KitKats are huge in Japan.

Around 2000, Nestle started marketing weird flavors of KitKats for Japan and then rolling out new flavors all of the time. They’re now really popular as gifts, especially around Christmastime. I had no idea of this before I came here and started seeing odd KitKat flavors in convenience stores. I picked these up out of curiosity:

citrus kitkat – didn’t like this one

matcha kitkat! so green but so good!

Here is an article talking about the KitKat program Nestle has in Japan😃

They even did this last year.

So, after I arrived in Osaka, I discovered that there are actually 8 KitKat Chocolatories in Japan, which ONLY SELL SPECIAL KITKATS! Suddenly, purchasing chocolate became my number one priority on my Osaka tour!

This Chocolatory is inside a Daimaru, which is a really nice department store chain, and (like all of the department stores) has a food speciality floor on the basement level!

kitkatzzz

kitkat ‘museum’

kitkat chocolatory

Ten minute wait in line, snaking around stanchions, and I came away with these:

pretty packaging

💚

these flavors!!!

chocolatory

The flavors I purchased:  Butter, Pistachio Raspberry, Green Tea & Kinako, Chili & Passonfruit, Strawberry Maple, Orange Cocktail Noir, and Sakura Green Tea!! I’m trying them and sending the rest home as gifts😊

As a footnote (because this is wayyyy less exciting than the KitKat store, I’m ashamed to say): Osaka Castle. Very grand and beautiful, and because it’s white, I found it interesting because it looks a lot different than the other structures I’ve been seeing in Japan.

osaka castle

osaka castle painting – how it looked in the 1500’s

osaka castle moat

osaka castle

osaka castle moat

Please let me leave you with the funniest sign I’ve ever seen

what happened to this guy to get him so pissed off about drunk, tattooed exercise freaks?

Next up:  CAMBODIA