The Japanese are indeed different.

1) Mainichi Daily News: Japan's cuisine reaches sublime heights and squid-flavored chocolate lows

Without doubt, Japan has one of the richest culinary cultures on the planet. Having said that, though, Japan doesn't always get it right when it comes to foods, as Josei Jishin (4/4) discovers this week.

Take Genghis Khan-flavored caramel candies. What the hell is Genghis Khan flavor? It's a lamb and vegetable-filled crock-pot dish originally from the northern island prefecture of Hokkaido. And it's that same lamb and veggie mix being used to flavor caramel candies, produced by a company called, without irony I'm sure, Sapporo Gourmet Foods.

"We sell about 170,000 to 180,000 boxes a month. At first, we only sold them at tourist spots like airports within Hokkaido," a spokesman for the self-professed purveyors of gourmet fare tells Josei Jishin. "We got so many inquiries about them, though, we decided to put them on sale nationwide at Hokkaido specialty stores that can be found throughout Japan."

If candies named after a brutal, barbaric conqueror don't tempt your taste buds, perhaps salted butter-flavored or seaweed-flavored candies may be better. Or, Sapporo Beer-flavored candies -- also produced in Hokkaido -- may do the trick.

"They taste a little bit like amazake (sweet sake, rice-flavored wine). The smell, though, is more like the dregs of a beer bottle left out overnight. What's more, these candies are going out of production and sales will be limited to whatever's left," Kenma Yonebayashi, an expert on Japan's freak foods, tells Josei Jishin. "If you can't get some of the candies, perhaps beer flavored chocolate could be a suitable alternative. They've managed to maintain the awful taste of the beer candies in a move that appears to have been intentional."

Perhaps squid-flavored chocolate will, especially as it comes with in both white and bitter flavors.

"It's true that it gives off a squid smell when you open the package. I've bought both the white and bitter flavors," funky food fan Yonebayashi says. "I somehow managed to get my way through the white squid-flavored chocolate, but when it came to the bitter stuff I had to give up halfway through."

Takuma Shokuhin, the company that unleashed the calamari cocoa-blend on the market also proudly boasts of having produced red pepper and curry flavored chocolates.

Slower of the uptake, sort of, is turtle-flavored Jell-O.

"My dad said eating this was like taking medicine," Yonebayashi says. "It's true that the more you eat of this, the worse the aftertaste gets."
Maybe washing your mouth out with Miki, a liquid rice drink, could be the answer.

"It's made of white rice, sugar, gluten rice, wheat and lactic acid. You basically make it yourself, but it's pretty awful. It tastes sort of like an acidic broth, but it looks like the barium milk they make you drink before a stomach X-ray," Yonebayashi tells Josei Jishin, adding that Hustle Drink may be a better way to quench your thirst. "It's only sold on fight nights for the martial arts sport Pride. Hustle Drink is awesome. Open the lid and immediately this vile reek like rotten apples starts wafting through the air. Drinking it burns your mouth." (By Ryann Connell)


2) Mainichi Daily News: Japan's 'second virgins' are camels in a dry spell

Japan is faced with a crisis as growing numbers of mostly 30-something guys go through what Spa! (3/21) calls a "second virginity," where they have not had sex for at least half a year.

But instead of champing at the bit, the magazine notes that most of these "second virgins" are perfectly content to remain inactive.