictures smaller than usual this time, oops.

( A bunch of wacky Japanese KitKats and some other stuff. )

I am also doing some giveaways along with the usual reviews, as 1. I am trying not to eat as much candy these days, and 2. some of it was not to my tastes. If you are interested in the Tropical Fruit Aero and/or the Kinako KitKat, just email me at megchan@gmail.com with your address and I will send you a couple pieces (specify which you want, or if you want both, that's fine, too). I also have a limited number of Salt & Caramel KitKats I will be giving away (I liked those quite a bit, but I don't think I want the whole bag of them around), so if you want one of the other two and are also interested these, lemme know and I'll add one in. Last but not least, although I love them to death, there's the whole trying not to eat as much candy thing, so I am giving away one Cherry Mash. I am willing to ship outside of the US, since they're small and shipping won't be that much, except for the Cherry Mash, which is heavier, so US only for that. First come, first served.