CRATES.

You know, the monthly subscription boxes.

Make-up. Dog treats. Wine. Legos.

There is a crate for every weirdo out there…thank goodness.

Birchbox, you ain’t got nothin’ on Japan Crate!!!

I’m totally smitten. I’ve only tried Birch Box, and I liked it okay but it was pretty expensive for what it was. When I signed up and filled out the questionnaire I figured they would actually take in to consideration what I said: I love nail polish and hate perfume. Well, guess who got perfume and no nail polish for 3 months? I don’t mean to sound so whiny, and in fact my 3 month trial was a gift and it was fun to get something in the mail every month. Amethyst has a similar experience with Ipsy. I like the idea behind these boxes but I think cosmetics are just too specific to treat generically.

I do NOT feel this way about snacky foods from Japan.

I do not feel this way about adorable collectibles.

Enter Japan Crate…

Here is what is looked like right as we* opened the box!

*we is me and Amethyst–we went in on the JapanCrate together. The DokiDoki box was all hers…but she ended up sharing some of it with me anyway. Such a good friend 🙂

Here is the loot!

We split up all the stuff into things that I could eat (without gelatin) and what Amethyst wanted. I wanted to eat that marshmallow SO BAD! Dang. The potato chips (upper left) were seasoned with seaweed, but in an American sort of way. I LOVE 100% seaweed ‘chips’ though, so my threshold for that flavor is pretty high. I honestly thought these were kinda bland. That did not stop me from eating the entire bag, though. 😉 The caramel puffed corn (upper right) was really tasty, but the pieces looked like grub worms. It’s worth noting that there were at least 4 items that tasted like their food base was a flavorless cheesy poof. But in a good way. It’s kinda hard to describe.

Speaking of, the Big Bar was like a white chocolate covered cheesy poof. The pictures I took of the Big Bar were all blurry. Probably because I was so excited to eat it lol! I liked this candy a LOT and would have eaten four of them if I could. The chocolate was a little on the greasy feeling side, but despite that strange sensation it was still worth eating again.

Here is the Bungeoppang or Taiyaki. Have you ever had an Aero Bar? The chocolate inside was full of tiny air bubbles sort of like that. The outside was a remarkably light, crispy wafer. It was a bit like a reverse KitKat bar. I’m not sure that I’d go out of my way to get another one of these candy bar versions, but I would LOVE to try one of the ones that is made with batter and red bean filling.

TINY KITTY IN A TEA CUP!

Panda Cookies!

Grumpy Panda does NOT want to get eaten!

Too bad.

He was delicious.

That is not a palm full of drugs! It’s a pop-rocks kind of candy that was AWESOME! The popping pieces were way big and so they popped BIG in your mouth! They actually verged on hurting! It was wonderful. The flavor was supposed to be cola (the popping part) and lemonade (the round pieces). I would love to have a whole box of these packets!

The candies on the right were 100% honey hard candies. The candy itself was about the size of a dime. I liked them okay. It tasted a bit like ‘old lady’ suck candy. They’d probably be really nice if you had a sore throat. They tasted like honey, but with a vegetable-esque after taste.

Here is the crazy DIY goo that came with the crate. We had a hilarious blast mixing this up when ModMom and Grumpy Skittles came over for the latest Doll Club meeting. It was SO GOO-ey! The consensus was that it tasted pretty good but that is was pretty weird having to bite off a liquid!

Full disclosure, I’m not sure that I would want to get this box every month, or rather, I don’t have the disposable income to afford $30 worth of Japanese snacks every month. If I won the lottery, I would absolutely get this crate every month! The DokiDoki box is more to my fancy. Pretty much every thing that came in it was full blow squee worthy.

Here is the Doraemon coin purse that I got from the DokiDoki box!

Amethyst thinks Doraemon is too weird. I think he’s just right, haha!

The verdict on these boxes? I LOVE THEM. I hope I can scrounge up enough money for the June DokiDoki crate which is HARAJUKU themed!!!! Ahhhhhh! And if I win the lottery, I’ll get the Japan crate, too XD

Stay tuned to Thirsty Thursday for a review of the soft drink you saw in the box!

What crates to y’all subscribe to?

Have you had similar good & bad luck with the contents?