What? Director caught a Turtle?!
Hey guys and girls on Ask Japanese it's summer and if we know one thing about Japan
is that they can take a thing that's already great and then make it even
better! On that note we're gonna talk about the amazing crazy and fantastic
ice cream types that you can find here in Japan and give you a little bit of
history how it actually came to be that we got really tasty ice cream types here
in Japan that you cannot get anywhere else in the world.
Welcome to another special episode of Ask Japanese!
Bread was brought to Japan by the Portuguese but guess who brought ice cream
to the Japanese people?
T hose were the Americans in the 18th century when Japan finally opened its
borders it send a couple of people and diplomats over to the USA and over there
for the first time Japanese people were experiencing the taste, the flavor, the
amazing cold gentleness of ice cream
It however took Japan until the 19th
century until they had their very own ice cream. Now at that point in time
having English words in the Japanese language was not as common as it is now
meaning people had problems with the pronunciation of ice cream. So ice cream
became icekurimu aisukurin? So at the point in time it was called aisukurin
with an n at the end and the ice cream that they had at those times was a
mixture of an ice cream milk and egg so it was kind of like an egg milk sherbet
that they had at that point in time.
I would have loved to introduce
you to AISUKURIN at the time but obviously since the times have changed
that one is not available any more but it's still the big connection between
America and Japan so we tried to find an ice cream that kind of.... it has a very
American style to it as the very first one that we want to introduce so let me have that one
The jersey milk soft cream.... so
in Japan you can actually get ice cream or soft cream like this one here in a
little container. So it will be as if you just got to the store and you got it at
the store ... here we go Jersey milk
Can I eat it already?
so creamy !
Now here comes the twist: there was a sweet ice dessert before there was ice cream
what do I mean with that? Japan since the 10th century has their own type of shaved ice
called kakigori. In the 10th century there was a book
called "The pillow book" by a female author called say Seishonagon who is said
to have written it. In that book kakigori shaved ice, eating that, is mentioned as
the first mentioning of that type that we know. So maybe since then kakigori
has existed in Japan. Now what is kakigori shaved ice? Japanese people again
have refined this. It's a block a big block off ice that usually gets wedged
in between and with a sharp blade gets shaved. Nowadays we even have machines
for that. The traditional one is a metal machine and if you look around
even certain stores now that have a new technique which almost turns the
shaped ice pits in to powdered snow... which then is then topped usually with
kind of fruit juices or flavored things strawberry in similar things... and a
little bit of condensed milk as well. Very popular food to have at Japanese
summer festivals. You see it all around on those stores and you can see kakigori
sometimes even have their own only store. So as well as there's a gelato store
there will be a kakigori store. Some of these kakigori stores even have refined
the way they eat it. That's what I mean when I say
"Japanese people eat glaciers" meaning
they actually go up into the mountains have a certain field
area and with that one instead of raising rice they raise ice there so
they used a certain type of water freeze there somewhere up in the mountains
then cut it in big blocks, transport it to the business
and these ones are said to be very tasty. I had one of those that
was in Tochigi prefecture and they're really really proud of eating those fine
glacier ice creams...
without the cream because it's shaved ice so fine glacier ice
Now kakigori you can get in stores but they actually also have it in
supermarkets cause Japanese people love it so much so let's grab our shaved ice
Alright this is like a typical kakigori color. Oh this is also the typical kakigori
consistency. It's already quite melty oh look at the slushiness
slushy slushy goodness
Not sure if you can hear that. Now also whether the ice is crushed or whether
smooth depends on the actual prefecture in which you are. In the East it seems
to be the crushed one is the favorite of the Japanese people there. So you have it
like this one here and then if you go towards the West, the other one is the
very smooth kakigori that's eaten more in the West for example like Kyoto.
Personal preferences I guess I do like both...
And we're also gonna introduce Japan's top three ice creams you should not miss
Oh you're right there is a turtle!
What are you doing??
Director what are you doing?
Real life Pokemon go?
What? You go the turtle.
I choose you!!!
Helloooo
This one also has a connection to the USA. - Why???
This is a Mississippi Red Ear Turtle.
- Mississippi??? - From Mississippi!
Hey guys and Girls on Ask Japanese it's Cathy Cat
You guys love turtles and ninjas and this time we're actually gonna go an
interview a real Japanese ninja turtle and find out how they came to their
profession so let's go....
So for how long have you been a ninja turtle?
That's quite a long time so and during your profession was like the hardest thing you're doing
I see that's pretty tough!
On that note... let me ask... what type are you into?
I like Shredder (from the TMNT)
Now it's time for Japan's top three ice creams these ones you should definitely
try. Now white top three? These ones have been ranked the highest in the consumer
ranking last year and we expect them to run pretty high again this year so let's
find out what they are. Number 3....
No3.... is this one here nice and red that's the Parm chocolate from Morinaga
you can see it is ice cream topped with a crunchy chocolate layer
This can be compared to... oooh
This reminds me a lot of the kind of Magnum type ice cream that I have in
Europe... and it looks like this is a "simple is the best" you know the basic
chocolate and ice cream there's nothing you can do wrong with that one.
Can I eat it? Yes?
???
!!!
So instead of having a crunchy chocolate layer it has a really
soft and smooth chocolate layer... literally melts in your mouth
Number two of the most popular ice creams of Japan....
Meji Essel Super Cup Super Vanilla
Super Vanilla? It's like the standard ice cream
of vanilla that you can find anywhere any every convenience store every
supermarket always.
I don't know why ... but this one always feels to me like it's almost a ice cream that is on the kakigori side
it's almost a little bit like kakigori because it still has the kind of slushiness in it anyway
Hey y'al
l and finally number one the most sold ice cream of Japan
This one here is Morinaga's Choco Monaka Jumbo.
oh it's actually one of my favorites here because they put a lot of effort into having the
outside crunchy like crisp and crunchy then there's like crunchy chocolate in
here and then in there's ice cream and again chocolate and I don't know how
they're doing it it's a magical magical mix
It's so satisfying to bite into this one
and they even ship it out so quickly like being this one being fresh
is really important... so it arrives like so quickly at the store they measure it
has to have the right temperature and everything. There's a whole video about
that maybe put that somewhere in the link so yes so yeah this is number one
there that's the reason why this one here is number one
Looks good right.
It's like the outside of this one usually we have similar ice
cream like this in Germany and the outside of this kind of soft and soggy
this one is really crisp and then it's followed also by the chocolate it's just
a perfect combo.
Now we know the most popular three ice cream types but we
want to know our part all the other crazy times they're out there.
Japan is said to have the hardest ice cream in the world .
Japanese people love red beans
and so there is an as Azuki Bar cream by Imuraya
that one contains the usually Azuki beans but it's also said to be the
hardest... we drove around a lot finally found this one and the director has the
theory that it could even put a nail wood it because it's that hard.
I don't believe it we're gonna test it out now
That's what it looks like.
It's kind of a ... cute size.
To be honest...
Director: Take one bite
I've never had this one.
It's rock hard!
How are we gonna do this? How do you wanna do this?
We have nails we have wood we have the ice-cream bar let's make this happen
Okay let's do this
Okay let's go
Are you kidding me? Why is it so hard?
Even though it's melting it's it's pretty hard
I think you just have to like lick it until it goes down
Wow
Director: There is a trick. You have to use your canines to bite it sideways off.
Wow ...
so try to use your canines on that one cuz otherwise
you can't bite that one off
This was our ice-cream journey I hope you enjoyed it there are loads more
exciting Japanese ice-cream flavors and types and I hope to introduce them to
you in a future video. If you want to find out about that one don't forget to
be subscribed tick on the notification bell, so you actually know when the videos
come up. Be one of the first ones to watch it and don't forget give us a like
to say you enjoyed this. I'm looking forward to reading about all your cute
tasty and weird and wacky ice cream types that you have in your country in
the comments. I hope I catch you soon for my stuff here from Ask Japanese!
See you guys! Byeee
I've never had this one
you