Japan Crate November 2015 Review & Unboxing

My Japan Crate for the month of November arrived pretty early, and I couldn't be happier! I absolutely adore Japanese snacks for their novelty and strange/fun tastes, so my boyfriend and I completely destroyed this box within a few days. We are not proud. This box was exploding with awesome snacks, and they even sent a drink as well! It was so much fun, mostly because I'm a fatty.

What is Japan Crate?

Japan Crate is a subscription that sends you an assortment of Japanese snacks and candies every month. There are mini, original, and premium options.

 Japan Crate Mini - $12, contains 4-6 snacks.
 Japan Crate Original - $25, contains 8-10 snacks + a DIY kit.
 Japan Crate Premium - $30, contains 12-14 snacks, a DIY kit, a Japan exclusive drink, and a bonus item.
 Shipping is free to America, and $10-15 worldwide depending on your country.

Today I'll be reviewing the $30/month Premium Crate, because I'm a go-big-or-go-home kinda girl and obviously needed the largest size. Because reasons.

Each box comes with a mini booklet that explains all of the snacks inside, and also contains random info on Japanese pop culture, and a short mini-manga that you read from back to front. The Premium Crate also comes with a bonus item, and this month it was a Naruto figurine that you could put on your keys/wallet/anything really. Subbies could have received 8 different keychains, and I received Naruto. I would have preferred Kakashi or Gaara, but Naruto is cute, too!

Funassyi Furi Furi Shake DIY Kit - Funassyi!!! Ahhh! I love funassyi! This is the DIY kit for this month, and it's a little pear-flavored milkshake. To make, you'll need an ice cube and a bit of milk. All you have to do is pour the shake mix into the cup, add some milk and an ice cube, and shake! This tasted so good, and had a natural pear taste (I was expecting sickly-sweet sugary-ness to be honest). SO much fun!

Glico Man Caramel & Toy - These were individually wrapped, heart-shaped caramel candies and were super yummy. Inside was a little wooden robot toy that makes noise when you spin it around. Apparently these caramels are supposed to be good for you in some way, hence the heart shape and the running man on the box.

Pejoy Cookies and Cream Biscuit Sticks - These are kind of like reverse Pocky, and are chocolate covered biscuit sticks with cream on the inside. These were SO GOOD. On par (maybe even better) than Pocky, which sounds crazy because I adore Pocky, but it's true. These were eaten almost immediately, as Chris (my Japanese candy-loving boyfriend) loved them too!

Meiji Dice Caramel - These are little caramels packaged to look like five different dice, much to the amusement of my tabletop game-playing boyfriend. Each little box had two yummy caramels, so there were about 10 in the pack.

Purple Sweet Potato Sticks - Purple sweet potatoes are a fall/winter treat in Japan, and these are crispy sticks dipped in a purple sweet potato glaze. These were probably one of my favorite snacks in the box, although Chris didn't like them all that much. I'm totally going to the interwebs to see where I can get some more of these!

Uranai-Kko Bubble Gum - This is just your typical cheapy bubblegum (like the kind that comes out of one of those prize machines) but it had a flavor that reminded me strongly of lemongrass, which was weird. Chris really like it though, so I passed it on to him! The sticks had fortunes written on them with a little key provided to translate. In Japan, there are wooden sticks called omikuji at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples which have fortunes written on them - you pull out one of the sticks, and based on the message on the stick, you'll have either good luck or bad luck in the future. The red sticks inside are supposed to be unlucky, but all of my sticks were white so I guess that's a good sign, eh?

Hot Chili Salad Pretz - This month's Japan Crate was supposed to include Fujiya lollipops, but something happened last minute and these spicy Pretz sticks were sent instead. The Pejoy was also a yummy extra. These are supposed to be a Japanese take on a yummy Thai dish, with hints of chili spice, basil, and spring onion. They were quite yummy, although Chris got to most of them before I could get my hands on the box. 

Superstring Q - What I thought was a pack of gummies turned out to be 50 inches of grape gummy string! This was both sweet and sour and totally delicious. I played with it for way longer than I should have. I need moar, pls.

Fluffy Long Neck Marshmallow - This is a marshmallow with 4 colorful flavors twisted into one long stick. This was far more pleasant than eating a regular marshmallow, because it wasn't as sickly sweet as the ones here in America. I actually prefer less sugar in things, so I was pretty happy about that!

Pachishuwa Grape Soda Mix - According to Japan Crate, this is what grape soda would taste like if you could eat it instead of drink it. This came with grape flavored crystals, a sour white powder, and some chewy candy inside. I don't think it reminded me of grape soda, but it was a fun twist on the Pop Rocks candy I used to eat as a kid. Actually, I'd totally eat some now if I had some, but a word to the wise - don't put a bunch of the white powder in your mouth all at once... it foams up like crazy and tastes pretty bad on its own.

Black Thunder - The name of this candy kind of intimidated me, but this turned out to be one of my favorite candies in the box! It's a candy bar with a name inspired by the Japanese god of thunder, and is filled with cookie pieces, rice puffs, and is covered with dark chocolate. I'm so glad that there was three, because I ate two and reluctantly handed the third over to Chris. This tasted like a mix between an American Crunch bar and a Twix, somehow. I don't know, but it was entirely too good and I totally need more now.

Chunosuke Water - I'm so excited about the fact that Japan Crate sends out drinks!! There were three different flavors I could have gotten: Exercise, which is a refreshing sports drink taste, Grape, a light and sweet grape flavored juice, and apple, a sour apple flavor. I think I received the "Exercise" flavor, although I can't tell because the packaging is all Japanese. It tasted like sweet, natural lemonade. Again, I thought this was going to taste like sugary garbage (like many lemonades in America do) but it tasted light and sweet. The pouch was also pretty big, like the size of two of those Capri Sun pouches that I used to drink as a kid.

Spy VS Spy Sour Gum - These were two sticks of identical gum, except one was more sweet while the other was extremely sour! The name is due to the sour gum being the "spy undercover". I popped the one that smelled like regular gum into my mouth, only to realize that it was the sour gum. D: And the one that smelled sour was sweet! I was fooled. Also, the sour lingers forever. My poor mouth. :D

Final Verdict

Japan Crate is so much fun! The curation is awesome, and most of these snacks aren't available to me here in America so I'm so glad I tried this subscription out. It was really fun opening up each snack and figuring out what it was, and all of the snacks were super yummy! It's definitely worth the $30 for me, since my boyfriend and I both love Japanese culture and we love trying new foods. There was a nice combination of sweet and savory, and both a drink AND a DIY kit plus the 16 snacks is a great deal for me. I can't wait to see what December's box has inside!

If you'd like to sign up for Japan Crate, you can do so OVER HERE. Happy snacking!