Are the Japanese 7-11 Rice Balls Really All That?

Neopets is a free service. They stay that way through a few methods; there's a line of Neopets merchandise, a Neopets TCG, and a video game coming out, among other things. Those other things include some advertizements around the site itself (though they are in no way annoying). There are also a number of sponsored games (usually requiring little to no skill, but some of 'em are a real pain) and a couple of sponsored areas of the site.

Advertizements vary depending on which language you are viewing the site in. There are 11 possible languages, including Japanese. On the Japanese version of the site, there is a 7-11 sponsored area, at which you can get free rice balls with which to feed your pets.

So this prompted Ruonna to ask me if the Japanese 7-11 rice balls are really all that. (I'm the co-guildmaster for my Neopets guild, so I told everyone that I was going to be out of touch for an indefinite period of time because of going to Japan.) I've been so busy eating bacon mayo rolls that I hadn't even thought to try.

Taste-O-Meter!

Robata Nigiri (Nigiri = Rice Balls): 4
These are the rice balls I had at the robata the other night. They were simple, and flavored with soy sauce.

7-11 Teriyaki Chicken Nigiri: 5
They really are all that. The orange-labeled ones, anyway. I have tried the green, red, or yellow labeled ones yet. The orange-labeled ones have a tasty bit of teriyaki chicken in the middle.

I'm still trying to figure out why nigiri is translated as rice balls, since most of the ones I've seen are not shaped like balls. The ones at the robata came in a variety of shapes including hearts, and the 7-11 ones are triangle-shaped.

In other news, I have my alien registration card now. It's shiny. I have to carry it with me at all times; if I don't, and a policeman asks to see it... jail. AGH!

My friend Haruko is going to UAF in January. She's gonna be there for a year, so she'll still be there when I get back. :D I've been helping her with her English a bit, and telling her a lot about Alaska and Fairbanks in particular. Today I covered some slang. "Dunno" and " 'Sup?" and "I'd've" and the like. "I'd've" about gave her a heart attack; at first she couldn't really tell what I was saying, then once I wrote it out and she could hear it, she couldn't say it very well. She's going to hate the weather, unfortunately. She comes from southern Japan, which (weather-wise) is a lot like southern California. Heh. But she has warning!

There's an exchange student event in Sapporo at the end of the month. I get to go. :D I have to pay for the transport and the hotel, but the school will reimburse me. Yay! It's gonna be fun; lots of cultural stuff going on.

Realizations of the Period

1) I broke my last 10,000 yen note to buy breakfast. >< Where has my money gone?
2) The school library has the first three seasons of 24 on DVD. I can now watch season three.

On the less Japanese-side of things, I've been starting to catch up on my video game news. Somehow I manage to stay almost completely ignorant unless I'm keeping up with my e-mail.

On one hand, it's nice to know that there are sponsored first-person shooter clans that are entirely composed of girls. On the other hand, it's a bunch of girls, and their audition requirements are stupid. Color photographs? Sounds to me like they're discriminating based on looks, and that's not cool. It should be all about skill and/or attitude.

Two pieces of good news from one article: Katamari goes handheld (booyaka!) and the guy behind Luminez strikes again. Glory! Katamari Damacy is a great game to be able to take around with you, especially if they throw in Wi-Fi multiplayer support. Can they make Katamari a 4-player game? That would be crazy. As for Luminez... I want a PSP so badly. *cries* Luminez is a beautiful game. A sequel would make me so happy. Especially if I owned it.

The other piece of news that I saved the link to for reference is this one. The whole madhouse that has been coverage of GTA: San Andreas and its hidden sex thing has made me very sad. Rockstar has taken so much heat for being the forerunner of... shall we call them over-mature games? Parents and politicians blaming Rockstar for crimes went so far as some organization (can't remember which, offhand) demanding that Rockstar not release Bully and set up a fund for folks who've been hijacked.

When are people going to get it through their heads that the problem is a parenting issue? Changing the ESRB rating regulations can only do so much. The rating systems only work if parents use it. You can't blame the game companies because parents aren't paying attention until it's too late. If your kid is too impressionable, don't let them buy the game.

Yah. Anyway, there's my discourse for now.