Dec 28th 2014 | Rock, Scissors, Candy - One, Two, Three!
This month's shipment was a box containing two items. They should arrive to you by January 28th. The contents were Janken gummies and hard candy whistles!
Note: The last shipment's header image used candy from both that and this shipment. That was a mistake on my part. Sorry about that, folks!
Whistle Candy
Children in Japan love novelty candy! Me? I'm too lazy for the stuff honestly. I can't be bothered putting together a mini-laboratory to make candy ninjas or whatever fun edible oddity Bemmu likes to send. However, these pineapple flavored lifesaver-esque candies are right up my lazy alley! These sweet rings are full fledged whistles. The perfect treat for annoying your friends and family in school or church. They also come with a toy, although I wasn't able to get much use out of a tiny pink hairbrush.
Janken Gummies
Janken, or "rock paper scissors" as it's known in the West, is more than just a children's schoolyard game. It's destiny! With just a few flicks of the hand, fate is determined. Who will go first? Who will claim the prize? Who will be the victor in the case of a tie? If only you could eat yours and your opponents hand after a game! Wait. No. That would be awful.
Thank goodness we have these chewy Janken gummies instead! They're soda flavored, so just a bit sour, but sweet enough to keep the game flowing. Choose your destiny and take turns pulling gummies out of the bag!
You can play by making rock, paper or scissors with your hand. Then take out a candy and see if you win. You get it if you win, your friend gets to eat it if you lose.
A brand new Pokemon Center opened near my station in Ikebukuro and I'm absolutely thrilled. Come this pay day, I'll be swimming in Pikachu chocolates and Jigglypuff socks. Actually, I don't think I have enough Charizards in my life. I better pick up a few more of those too. If you're ever in Ikebukuro, definitely check it out. Just look for the giant spinning Pokeball. It would be kind of hard to miss.
Now for today's entry in "day to day life in a box-of-the-month company". My main focus this month has been to come up with a process to deal with returned packages better. Whenever an address is incorrect or a recipient does not claim their package at the post office, it comes back to our house. And if I'm not here, like around last New Year, they just pile up.
This might seem like a lot, but actually it's relatively unlikely for a package to get returned. This is a tiny fraction of the packages we send out each month. Many of them are also addressed to the same person, as if someone's address is wrong then packages we send to them will keep getting returned.
From January 14th onward packages will have a barcode printed in the back. So instead of manually reading the address and sending hand-crafted emails, we'll just scan the barcode and an email will get send automatically. That should make it possible to speed through any future returns ten times faster. I will also have someone here to scan the barcodes for me, even if I'm away.
If you have not received your package and suspect it might be on the piano, please be patient as I slowly work my way through them. I will email you if your package is there. In the meanwhile you can use http://www.candyjapan.com/manage to make sure your address is correct.