In Praise of Foreign Cans
March 8th, 2007 by 
Bradley Denton
Life has cluttered up the joint here at Casa Ramrod this week, so this Thursday’s EOB post won’t be my usual impenetrable hunk of hubris. Instead, I’ll just share a few things I brought home from Japan in December (along with some links for anyone inclined toward further research).
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Ever since my and Barb’s visit to Tokyo, I’ve missed Japanese cans. I knew I would, so I stuffed a few empties into my carry-on bag as keepsakes.
The first is a Dr Pepper can featuring “Julie” (sometimes spelled “Jully”), the lead singer of the “Pepper Chix.” I have no idea how well she sings, because the Pepper Chix website doesn’t seem to include any audio clips. Regardless of her singing ability, though, she clearly puts a lot of energy into her performances – although she might want to consider setting down her Dr Pepper before hitting the stage. In the image on the can, she has shaken the soda too much, and it’s gone ZAAAAAP! all over the place. And we know she didn’t mean to do it, because she’s stopped singing long enough to say “Ooops!!”
If you visit the Pepper Chix website, you’ll also meet Julie’s bandmates Ashlee, Marky, Peg, and Yoshio. I think Yoshio is a frog. But I’m not sure.
The Pepper Chix artwork is by “Rockin’ Jelly Bean,” who appears on the website wearing what appears to be a Lucha Libre mask.
But, again, I’m not sure.
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The second can, somewhat less striking than the Pepper Chix can, is for a hot coffee drink called “DEEPPRESSO.” (Play the seventh video on the conference-room screen.)
Hot canned coffee was my favorite small-change comfort item in Japan. Imagine standing on a chilly train platform after sundown . . . spotting the blue glow of the soft-drink machine . . . popping in 120 Yen . . . and then wrapping your cold hands around a warm, warm can . . .
Ahhhh, bliss!
I liked the contents, too, even though I’ve heard others complain that it tastes like warm water that’s had a used Mr. Coffee filter waved over it. But I thought that every brand I tried was delicious. Still, I’ll admit that they all did taste pretty much the same.
So after my second or third day, I began making my selection based solely on the fact that I loved the name “DEEPPRESSO.” And now I’m hugely bummed that I can’t get any of the stuff here in the States. (I can’t find any “ENNUIPPED” cream, either.)
My second-favorite Japanese canned coffee drinks were the various Suntory “BOSS” flavors (all of which tasted just like DEEPPRESSO). I liked these because their machines featured pictures of my Texas homeboy Tommy Lee Jones. Although I wasn’t sure why.
Since then, however, I’ve discovered that Mr. Jones is featured on the machines because he has starred in a series of television commercials for BOSS in which he plays a space alien. The story arc, as far as I can tell, is that the alien is trying to investigate Earth culture by taking a number of different Earth jobs – and after performing each job and learning just a bit more about these strange humans, he refreshes himself with a tasty BOSS canned coffee.
Makes sense to me.
But once he becomes truly human himself . . . I suspect he’ll go for DEEPPRESSO instead.
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Arrigato gozaimas to the Pepper Chix, Rockin’ Jelly Bean, Georgia DEEPPRESSO, Suntory BOSS, and Tommy Lee Jones. I can’t wait to see y’all again.
Posted in Barb, Brad, Daily Life, Food, People, Pop. Culture, Science Fiction, Technology | 
19 Comments »
March 8th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Did you ever buy a can of something to drink in Japan and find it was…not what you expected? When I was in China, I couldn’t read what the cans said. (I knew about 150 characters–the average second grade reads more than that.) So when we would, say, take a bicycle trip and a picnic lunch, us foreigners would buy shit at random. Usually it was orange drink or kiwi drink. But one time it was carbonated prune juice. Thick. Sludgy. Carbonated. Prune Juice.
I want so badly to go to Japan.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Cool post! Definitely a different design sensibility over there.
Okay — as y’all know, I’m insensitive to all them metaphors and symbolisms. But even little ol’ me gets the really, really, really subtle implications of the hot (but probably lesbian) babe playing with the tubular artifact until it spews.
Just thought I’d get in ahead of Erin with that observation….
And — damn, but I’d love to have a machine at work that dispensed hot coffee in a can. Why can’t we do that here in America, huh? Is there some kind of monopolistic conspiracy going on? Is George Bush behind it?
March 8th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Her superstructure is very odd. Gives a different meaning to “divide and conquer.”
March 8th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I have those machines across from my apt bldg. Somewhat disconcerting to see Tommy Lee sans make-up. Very unflattering. But then again the Japanese do revere age.
March 8th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
I used to want to be BatGirl. Now I want to be a Pepper Chick.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Wait. Do the Pepper chix get motor bikes?
March 8th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
When my old man went to Japan, he came back raving about the beer vending machines! Y’all didn’t hit the beer vending machines?
March 9th, 2007 at 12:48 am
i don’t know about deppresso, but you can get cold mister boss drinks at most of the asian markets in north austin. the one on airport and lamar is my personal favorite.
March 9th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Well, the Dr. Pepper can illo looks like every issue of “Heavy Metal” to me. With slightly less nudity.
Getting warm drinks out of a vending machine has to be The Best Thing Ever. Someday we’ll be that advanced here . . .
March 9th, 2007 at 9:27 am
LDA sent me this.
She adds:
March 9th, 2007 at 11:06 am
At one point Exploris, the local kids fun museum here in Raleigh, had a drink vending machine full of soda from other countries. My personal favorite was “Winter Melon Soda” from China, I think.
If you ever get a chance, also try Big Bamboo Irish Moss Vanilla soda, from Jamaica. It’s…..different.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I’m a big fan of Jamaican Ginger Beer. It has bite.
March 9th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I just can’t bring myself to try Pocari Sweat. I’m told it’s the Japanese equivalent of Gatorade (more or less), but, well, eew.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Steve, if you like ginger beer with a real kick–the non-alcoholic kind–, you’ve got to get yourself some Blenheim’s ginger ale: http://theacf.com/blenheim/
Here’s a site on all matter of ‘crazy asian drinks’ including Pocari Sweat: http://www.noapologiespress.com/presents/asiandrink/
(And “Calpis” is pronounced “cowpiss”)
March 9th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Yeah–even Brad’s thing is making me a bit leery. Deepresso.
When you really need to be depressed.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Doesn’t Pocari mean sweat?
March 9th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Don’t think so. I’ve seen the Kanji, which is ‘ase’ and some compounds:
hakkan — sweat
hiyaase — cold sweat
umai ase — sweet sweat
And there’s the phrase:
‘abura-ase wo kaku’ — to ‘break out in a greasy sweat’.
[Here's a humorous blog entry on the topic of both Pocari Sweat & Calpis...http://tinear.net/1210/pocari-sweat]
March 9th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Actually, what I meant was… “Don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure…’
March 9th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Ah yes, the Beer Vending Machines of Japan. Just the thing for a thirsty foreigner, no language barrier. It didn’t check your age, but there was a last call at midnight since it ceased to dispense beer after that. With diurnal rhythms shot to hell by jet lag, knowing that sleep would be hard to come by, there was a very satisfying “THUNK” as you got one of those big suckers at the witching hour…
March 9th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Barb,
Actually, pokari sweat is pretty tasty. Susanna brought some back from Japan. It’s actually less sweet than Gatoraide.