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More Weird Things We Found At The Convenience Store

Japanese convenience stores will never cease to amaze us with their ever-changing selections of all manner of snacks, drinks and candies. Last month, we began this series in which we present you some of the more bizarre and engrish-laden items you'll find in the local kombini. Now, it's time for our second installment!

Devilish Umedusa

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Who's Umedusa, you ask? Apparently, she's a cross between an umeboshi, a sour pickled plum, and the Medusa, from Greek mythology. This chimera of a potato snack called Masho Umedusa 魔性ウメデューサ may not turn you to stone but it may make your lips pucker with sourness. As it turns out, this is a new family branch in the Bokun Habanero potato snack series by Tohato, known for their spiciness. It will be interesting to see if other mythological members of this new sour family will appear. Sour apple flavored Sour Appegasus perhaps?

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Moeru Burning Cola Gummy

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With a name like "Burning Cola" and the red and black colors on the package, you might think this is another one of those "extreme" candies so spicy they may literally burn your tongue. In fact, the burning in question refers to calories, not their taste, which turns out to be a mildly sour cola flavor. A collaboration between the men's branch of the aesthetic services company TBC and candy maker UHA, this gummi candy contains the amino acid L-carnitine, known to aid in fat loss.

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Yamitsuki Horumon

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Yamitsuki means "can't stop eating" and horumon refers to a type of grilled meat. This is certainly one of the most surprising snacks we've ever seen. To begin with, it's a snack food version of yakiniku grilled meat. The happy pig smiling at the pictures of the snack in the inset should cue you in on the meat's provenance. While horumon ホルモン in katakana can also refer to hormones, in this case, it refers to organ meat. For this snack, they use heart (hatsu ハツ) and stomach (gatsu ガツ) meat with a shiodare sauce. Yum.

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In all fairness, it does have a recognizable yakiniku flavor in spite of the dried, jerky-like consistency. It might be a good snack to have with some beer.


By - grape Japan editorial staff.