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'Big America' comes to McDonald's Japan. Plus bacon
by Josh Tolentino, 12/27/2009
'Big America' comes to McDonald's Japan. Plus bacon photo

Ah, McDonald's. It's a quintessentially "American" franchise, but global enough to develop a unique identity for nearly every market it claws its way into.

Following up on the Quarter Pounder's Japanese launch, the House of Ronald (and Mr. James) plans to distend Glorious Nippon's gut with four new Quarter Pounder varieties, all promising a uniquely "Big American" taste. Plus bacon.

The Texas Burger contains mustard relish, fried onions and barbecue sauce. Plus bacon.The California Burger combines spicy cheese, tomato slices, and some kind of red wine sauce. Plus bacon. The Burger New York is pretty much a standard burger save for the choice of Monterey Jack cheese. Plus bacon. And the Hawaiian Burger channels the classic "Loco-Moco"-style meal by using an egg and gravy sauce. Plus bacon.

I can't speak for the other regional burgers, but having moved to California relatively recently, I would argue that there's enough asian influence around here that they could sell the McRice burger instead and get a better "native" feel. Plus bacon.


  11 comments Latest by KajunBowser
"Oh, my. They're trying to outsource the obesity "epidemic" to Japan. I am disappoint."...read more

Gallery Images:
Photo Photo Photo Photo


A moment of silence for the original Ran Ran Ruu
by Dale North, 12/16/2009
A moment of silence for the original Ran Ran Ruu photo

What would Japanator be without Ran Ran Ruu? So much of our time has been spent making fun of the Japanese Ronald McDonald that I almost can't imagine our website without these stories.

We wouldn't have the Japanese Ron McD to make fun of if there wasn't ever the original American one. Yesterday it was reported that the original clown, Michael Polakovs, the first person to portray Ronald McDonald, died at age 86. He was originally hired in 1966 by McDonald's to help create the character. Polakovs must have been proud to know that the clown he created made it around the world. He probably cringed when he saw the Japanese version, though. 

To pay tribute, can we all give a silent, solem Ran Ran Ruu?

1. Ran: Cross your arms across your chest to touch your shoulders.

2. Ran: Put your hands together in a silent clap.

3. Ruu: Raise your hands straight up in the air. 

There's a new video after the jump so that we remember him fondly.

[image from i-Freez's deviantart]


view full story & comments

  4 comments Latest by lyfeforce
"His name was Michael Polakovs... His name was Michael Polakovs... His name was Michael Polakovs... "...read more



 Sumo wrestlers get custom double-wide seat at McDonald's
by Dale North, 09/09/2009
Sumo wrestlers get custom double-wide seat at McDonald's photo

What do you do if you want to grab a bite to eat at McDonald's, but your ass is the width of a compact car? That's not an issue for sumo wrestlers in Tokyo's Taito ward.

The McDonald's right near the Ryogoku Kokugikan arena gets a lot of of the big guys coming in. Before, they'd have nowhere to sit. Now a custom seat has been installed, specifically built to withstand the weight and size of the sumo stars that frequent the location. It's got ass cheek considerations and everything. The big guy above weighs in at over 550 pounds. Good news: The seat holds him.

From the looks of the pictures, he's "lovin' it" -- both the seat and his burger.

[via msn jp]

  4 comments Latest by SeancetheBLADE
"@Sennin at most gyms they make you have a towel to sit on equipment, perhaps this guy feels he is being considerate of others, sparing them from too much ass-sweat leftover on the seat :D"...read more



 Tokyo ranks favorably on the Big Mac index
by Dale North, 08/25/2009

What's the Big Mac index, you ask? It's a chart (see gallery below) that displays how many minutes you'd have to work to have enough money for McDonald's Big Mac sandwich. What? You've never considered the work-cost in hours/minutes for your Mac Attacks? Maybe you should, especially if you live in Nairobi.

Tokyo, Toronto, and Chicago tie up a rank for top spot on the Big Mac index. In these cities, you'd only have to work about 12 minutes to be able to buy a Big Mac. That's less than half of the global average, which sits around 40 minutes of work. In Mexico City, you'd have to work two hours to get a taste of the secret sauce. Yikes.

And while we're talking about McDonald's, why not bring some Ran Ran Ruu action (above)? Enjoy.

[via economist]


  3 comments Latest by lyfeforce
"Thank goodness I listened to Aphex Twin this morning or I would not have been ready for that video."...read more

Gallery Images:
Photo


McDonald's Japan's Nippon All Stars sandwiches sold by a white guy
by Dale North, 08/18/2009
McDonald's Japan's Nippon All Stars sandwiches sold by a white guy photo

Meet Mr. James. He's the bespectacled white guy that in the lower left of the above image. He's the new face of McDonald's Japan's latest sandwiches, which they're calling the Nippon All Stars. The dude even has his own blog, and given that he speaks broken gaijin-style Japanese, it's easy to read -- it's all katakana and hiragana.

What he's selling looks delicious. Four limited-time sandwiches will rotate throughout the summer and fall. Right now, the Tamago Double Mac is up. It contains two patties, an egg puck, bacon, and a pepper mayo sauce. Do want. I'm excited as my visit to Tokyo next month will let me try both the Tsukumi burger and the Tatsuta chicken sandwich.

Not everyone is fond of Mr. James. There's a anti-James group at Facebook. It seems that they don't like the stereotype he portrays. Me? I think he's hilarious. Go to the official Nippon All Stars webpage and check out his commercials. I love the one where he's screaming "majikayo!?" ("seriously!?) at his computer screen.

  6 comments Latest by Rank57
"What, people complain about racism against foreigners because of the stereotype? What about japanese people being in commercials and movies and series just shouting "hyiiiaaaahhhh!!!" while perfo..."...read more



 Japanese model Yuri Ebihara to go international
by Dale North, 07/31/2009

I came to fall in love with the beautiful Yuri Ebihara through McDonald's. You see, she's the spokesperson for McDonald's Japan's Ebi-Filet-O, a wonderfully disgusting sandwich that features a patty of little shrimp pieces on lettuce and tartar sauce. When I say "I'm lovin' it," I'm talking about both the model and the sandwich. 

Ebihara (Ebi means shrimp in Japanese) is a megamodel in Japan. Her pretty face promotes everything from makeup and beauty aides to cameras. But it seems that she wants to move on from Japan and take over the world with her modeling powers.  

"Now I want to break out and try the biggest challenge out there. It's a world I haven't dipped my toe into yet so I would like to see where it takes me ... I'm 30 this year so maybe it's time to go international."

She told Reuters in an interview that she is ready to strut her stuff in other countries. I'd let her. As far as America goes, we don't see enough Asian faces in our modelling scene. When she gets big, let's hope she does not forget where she came from with the nasty shrimp sandwiches:

"When we were shooting those commercials I was allowed to spit the burgers out if I ate too many," she recalls. 

  7 comments Latest by Topher Cantler
"What's this about lesbian shrimp?"...read more



 Slighty chubby people live longer, says Japanese study
by Dale North, 06/22/2009
Slighty chubby people live longer, says Japanese study photo

I've been trying to find a good side to my blogger's physique lately and now I think I finally have with a study by the Japanese health ministry.

People with a little belly flab at around the age of 40 outlive skinny people by six or seven years. What this tells me is that I should get the double cheeseburger for lunch.

"We found skinny people run the highest risk," said Shinichi Kuriyama, an associate professor at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Medicine. "We had expected thin people would show the shortest life expectancy but didn't expect the difference to be this large."

They studied 50,000 people between ages 40 and 79 in northern Japan. At first they thought that the decreased lifespan for the skinnies was due to smoking or sickness, but even removed, the result didn't change much. Instead, they point to their higher vulnerability to diseases.

But for you up-and-coming tubbies, don't go crazy eating to live longer: "It's better that thin people try to gain normal weight, but we doubt it's good for people of normal physique to put on more fat," Kuriyama said.

So skip the fries? I'm confused.

[via Vancouver Sun]


  6 comments Latest by BGFUSAB
"60 minutes (I think it was 60 minutes, is was some new magazine show) ran a story about a month ago that said tee exact opposite. Some American scientists claim to have discovered that people on ..."...read more



 Man caught shoplifting girls' unmentionables...in his pants
by Josh Tolentino, 06/19/2009
Man caught shoplifting girls' unmentionables...in his pants photo

Hyogo Prefecture resident Katsutoshi Nishigaki was arrested Monday while trying to leave a store in with four pairs of women's underwear layered under his pants. A plainclothes security guard for the store got suspicious when the 29-year-old salaryman entered the lingerie section. Nishigaki did his layering in, of all places, in the women's fitting room.

Honestly, this is pretty mundane news, but it brought up some interesting points for me. First, I never knew that there were "plainclothes" security guards around. For some reason it conjures up nightmarish mental images of Paul Blart, Mall Cop in drag, whispering into one of those police earpieces as customers walk around. Second, the reports note that the stolen items' worth only adds up to ¥5,670, barely $55. The man could have bought some h-doujinshi or a copy of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 and gotten more out of it.

Then again, impulse crimes rarely make sense, and this certainly seems to be one. Also, I've always wanted to use that suffix...in my pants.


  5 comments Latest by kamanashi
"@The-Excel: I saw that video not to long ago. It was good idea, until he got caught on cmera."...read more



 Get a part-time job at McDonald's Japan with this burger making game
by Dale North, 06/15/2009
Get a part-time job at McDonald's Japan with this burger making game photo

My love affair with McDonald's Japan knows no bounds. Their slightly different spin on what would be considered normal everyday fast food here in the U.S. has me following their every step. Regular readers of Japanator know that we love to try their new foods, and even their mascot, the Japanese Ronald McDonald, has his own special Japanator tag.

Today I found a browser game on the McDonald's Japan webpage. It has the hilarious mispelling of hamburger in the URL: humberger. Anyway, this Flash-based game has you working as a part-timer at McDonald's as a burger assembler.  A customer will come to the counter to order, and you'll have a set amount of time to assemble the sandwich correctly from memory. The goal is to see how many customers you can please during your part-time shift.

To play, go to the webpage and look for the button that says "Geemu Start." Click that and look for a pop-up window. Hit the "1" number key to start the game. You'll be shown a sample sandwich to examine for three seconds. After that, it's up to you to assembe the order correctly, using your number keys. Complete your sandwich by hitting the "0" number key to end. Let us know your high score.

For fun, I abused the system and made 5 beef patty burgers with fish, chicken, and beef. Knowing McDonald's Japan, it won't be too long before they take my suggestion and add it to the menu.

  2 comments Latest by Dale North
"I made one that was all fish. Tried to eat my screen"...read more



 McDonald's Japan's Bacon and Potato Pie: horrendous, disgusting, amazing
by Dale North, 10/20/2008
McDonald's Japan's Bacon and Potato Pie: horrendous, disgusting, amazing photo

When you're an on-the-go foreigner in Japan, there's a pretty good chance that you'll find yourself grabbing a bite to eat at McDonald's. That was certainly the case for the three of us that covered the Tokyo Game Show last month for our sister site, Destructoid. One was located at the base of our hotel, right across from the station. Hey, it was hard to avoid! Hey, we were really busy!

From the very first day we noticed the Bacon and Potato Pie on the menu. It looks like your typical fruit pie, but there's hot, bacon-y goodness inside instead. We all swore that we had to try that, but no one did for the first few days. It wasn't until Destructoid's Editor-in-Chief Nick Chester tried one that I felt I could. I couldn't get a straight answer out of him on whether it was good or not. He just said that I "had to try it at least once."

I did.

It's gross and good at the same time. Think greasy mashed potatoes with limp ham-like bacon and you'll be on the right track. My stomach was not on the right track after eating it. You could say that it Ran-ran-ruined my appetite. Despite the stomach pain and grossness, I've found myself daydreaming of another mushy mouthful of this strange side item since returning from Japan.

Believe it or not, this pie was ranked the number one side item on Oricon's gourmet page. And it's not as bad for you as I had originally thought. I'm crazy enough to eat another one of these pies. I'm not crazy enough to eat a Double McRib. It's like a death sandwich.


  12 comments Latest by Sigue
"I'd eat that so hard."...read more






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