If you happen to be in Shinjuku, and you want some high quality produce to snack on, go check out the fruit stand on the corner, outside the Shinjuku Station East Exit, just to the left of the Alta building and screen.

They sell fruit on a stick for ¥100-¥200 a piece and it’s so good it’s insane. I usually get the pineapple when I drop by and it may be the best pineapple I’ve ever eaten, and I’ve spent some time in Hawaii. Yeah, it’s that good.

While you’re snacking on your cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, strawberries, or pineapple you can browse the rest of their offerings. They sell durian fruit which is awesome in my opinion. Durian fruit is apparently an extremely delicious fruit that smells like hot garbage and is actually illegal to carry on public transit in Singapore, I must assume due to the fact you might fall and crack open your nasty smelling treat, but I digress.

This fruit stand also has some of the ridiculously priced melons I’d heard about long before my first trip to Tokyo, though the most expensive cantaloupe is only a little over $50, which seems entirely reasonable, if you play for the NBA. I’ve been told that these melons are as close to perfection as you can get as far as melons go and are normally given as gifts. So apparently at Japanese weddings $50 cantaloupes are the new toaster. I have to admit though, there is a part of me that wants to know what one tastes like. Would you spend the money on one of these melons, even just once, just to see how good it was?

So anyway, when you’re exploring Shinjuku make sure you make a detour to grab some fruit on a stick, I promise you, it’s worth it.

Here’s a short video of me going to and buying some fruit at the stand, the video is actually taken from the year prior to the pictures in this post though it’s still the same.

Image Credit: Personal Collection

Freshness Burger is another one of those Japanese things with a name so great you just have to try it. I still find myself referring to things as “Freshness Burger!” instead of just saying they’re cool. I know, I’m odd, but I like to say it.

I’d seen Freshness Burger on my first trip to Tokyo but never got a chance to go in and regretted it for the full year till my next trip when I made it a point to go in.

So, what are you going to get when you grab an actual freshness burger? A not bad, if not a little small, burger. Trumpets didn’t sound when I ate it, but it did live up to the name. The burger wasn’t greasy and had a nice slice of tomato and plenty of lettuce to go with it. Also it came with an interesting chili-esque sauce on it that was really good. It was a light burger and I really did enjoy it.

I’ve heard that the fish sandwich is really good at Freshness Burger so I’ll have to try that out the next time I’m in town, though to be honest the thought of eating fish from a fast food place in Tokyo, when there’s fish pulled from the ocean mere hours ago cooking somewhere up the street, is hard to justify.

If you’ve eaten at Freshness Burger, what was your experience like? Do you prefer Freshness Burger or Mos Burger? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Personal Collection

While the name Pocari Sweat seems strange to most foreigners it doesn’t translate as being gross to the Japanese. I have to admit that when I first saw it I knew I had to try it based on the name alone. The drink is clear, but slightly cloudy, so put that together with the word “sweat” and you’re not sure what you’re about to drink.

Does it taste like something wrung out of your gym socks? No, well, not really. It does have a very very slight salty aftertaste to it but it’s definitely second to the sweet, almost lemony, taste that comes across first. It’s a really light drink and I drink a ridiculous amount of it while trekking through the streets of Tokyo.

You can get Pocari Sweat in bottles and cans of all shapes and sizes as well as in a powdered form. I haven’t tried the powdered form myself, if you have what did you think? Was it as good as out of the bottle?

I had read on Wikipedia that the Arctic Shatter flavor of Powerade was supposed to taste similar to Pocari Sweat, so the next time I was at the grocery store I grabbed a bottle to check it out. There is a definite similarity in the look and taste though the Powerade had a little more of a light berry taste, where again Pocari Sweat is more lemony. Even so, it’s a good substitute if you can’t get your hands on the real thing, or don’t want to pay more for the import.

Check out this link to Wikipedia references of Pocari Sweat in pop culture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat#In_culture

Image Credit: Personal Collection