2019-7-29 月

What’s UP JAPAN! 7/28 ONAIR

What’s Up Japan 7/28/2019

It’s summertime here in Japan! But this year has been a rainy summer, a very wet July. It’s not just the rainy season where the air seems to hang with moisture, but real rain pouring down. I feel bad for the people running the Umi No Ie, the cafes and restaurants on the beaches. Rain means no customers, and they only have two months to operate, July and August.
Summertime drinks in Japan.
Here’s an interesting drink that you can only get in Japan. It is called RAMUNE. It is their take on the American standard lemonade. The bottle has a marble for the cap. Yes, a marble. You push it in and there is a constriction on the bottle that keeps the marble from dropping to the bottom of the bottle. The bottles used to be made of glass so you could hear it clinking around as you drink the RAMUNE. These days the bottles are made of plastic so sadly, it doesn’t clink anymore.

The clinking used to remind me of the Japanese wind chimes called fuurin, those sound was very calling

Japan always seems to have some kind of food boom, and tight now it is Bubble Tea. It’s basically sweet iced milk tea, except that there are tapioca balls at the bottom of the cup.

The tapioca balls at the bottom are made with brown sugar so they are very, very sweet. I think one of the great things about this drink is the straw. The straws are very big, so that you can suck up the tapioca from the bottom as you drink, and since the straws are cut at an angle, it’s very easy to suck up the tapioca along with the tea.