Japan Exclusives: Pepsi Salty Watermelon

So this was actually a summer limited edition but I don’t actually like watermelon so it has been sitting in my fridge for months as I couldn’t face tasting it. However, it goes out of date in January so I thought I’d  gather all my strength and try it. First impressions are not bad actually. I’m quite surprised. It’s not really sweet and I expected a much stronger salty taste. To be honest I can’t really taste the salt at all….. I wouldn’t buy this again (since I don’t like watermelon) but I would recommend it to others if Pepsi comes out with this flavour next summer.

Japan Exclusives: Pepsi White ‘Snow Mikan’

Japan is the land of special editions and this winter Pepsi has come out with a new limited flavour  ’Snow Mikan’. Mikan is also known in English as ‘satsuma’ so basically it is an orange flavoured soda. I was a little worried tasting this as I thought it might be the usual ‘pepsi with a hint of the special flavour’ but it is actually all orange. It’s not too sweet, actually very nice and the packaging is cute. I would buy it again.

English Boards 9

My November English Board: Guy Fawkes / Bonfire Night themed. I’m a bit late with uploading these pictures considering I’ll soon be changing it for a Christmas board but better late than never!

Guy Fawkes English Board

Closer on left side

Closer on right side

I might have gone a little bit crazy with glitter glue….maybe…

 

 

 

Japan Exclusives: Calpis Soda Salty Lemon (and the normal Calpis)

So I’m actually not sure if you can even get this any more because I tried it in the summer but I’ve been so lax with my blog posts recently that I’ve only just got around to hitting the  ’publish’ button on this post!

Unsurprisingly this purchase was another one of those ‘Emily does not read anything properly before buying it’ moments. I had mentioned to a friend that I had never tried the popular Japanese soft drink ‘Calpis’ mainly because it was white and the name sounds like ‘cow piss’ so I didn’t find it appealing. She mentioned that it tasted like yoghurt so I thought I would give it a go. However instead of the normal Calpis I managed to buy not only the soda version, but also the salty lemon flavoured soda version. I fail at paying attention in shops.

Look at the massive letters that say ‘Calpis Soda’…how did I miss that?!

I’ve heard that many people don’t like this flavour but I think it’s really nice. It was  a bit like lemon yoghurt and I couldn’t really taste any salt at all. It was fizzy but not hugely so (like say Coke..). The idea of fizzy yoghurt seems really wrong but I did like it a lot! I would buy it again if it comes out next summer.

I decided since my first attempt to buy Calpis was such a fail that I would try again….and buy the normal Calpis (at least I hope this is the normal one!!).

‘Calpis Water’

This was plain yoghurt flavoured but it was actually really sweet. I would compare the taste to eating yoghurt flavoured candy.  I actually found this more bizarre than the soda version as it was like drinking watered down yoghurt. It was ok but I probably wouldn’t buy it again.

Japan Exclusives: Fanta Strawberry Cream Soda

Latest Fanta flavour in Japan: Strawberry Cream Soda

I saw this at the supermarket the other day and I had to get it. I didn’t really expect to like it but it’s actually really really nice. It’s very sweet but it’s not overpowering. It tastes kind of like those strawberry and cream boiled sweets that you can get. Two thumbs up from me!

English Boards 8

Latest English Board for Halloween

Bad quality picture but I forgot my camera so I only had my phone at school. I’ve seen lots of students looking at this board so I am really happy with it!

English Boards 7

New school, new English Board. This time I’m the only ALT so I’m having to do them all by myself. The postition of the board isn’t quite as good as my last school either. At the last school it was huge, right by the entrance and next to the club notice board so every student who needed to check if they had club activities (almost everyone) couldn’t avoid seeing it. This time it’s opposite the staffroom but a little bit away from the entrance the kids use. However it does mean the staff can’t avoid seeing it so I’ve been getting lots of comments from them so far!

Welcome English Board – my first English Board at my new school

I’ve got it split into sections:

-  Light blue is the banner. I’m using the school’s nickname rather than its actual name here, it means ‘bamboo wind’ apparently since there is lots of bamboo near the school and it’s on the top of a mountain so I guess it’s pretty windy! Actually making this board has been really difficult due to the fact that I’ve had to lay out lots of little bits of paper but they kept being blown away by the fans and wind coming through the open windows (35C and no air-con!) . Eventually I just blu-tacked everything in place until I had it all sorted and then glued it down. Some of the other teachers joined me today near the windows (there are some big desks there) as they were marking tests but unfortunately all their papers went flying!

- Dark blue is my self-introduction. I didn’t want to put too much information there since I’m having to do 50minutes worth of self-intro in each class but my lovely sister suggested I compare Sendai and my home island (I can’t say ‘hometown’) of Shetland. I think it turned out pretty well. I was also a little free with the truth when it came to my hobbies because I didn’t have too many pictures of me doing things.

-Yellow is my ‘Did you know?’ section. I’m planning to put a different fact every month. This month it was about which countries have English as an official language.

- Orange is my Genki section. Genki is a magazine made by some of the other assistants here in Sendai so since I had some extra space I thought it would be a good place to show it.