Flags of Convenience: Caffeine-Calories

If you are a caffeine addict then alas, you'll probably find Starbucks is the most convenient fix.

Observations:

Australia hasn't built much ourselves because we would rather claim credit for our unique wildlife and natural environment instead - which we then go and destroy by mining the crap out of it. But we can at least claim to make consistently good coffee almost on every corner.

Japan is an engineer's paradise - if they haven't built it, they are building it. But they really can't do coffee. Yet. Mostly because they rely on coffee machines and instant coffee.

I don't normally like Starbucks but it's the closest thing I've found to an Australian style coffee. I know there are some fancy pants "Australian Cafe" style establishments in Tokyo but in keeping with the typical Australian business strategy, they aim for rich wankers rather than normal people, which is kinda... dumb.

Meanwhile Starbucks makes a killing because it's half decent, but it's such an "American" way of doing it - all the teeny bopper staff say "konnichiwa!" to everyone that enters and of course it has the usual Starbucks food fare, all of it a bit bleh.

If you want liquid calories on the other hand, I'd recommend Kirin Lemon, but if you can find it then go for the Fanta Golden Cider. Japan is Fanta-crazy so there are 90+ flavours, but it feels like Disney has done an exclusive deal to ensure you can only get it in Disneyland (?).

Snickers bar is just because.

Kaiju Collected:

One large latte. It was Starbucks, but close enough - probably the first "latte" I've had so far.Read more