#cooljapanguide

Yuuko and I at Comic Market in Tokyo the summer of 1997

At Comitia in Tokyo the fall of 2010

In Toronto for TCAF in 2017

Being a cartoonist, I had been a fan of manga and became interested in Japanese culture. I was excited by women’s comics culture in Japan which seemed so much stronger and more vast than American comics culture in the 1990s. Yuuko and I met by lucky coincidence. I had printed 50 copies of my mini-comic Tough Love in 1996. I had put it for sale in some local record and zine shops. Yuuko bought a copy at Other Music when she was on vacation in NYC. She wrote to me, and we struck up a pen-pal friendship, mailing our comics to each other. Then, I made a plan to study in Tokyo the summer of 1997 and Yuuko and I collaborated on a comic to sell at Comic Market. That was such a memorable time for me and there are many small details that still spring to my mind freshly.

I remember meeting Yuuko in person for the first time. I was staying at Asia Center, as was arranged for my student program. I had faxed her instructions to the hotel. Yuuko brought snacks to share while we worked on our comic. You can read the full comic here now!  A package of senbei rice crackers and bottled iced tea, unsweetened. It was my first time trying those things. Unsweetened bottled tea was not common in the US in the ‘90s.

I remember going to a noodle restaurant and Yuuko showing me how to buy noodles with a ticket from a vending machine.

I fondly remember hugging Yuuko on the street and her surprised reaction, as public hugging isn’t so common in Japan.

Those are just a few of the great memories I have from that first trip.

Usually, you can get butter, cheese, and salad flavor. They also have loads of special edition flavors (seasonal and regional) that I've been seeking out lately. On this most recent trip to Japan I found eight different special flavor cups!

It's tough to break down the flavor on all of them, but I will say that any seafood theme has been especially great. The Hotate (scallop) Butter (pictured below) that we got in November 2015 was amazing! The yuzu salt also stood out to me.

Jagarico has great package design! Each cup has a very detailed look, down to the recurring giraffe mascot characters and even the barcodes! The website has a lot of detail on those.

Don't mistake them for Jagabee, which are also good, but more like a natural potato shape. Somehow, I don't like those as much though. I hope Jagarico will make its way to US shelves soon!

Pictured:

Top Row: Yuzu Salt

Second Row left to right: Garlic Butter, Seabream Rice

Third Row left to right: Uni (sea urchin) Cream, Honey Quatro Cheese, Sweet Potato Kinako Black Honey, Tarako Butter