The Most Excellent Pre-Packaged Cakes Evarrrr

So I went to our local Japanese grocer the other day with my friend and she spoiled the hell out of me whilst there. I found this store (called ubiquitously enough, "Tokyo") back in college as it was like 10 minutes from campus. Back in those days they carried more frivolous items, more like a real conbini. However, over time they stopped carrying the most recent items, shokugan, drinks, etc. Most of the gimmicky items have disappeared from the shelves of the store now, but they do still carry some fun things, including traditional teapots/tea sets, sake cups carved from wood, chopsticks, various kitchen items, mimikaki (ear cleaning) tools & they do still carry a small selection of candy toys like Re-Ment food miniatures.

Anyway, disappointment over diminished stock aside, this trip was specifically planned to go buy can coffee after I bought a special edition Eva UCC can from J-List and was reminded of just how delicious it was after not having had it for some time. So I got a whole bunch of can coffee, UCC and others, a couple of bottles of the milk tea I used to buy when I was going to school down there and a ramune or two for good measure. I got a load of other things (which I'll write about later) but I ran across a most curious item...

Despite being a Japanese grocer (run by actual Japanese people from Osaka if I'm remembering correctly) they do carry a few things that aren't Japanese. There's a Korean brand of ramen called Nong Shim that I and all of my friends love. It comes with dehydrated vegetables in a packet and is really spicy. (They keep really well, too. I had a few for prolly close to 2 years and the vegetables were still intact even after that long a period of time.) They carry the ubquitous (sorry for using that word so much) Asian grocery staple sauce, Sriracha (the one with the green top and the rooster on it) as well. Both of these are marked with Korean and Thai languages, and don't look Japanese in origin. The product that I found this time, however, was very Japanese on the outside, even using the Japanese language on the outside of the package, but the company had a Vietnamese name: Kinh Do. Also, the label on the back that is required for all import products displayed "Product of Vietnam" on it, which confirmed my guess. the product in question was a box of Tiramisu Cream Cakes. Individually wrapped and tasting more like tiramisu than some actual tiramisu that I've tasted before, these are delicious! Kinh Do, you make some fine confections. I've honestly never seen such a thing before, a foreign-made product with Japanese packaging (other than American stuff like Frito-Lay, but that's often Frito-Lay Japan, based in Japan).