Japan Australia June on Instagram

June was another busy month for Japan Australia with lots of travel and some great photos of various places around Japan. The following pictures below were our favourite for the month of June 2013. I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to leave a comment below letting us know which was your favourite.

A great way to cool down during summer in Japan is a boat ride on a lake

The Hydrangeas (Ajisai) are starting to bloom at home

A beautiful Gifu sunset from the balcony at home

Awesome sky in Gifu

A local shrine in the Fujiwara area of Inabe in Mie Prefecture

The beautiful mountains around Inabe City in Mie Prefecture

Which picture do you like the best? Please leave a comment below.

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Tanabata Star Festival

Tanabata (七夕), also known as the “Star Festival” takes place every year on the 7th day of the 7th month here in Japan. In Japanese, Tanabata (七夕) means; 七 = seventh 夕= evening, or evening of the seventh. The Japanese festival originates from Chinese legend, and celebrates the meeting of the two stars, Altair and Vega. According to the legend, the Milky Way, a river of stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunisolar calendar. It is a fabulous story!

The date of Tanabata varies depending on the region of Japan and is usually held at either July 7th or August 7th. The celebration is held at night and colourful Tanabata Festivals are held across Japan. One of the biggest and most famous is the Tanabata Festivals of Hiratsuka near Tokyo in July and Sendai in August.

A popular Tanabata custom in Japan is to write wishes on small pieces of coloured paper (tanzaku) and hang them on a specially decorated bamboo trees or branches in hope that the wish will come true. The bamboo trees or branches are usually placed in the backyard or entrances of houses and are set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day.

Tanzaku ~ small pieces of coloured paper with wishes on them

Google Japan even joined in the Tanabata celebrations

This year to celebrate Tanabata we enjoyed some Japanese snacks called Koala no March, which released a limited edition Tanabata version.

Lotte Koala no March ~ Tanabata version

Featuring different Tanabata Koala's

Special Tanabata edition packaging

The koala's all lined up to be eaten on Tanabata

Quarter Pounder Jewelry Premium Burgers

McDonald’s Japan revealed this week that it will offer a special series of premium burgers called “Quarter Pounder Jewelry Burgers” for a limited time in July. Each burger will be priced at 1000 yen (USD$10.00) and will be sold at all outlets across Japan for just one day. The first burger was available today (July 6th) with the next on July 13th followed by July 20th.

You may remember that McDonald’s Japan only just recently launched the Premium Quarter Pounder Burgers with the Quarter Pounder BLT and Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato.

The first Jewelry Premium Burger went on sale today (July 6th) and was the Golden Ring Burger featuring thick-cut smokey bacon, pineapple, beef patty, Monterey Jack cheese and fruity barbecue sauce.

The Golden Ring Quarter Pounder Burger

Next on the list is the Black Diamond Burger on July 13th, featuring a black truffle sauce, Emmental cheese, and grilled mushrooms and onions.

The last will be the Ruby Spark Burger on July 20th, featuring chorizo, avocado and pepper jack cheese.

The burgers cost 1000 yen (USD$10.00) with no French fries or soft drink, which can be added for an extra 200 yen (USD$2.00).

You will need to hurry as these have been very popular and the Golden Ring Burger was sold out around lunch time at a lot of outlets around Japan.

Japan Australia was intrigued by these new burgers, so headed out today to track down the Golden Ring Quarter Pounder Burger.

The Golden Ring Quarter Pounder Burger

The Golden Ring Burger is served up in a special jewelry box container and bag with ribbon. We felt like we had just made a purchase at Tiffany’s or something! It certainly is a luxurious start to a meal and made us feel very special. It was only available today and was sold out quite quickly so we had a little difficultly tracking one down, but managed to do it after a few stops.

The burger comes in a special jewelry bag with ribbon

Jewelry box container with the burger inside

Tip: You better hurry in on July 13th if you want to try the Black Diamond Burger.

The Golden Ring Burger features thick-cut smokey bacon, a slice of grilled pineapple, a decent size beef patty, Monterey Jack cheese and a fruity barbecue sauce with more than 10 different spices. These are all contained with a crunchy bun topped with poppy seeds.

How does it taste?

We were very happy with the taste and it was one of the best burgers we’ve had this year anywhere. The first thing we noticed was the thick cut smokey bacon, followed by the sweet pineapple which compliments the fruity barbecue sauce perfectly, and keeps the beef patty nice and moist. We also really liked the bun that was soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Some people will say that 1000 yen is too expensive for a burger. Yes, it probably is, but when you factor in the whole experience it was very worthwhile in my book. Already looking forward to the Black Diamond Burger next week.

Featuring thick-cut bacon, pineapple and fruity barbecue sauce

A medium size set will cost 1200 yen (USD$12.00)

McDonald’s Japan Website

Premium Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s Japan

McDonald’s Japan has just released some new premium quarter pounder burgers to its menu. The burgers will have 150% more burger patty than regular burgers on the menu and will come in two types: The Quarter Pounder BLT and the Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato. The Quarter Pounder BLT combines the famous BLT sandwich with McDonald’s own Quarter Pounder Burger. While the Quarter Pounder Habanero Burger is designed to offer you a harmony of deep flavour and delicious spice.

The burgers went on sale across Japan on June 24th and will be available only for a limited time.

Premium Quarter Pounder BLT and Habanero Poster

McDonald's have also used the famous Japanese soccer player, Keisuke Honda to help promote the new premium quarter pounders, with the slogan "Bite". I guess he can't wait to sink his teeth into one of these new premium burgers.

Keisuke Honda promoting the Premium Quarter Pounder campaign

Bite into the new Premium Quarter Pounder Keisuke

The Quarter Pounder BLT Burger includes a 100% beef patty, smokey crispy bacon, cheese, fresh lettuce and tomato, a lemon flavoured sauce as well as a mustard sauce. It is available for 520 yen (USD$5.20) in Gifu. This makes it the most expensive burger McDonald’s has ever offered here in Japan at over 500 yen.

The Quarter Pounder BLT Burger

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato includes a 100% beef patty, fresh lettuce, onion and tomato, cheese and a spicy sauce made from the habanero chilli pepper. It is available for 480 yen (USD$4.80) in Gifu. This is definitely the fiery partner of the BLT with lots of heat and spice.

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato Burger

These burgers being promoted as premier burgers lead Japan Australia to McDonald’s to give them a try. We do love our premium/gourmet burgers after all.

What did we think?

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato – the spice hits you straight away and is a nice sensation that keeps you coming back for more.

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato Burger even has a fancy box

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato opened up

A close up of the Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato

The Quarter Pounder BLT – very filling compared to both the regular Quarter Pounder and the Habanero with a lot more ingredients. It comes with lots of sauce and the patty is nice and juicy. Definitely our favourite of the two burgers.

The Quarter Pounder BLT Burger with its fancy box

The Quarter Pounder BLT opened up - you can really see the size of it

A close up the of Quarter Pounder BLT Burger

McDonald’s Japan website 

Check out the other McDonald’s burgers in Japan we have tried in 2013:

• Golden Burger Week – BBQ Beef and BBQ Chicken
• TeriTama Burger
• Texas Burger
• Pork Tatsuta

Pocky Japanese Biscuit Stick

Pocky (ポッキー) is a Japanese biscuit stick produced by Ezaki Glico. Pocky made its debut in 1966 and the original Pocky was a biscuit stick coated in chocolate. The original was followed by almond in 1971 and strawberry in 1977. Today there are many different flavours of Pocky in Japan including chocolate, almond, strawberry, milk, chocolate mousse, green tea, honey and banana. Pocky is extremely popular in Japan especially among teenagers and young adults. It has also spread to other East Asian nations and has a significant presence in both South Korea and China. It has just started becoming popular in Western countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Pocky can be found in dozens of varieties as mentioned above. Some of the more unusual flavours include seasonal flavours such as honey (spring) and kiwifruit mango (summer). There are also regional versions of Pocky including grape (Nagano), yubari melon (Hokkaido), tangerine (Kyushu), azuki bean (Kyoto) and Kobe wine (Kobe).

Special variations of Pocky also sometimes appear and these include “Decorer Pocky” (features extra decorative icing), “Men’s Pocky” (a dark bitter chocolate version), “Mousse Pocky” (mousse like icing that is thick and creamy) “Dessert Pocky” (features sticks covered in cream), and Pocky Midi (shorter, stubbier version).

Pocky even has its own National Day, Pocky Day, which is November 11th (11-11). The event is held on November 11th as the date (11-11) resembles four sticks of Pocky.

Pocky Chocolate

The original and still the best in my opinion with a rich delicious milk chocolate coating.

Pocky Chocolate Snoopy Special

Pocky Chocolate

Pocky Chocolate Biscuit Sticks

Pocky Tsubu Tsubu Strawberry

A flavour boost from the original strawberry with pieces of dried strawberry and very addictive.

Pocky Tsubu Tsubu Strawberry 

Pocky Tsubu Tsubu Strawberry Packet

Pocky Tsubu Tsubu Strawberry Biscuit Sticks

Here are some of the recent editions of Pocky we at Japan Australia have tried:

Pocky Matcha Cream

One of my new favourites is matcha cream. Slightly bitter but the cream adds a nice sweet balance.

Pocky Matcha Cream

Pocky Matcha Cream Packet

Pocky Matcha Cream Biscuit Sticks

Pocky Star Wars

A collaboration with Star Wars to produce these limited edition Star Wars Giant Pocky. They come in two different boxes and feature three flavours, Strawberry, Kyoho Grape and Matcha Green Tea. Read all about them on my Star Wars Pocky post.

Front Cover Star Wars Pocky

The Star Wars Pocky Lightsabers come individually wrapped

Star Wars Pocky Strawberry

Pocky Panda ~ Cookies & Cream

Pocky Panda is a limited edition Panda inspired Pocky. The flavour is cookies and cream and the biscuit stick is made with cocoa. The topping is really sweet and features white chocolate cream with specks of real crunchy chocolate cookie.

Pocky Panda with a cute panda on the box

The packaging has cute pandas printed all over it

The biscuit sticks with a creamy topping and real pieces of cookie

Fuyu no Kuchidoke Pocky

A new Winter Pocky in Japan ~ Fuyu no Kuchidoke! Winter Chocolate Pocky with Fine Chocolate. It has a stronger chocolate flavour than normal Pocky with the outside coated in powdered cocoa. Hurry it is limited edition!

Fuyo no Kuchidoke Pocky 

MORE POCKY FLAVOURS TO COME.....

What is your favourite Pocky?

Matcha Japanese Green Tea

As an avid Japanese tea fan and also the founder of a matcha green tea company, Zen Green Tea, I always have people asking me what matcha is and why it holds such a special place in Japanese culture. There is a bit of a matcha craze at the moment- big multinational companies are using matcha to produce everything from KitKats, Starbucks frappes to French macaron. America features a growing matcha market with Dr Oz and Oprah all shouting its health benefits from the rooftop.

So how is matcha actually different from standard green tea? Well first off the production of the two teas is vastly different. The green tea plants chosen to be used for matcha (typically the healthiest plants in a harvest) are covered with shade cloths for weeks at the end of the harvest. This makes the plants work harder for sunlight so it turbo charges their levels of chlorophyll and nutrients. Only the finest leaves on the top of the plants are hand picked, oven baked and rapidly stone ground into an ultra fine, jade green powder. Normal green tea uses the leaves at the middle- bottom of the tea plants which are then steamed, rolled and dried. This process destroys a lot of the amino acids and ECGC catechins well known for cancer prevention and anti-aging.

A small amount of matcha powder (2 grams) can then be added to hot water and finally whisked with a bamboo whisk forming a stunning green tea. With matcha you are consuming the whole tea leaf dissolved in water. As a result matcha is a powerhouse of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

So what are some of the health benefits of matcha? Scientific studies highlight that it helps people lose weight through increasing the amount of energy your body burns, it also suppresses appetite and helps block the absorption of fat in your large intestine so you excrete the fat Vs storing it. Matcha has also been linked to inhibiting a percentage of the neural cell death in those suffering Alzheimer’s Disease. Many studies are linking it to inhibiting the growth of tumours and preventing cancer. You can find the links to the scientific studies on my website. If you are interested in joining the matcha lifestyle just make sure you buy premium Japanese matcha that is bright green in colour. This indicates freshness while Japan also employs incredibly clean and sustainable farming processes.

Article contributed by Erin Young who is the founder of Zen Green Matcha Tea - a premium matcha green tea powder brand in Australia. To find out more information you can visit her website Zen Green Matcha Tea.