Welcome back to Calgary, AB, CAN, where I recieved my second loot box from Aileen. Guilty as charged: I was not at home again to receive the package, but for good reason (I was touring a dog hotel for when I’m off to Japan in May 2019). Plus, it’s spring, and who doesn’t want to be outside?!? Last time, I had to snow plow my way to the post office, so I’m quite thankful all that snow is gone this time around. Within the city, almost all the snow was gone, but there were still a bit up in the mountains (the mountain-ous photos are taken in Banff, AB, ~1.5 hours drive from YYC), which is where I was at.
As for this blog post, I’m not going to extensively review everything in the box, as most of it is food, so the photos here are simply to tempt you! I also made a promise to myself that I will write up a blog post about whatever I receive in the loot box (or any travel destination I go to, regardless of distance from home). Additionally, I feel the obligation to at least show and share my experiences, regardless of what it is. Please keep reading/viewing!
As usual, I always like to tease the contents of the loot box on Facebook and Instagram, and this time was no exception. Everything came in pretty good condition, so no worries there. My personal preference would be to always have extra packaging material, but since cost of goods nowadays is expensive, I’m not to complain. Plus, nothing was damaged (95% of it is going in my stomache anyway!). As you may have noticed, everything is from Japan, as that’s where Aileen recently visited, so it’s Japanese-themed box (hint: I will be there very soon, so look out for my Japan travelling blog!).
First up are the Doraemon corn sticks. If you tasted Cheetos, this tastes very similar to that, except it’s not made of artificial cheese flavouring. I also got Pikachu-shaped chcolate-flavoured pops, which tastes exactly like Kellogg’s Corn Pops, but chocolate flavoured, and would taste great when eaten like cereal mixed with milk. Since it only came in a small package, I simply ate it up as a snack.
Next up, I got a bunch of candy; namely, grape-flavoured gummies (very similar to gummy bears), milk candy (similar to to the Chinese Rabbit-branded candy), and chocolate pudding candy (seems like I’m getting spoiled with chocolate…). Of course, I didn’t eat all of it in one sitting as I’d probably get sick, although I enjoyed all of it.
MOAR CHOCOLATES! The one in the red box are white chocolate coated strawberries by Frantz, which makes me feel less guilty since I’m also eating my share of fruits. Same with the chocolate covered chips (potatoes count as tuber vegetables, right?!). I also got Bourborn Alfort’s chocolate biscuits, which were very tasty, especially when they are dark chocolate. Last but not least, I got some biscuits that were filled with white chocolate, which are specialty chocolates from Hokkaido. This is probably my favorite treat aside from the chocolate strawberries.
Second to last, I got a DIY chocolate kinaki mochi kit, and exactly like it sounds, you can have a chocolate paste topping, or a kinaki topping, or you can have the best of both worlds on your mochi. All you need to do is add water to the mochi tablets to make them soft, then use the provided fork to dip it in either the chocolate or the kinaki. This kind of reminds me of the sticky ramune candy in Aileen’s YouTube video “Trying Japanese Candy + Snacks: Tokyo Treat Unboxing & Taste Test” (starting at 12m 13s). This is probably the only time I am ever allowed to play with my food, which makes me feel like a kid again ;)
Lastly of all the treats, we have nortima furikake with seaweed and egg. Basically, it’s a dry rice seasoning, similar to salt and pepper. After trying this out, it reminds me of soy sauce mixed with rice because of its slightly salty taste, which I used to eat a lot of when I was a kid. It brings back good memories, so I still enjoy it now, despite having too much salt isn’t good for you. Regardless, it is really easy to make and is a decent substitute if you were rushed in packing a lunch or dinner box. Conveniently, I was also given an origami chopstick holder, so I quickly put it to good use.
Last but not least is the Tokyo: Capital of Cool by Rob Goss book, which introduces literally everything about Tokyo in short, from the local festivities, architecture, different districts like Akihabara (Electric Town), side trips, and many other things around Tokyo. Just Tokyo itself is home to ~13 million people, not including the neighbouring districts, which means there is 13x more things to do than YYC! So, if you’re looking for something to do when you first arrive, this is the ultimate condensed travel mini-guide to Tokyo.
This is it! I hope you enjoyed finding out about March’s loot box. The next one will not be posted until probably May or June, as I will be away in mid-May to early June and there are some postal issues that are being resolved. So, a May/June unboxing review would be the workaround. Until then, stay tuned for other posts, or you can follow me on Instagram on my travels. Until next time!
P.S.: Don’t eat on top of your computer like I did (I always have a hard time cleaning up…)