It was a Japan-filled day. I went to the Xidan Muji today to check out their housewares. It was a little pricey for things I wasn’t even looking for, but I thought I’d buy a notebook and fun pen. Still, it wasn’t a total loss of a day. Look what I found on the sixth floor of Joy City:

It’s mochi ice cream! I’m so happy they’ve hit China. It was pretty hard to find them back in the States. The little kiosk that was selling them was crowded with curious Chinese people inquiring about them. They were cheap, too! — 5 to 6 kuai each depending on the flavor. I got my favorites, green tea and red bean, and the box of six cost only 33 kuai. (As you can see, I already ate one.) Other flavors include chocolate, yogurt and blueberry cream.

I find it a little funny that Chinese people haven’t heard about these little balls of heaven. Japan isn’t that far off their coast, and it’s actually derived from a popular southern Chinese snack called muah chee (mochi is probably the Japanese bastardization of the Chinese name. Chinese mochi is pronounced like muah-jee.) Chinese mochi are balls of chewy glutinous rice flour coated in dried coconut shavings and filled with super finely chopped toasted sesame and sugar (or peanuts and sugar or red beans).

In other Joh’s-favorite-foreign-snacks news, Krispy Kreme has also hit China! But in Shanghai, though =(