In Japan, Baskin Robbins and Cold Stone Creamery are battling now. Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors Ice Cream says their copy is "We make people happy" since 1977, I can't find that part, but this blog wrote the details about them. And do you know Cold Stone Creamary has the copy "we will make people happy"? Baskin Robbins Japan turned to the courts to request Cold Stone stop the copy because such similar copy will cause the loss of business profits. I guess people's impression for this news would be as a struggle to survive. I have never tried Cold Stone Creamery yet, but I will this summer because I will work at Roppongi Hills, which has the first Cold Stone Creamery shop in Japan.
A nice toy will be released soon by BANDAI. It's "aqua drop". You put a drop of water on the board and play it. Check the movie in the middle of the page.
I like mints. I love to eat them, and also foreign mints are nice for souvenirs of foreign travel. Price is good, size is good, and they have cute packages. But I realized I hardly find "mint cases". I found one here, but another mint case in Google showed "broken ipod shuffle" (good idea though) and "fake Nintendo". In Japan, various types of mint cases are sold in shops like this. Since mint cases are sort of a fashion item, this one cost $80!. I don't need it, I would love to buy mint if I pay $80. My favorite mint is "frente Pinky peach", the worst one would be dark chocolate dipped cinamon. I really like the Altoids package, they had a good promotion with that package before "Tin Million Uses", you can see some here still now. And the strangest mint was "Mirrorno" ( mints got in a line inside!), but I can't find it in the shop anymore.
Cold Stone Creamery -
Their gimmick is "mix-ins." You choose a flavor of ice cream, a size, and then the mix-ins - about 50 different ingredients to add to your scoop (e.g. crushed Oreo cookies, nuts, fruit, chocolate chips, white cocolate chips, gumi bears, flaked cocunut, crushed candy bars, etc...). The ice cream and mix-ins are then mixed by hand on a "cold stone" (hence the name of the place), which is a slab of black granite, about 1.5M long by 0.5M wide and 5 cm thick, that is kept at -50 F to keep the icecream from melting while mixing in the mix-ins.
The people who work there also sing goofy songs anytime a customer rings a bell - mildly entertaining, more so for little kids. It's a very family friendly place.
I really like their icecream - they make a flavor called "sweet cream" that is basically vanilla, but not too heavy and sweet like most vanilla icecream is. It tastes just like fresh cream! They also have killer waffle cones!
Yes, it is a little $$$, but if you go to their website and enter your birth date, on your birthday you get a free medium scoop with two mix-ins in a waffle cone!
Hey, it's no more $$$ than a latte at Starbucks, and much less hoity-toity! ;)
Posted by: Heidi | Friday, May 30, 2008 at 09:51 AM
I believe Cold Stone Creamery actually started in the Phoenix, Arizona area, where I live now. (Their corporate headquarters is in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I used to drive past it every day on my way to work.)
Strangely enough, I've never eaten at one of these places. Whenever I suggest to my wife that we try Cold Stone, she insists that we could buy 2 gallons of ice cream from the supermarket for what we would spend there.
Posted by: bshock | Friday, May 30, 2008 at 08:46 AM
Aqua Drop -
The game looks mildly intersting to me, but the guy on the left in the pic at the top of the page is GORGEOUS!!! Send me one of those, Mari-san! ;)
(gomen if this posted twice)
Posted by: Heidi | Friday, May 30, 2008 at 06:15 AM
Aqua Drop -
The game looks mildly interesting to me, but the guy on the left in the pic at the top is GORGEOUS!!! Send me one of those, Mari-san! ;)
Posted by: Heidi | Friday, May 30, 2008 at 06:12 AM
I remember having a toy like Aqua-Drop when I was little. I think it was called Quicksilver. I loved it! I wish I still had it.
Posted by: jdmagpie | Friday, May 30, 2008 at 12:45 AM
Thanks for the Aqua-Drop link and information!
Posted by: Kirk | Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 11:29 PM