Takoyaki and the first part of Fanime loot

To start things off, Summer is around the corner. This means that candies that I normally would be able to write about are melting. This is not cool. I went into my trunk the other day to find that some of my candy bars had literally liquified. Since then, I have moved them into various hiding places at work and at home. The problem is when it's hot, ants begin to come out. I need to find places where they won't attack my candy.

Anyway, the first item I'm going to write about is something I've read about and have seen in Japanese movies, but I've never had a chance to try it. Takoyaki, or as I call them, octopus balls, are I guess bits of octopus cut up, put into a batter, cooked, and then sauces and shaved bonito flakes are drizzled over the ball. I had a chance yesterday when I went I went to Mitsuwa Market and they had a stand. At roughly $7 for 8 balls, I have no idea what kind of deal I was getting. I did know that this would be a good time to at least try them.

Sorry for the flash from my camera, but I was surprised that these came in a very nice looking box. On the top there is a picture of an octopus which shows what you're about to eat

This looks pretty messy

The inside of a ball

I don't know what takoyaki is supposed to taste like, but I liked these. They were slightly sweet and savory. The texture was a bit soft; the only part that I really had to chew was when I got to the octopus. The only way I can describe it is it's kind of like the inside of a dumpling or something. I don't know how to really describe it, but that's the best I could do. In short, it was good.

Takoyaki: 4/5

It's been a week since I was at Fanime and I haven't written about the things I got there yet. It's partly because I've only tried a few things. Well this is the first item I'm going to write about:

According to my friend, Karina, there are three gum balls in here. Two of them have a sweet filling while one of them has a very sour filling. I wish I could do what she said and somehow put all the sour ones in one packet and give them to my students

Here they are lined up in a tray

This was basically very good grape flavored gum. I wish they gave you more than three in a packet, but whatcha gonna do? Anyway, I didn't get the sour one, my friend Peter did. There's nothing special about the gum, other than the fact that it's like playing Minesweeper or Russian Roulette. Overall, it's a very good gum, but they only give you three per packet, so you might be better off getting something that has better value.

1/3 Sour Grape Gum: 3/5