Matcha Tea Set – Matcha tea is becoming more and more famous around the world and we, at Sugoii Japan, are big fans too! First, it has so much health benefits! It’s high in antioxidants, can help you lose weight, and has positive impacts on your liver and brain. But one of the best thing about Matcha tea is probably its preparation.

Indeed, the preparation of your tea via a traditional Japanese tea ceremony is a meditation session by itself! It’s so relaxing to slowly prepare your beverage and drink it by following the ancient Japanese traditions. For more info, we wrote a whole guide about the Japanese tea ceremony here.

To perform this traditional ceremony at home, you will need a matcha tea set but don’t worry, we have you covered!

What Is included In A Matcha Tea Set?

A Matcha tea set needs to contain these 4 following tools:

• One large bowl where you will drink your tea.
• One whisk called a chasen in Japanese. The whisk is actually pretty important cause it will help you to mix uniformly the matcha powder and the hot water. The design of the matcha whisk will also help you to create small air balls in order to give a visually pleasing look to your beverage. The whisk is made from a single piece of bamboo with uniform “teeth”.
• In order to keep the shape of the whisk, it’s advised to use a chasen holder, usually made in ceramic.
• The last tool you will need in your kit is a bamboo spoon called chashaku in Japanese. As you may have guessed, the chashaku is used to add your matcha powder into your bowl.

With these 4 tools, you will be able to prepare your matcha tea at home like a real Japanese tea master!

Get One …continue reading

    

Japanese facial masks are the craze right now. In fact, they have been for the past few years, and there seems to be no signs of it slowing down!

What makes them so popular, you ask?

In recent years when skincare popularity went through the roof, people began turning to countries like Japan and South Korea. Hailed as some of the leading countries in the world in terms of beauty products, it didn’t take much time for many brands to become household names.

One of the items that became super popular to use personally as well as purchase as gifts is face masks.

The rise in Korean and Japanese dramas saw the gradual interest in face masks also grow. People became more and more exposed to the benefits and regular use of them through streaming shows on places like Netflix.

As of now, there are hundreds of brands of face masks that you can purchase. However, some particular Japanese brands have sought the top position in terms of popularity and they aren’t letting go anytime soon.

We’ve listed below 10 of the best Japanese facial masks that you can use for better skin.

1. Lululun Pink Face Masks

We’re starting off this fantastic list with, of course, the most recognisable face mask product across all Japanese drug stores: the pink Lululun face masks.

This is one of the best, all-rounder daily face masks that most people can use. Its benefits include enhancing the skin protection barrier on the face. It also aims to gradually improve the base foundation of your skin for stronger, better skin health.

It contains various ingredients for a moisturising mask, including hyaluronic acid and acacia honey. It also includes rice ceramide and ginseng roots.

The Lululun pink face masks are a powerful tool to use to keep your face fresh …continue reading

    

Another perfect way to get some exercise while working at the desk or watching TV.

Depending on your living space and your schedule, getting an adequate amount of exercise can be pretty difficult, not to mention expensive if you want larger exercise equipment such as a treadmill. However, thanks to a new line of goods released by Japanese sports equipment company Mizuno, folks can now purchase workout goods which function as chic furniture.

The Mizuno Healthy Interior line offers a diverse array of furniture, from stools to even ottomans. While at first glance, these minimalistic products look like stylish pieces of furniture, in reality, they’re each incorporated with a special feature that enables a wide variety of workouts.

For example, the Le Coeur is both a coffee table as well as a way to limber up your shoulder muscles. When not in use, it’s a fashionable, minimalistic piece where you can leave your favorite cup of tea while reading your favorite book. However, when it’s time to get those gains, folks can use the knobs on the wooden turntable atop the Le Coeur for basic shoulder exercises and stretches.

▼ The Le Coeur available at 19,800 yen (US$181.76)

▼ Don’t forget to stretch before exercising!

If you want to continue exercising your arms after the Le Coeur, there’s also the Ballretch and the Ringretch. The Ballretch are a set of weights disguised as cushions. Each weighing 500 grams, or roughly 18 ounces, and priced at 3,080 yen (US$28.27), the Ballretch is a multifunctional weight which can be used to tone your shoulders, …continue reading

    

Is the colour change really that great? And what about the straw, does that change colour too? We test it out to find the answers.

It’s all happening here at Starbucks right now, with celebrations in full swing to mark the chain’s 25th anniversary in Japan. That means we’ve been spoilt with specially marked drinkware collections, limited-edition Frappuccinos and now…the arrival of colour-changing cups.

While the four-piece colour-changing cup sets are yet to be released on 19 April, we were lucky enough to find a larger version, with a lid and a straw, hiding out on the counter at our local Starbucks. According to staff, the 709-millilitre (24-ounce) reusable cup went on sale on 14 April, and it’s considerably larger than the cups in the upcoming set, which don’t include a straw and lid.

We didn’t need any convincing to purchase this beauty–in fact we wanted to witness its magical colour-changing ability immediately so we ordered an iced coffee at the same time and asked staff to fill our new cup with it.

The outside of the cup started off with a shade of blue-green that reminded us of famous jewellery brand Tiffany’s, but once our drink had been poured into it, the part filled with cold liquid had turned a lovely shade of pink.

After finding ourselves a table, we peeled off the lid and peered inside. This cup had a much larger capacity than most of the reusable cups currently sold at Starbucks, and while we’d hoped that the straw might possess the same colour-changing qualities as the cup, alas it was still Tiffany blue.

Clever design frees up more room for your winter storage.

As much as we love using electric fans in summer, when the sweat is pouring off us as the Japanese humidity melts its way through our souls, the appliances tend to become a burden over winter, when they take up precious space in our tiny Japanese homes.

Here to solve this problem is Japanese company Yamazen, who’s finally come up with a clever way to break the fan up into separate parts and have it fold down onto itself so that it becomes a third of its usual size.

▼ The DC Motor 30-centimetre High Living Fan YHX-FGD30 is here to change the way we store fans forever.

In its upright state, the fan looks like any other conventional fan, but this one can be adjusted in height from 92 centimetres at its highest position to 23.5 centimetres at its shortest, when it’s ready to be packed away. The “folding” space-saving feature is the result of a clever design that allows for the shaft, cord, and remote control to be stashed away inside the bottom of the base, with the fan section then slotting into the top of the base, to make it look as if it’s been folded on top of itself.

Disassembly is super easy, and the fact that the front of the fan is covered while it’s being stored means you won’t have to worry about dust accumulating on the blades either. Once winter is over and it’s time to save yourself from the sweats again, the fan is just as easy to assemble, requiring just four steps, or three steps if you want to only add one …continue reading

    

New release helps to change the world…in more ways than one.

Japan may have been slow to join the crusade against plastic straws and disposable coffee cups, but now that they’re on board they’ve been going all out with reusable products, especially at Starbucks, where you can now get eco-friendly straws, tumblers, and even…colour changing cups.

While these cups were first released in the U.S. and Canada back in 2019, it’s taken a while for the coffeehouse chain to roll them out on a global scale, with the product appearing in the U.K. late last year, and now, in Japan from 19 April.

▼ The new product is called “Colour Changing Cold Cup Set No Filter“.

Here in Japan, the rainbow of colours appearing in the four-piece set is being used to draw attention to an important cause, with a portion of sales going towards the “Rainbow School Project” which delivers lessons about diversity and LGBT issues to junior and senior high school students.

▼ Each set of cups contains the following four colours: Orange; Pink; Blue; Green.

Once you’ve added a cold beverage to them, they instantly transform, with the body of the yellow cup turning green, the pink cup turning purple, the blue cup turning pink, and the green one becoming orange.

The cups were created to support the ethos of “living in your own way”, and whether you choose to use them at home or work, or outdoors at picnics, they’re sure to attract attention.

▼ The lightweight cups come with their own carry bag for extra convenience.

<img src="https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/Starbucks-colour-changing-cups-LGBTQ-community-support-coffee-Japan-Tokyo-news-3.jpg?w=600" alt="" width="600" height="639" srcset="https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/Starbucks-colour-changing-cups-LGBTQ-community-support-coffee-Japan-Tokyo-news-3.jpg 600w, https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/04/Starbucks-colour-changing-cups-LGBTQ-community-support-coffee-Japan-Tokyo-news-3.jpg?resize=141,150 …continue reading

    

People tend to forget about Daily Yamazaki, but this cool feature makes the chain totally worth remembering.

By this point, we’re all pretty aware of the fact that Japan’s convenience stores are treasure troves of tasty treats. But while you can always find something worth munching on at 7-Eleven, Family Mart, or Lawson, the lower-profile chain Daily Yamazaki has something extra special.

Instead of just the standard shelf of shipped-from-a-factory breads and pastries that all Japanese convenience stores have, select branches of Daily Yamazaki have their own attached bakery, called Daily Hot, where they bake bread and offer it fresh out of the oven!

The Daily Hot bread is a self-serve affair. At the bottom of the case are trays and tongs, so just grab whatever pieces you want and bring them all up to the convenience store register to pay and be on your way with your fresh-baked baked goods.

The quality is better than what you get with pre-packaged convenience store breads, and the price is cheaper than what you’d pay at non-convenience store bakeries. With that combination, you can’t really go wrong with anything from Daily Yamazaki’s Daily Hot lineup, but we’ve got four in particular that we’re big fans of, starting with their melon bread (140 yen [US$1.35]). Because it’s fresh from the oven, the Daily Hot melon bread’s top retains a cookie-like crunch, with none of the mushiness that sometimes affects prepackaged varieties.

Likewise, …continue reading

    

New aprons are here for completing your home cooking, gardening, and other household chores in perfect Poké-style.

Japanese custom dress shirt label Original Stitch has been making our dreams come true with their “gotta wear ’em all!” comprehensive line of Pokémon shirts since 2019. With 151 unique Pokémon patterns based on the original lineup of Generation I Kanto Pokémon and an ever-expanding line of additional Generation patterns to choose from, we’re hard-pressed to select just ten, let alone one, of our favorite Pocket Monster fabric designs.

Following up on their face mask collection in the fall, Original Stitch has once again expanded their offerings to include two styles of aprons that are customizable on the front surface, reverse surface, and pocket areas. They’re a unisex, one-size-fits-all venture and will undoubtedly add flair to your day as you go about your household chores or hobbies.

▼ Example designs: (Left) Ditto pattern, (Right) Farfetch’d pattern

Let’s take a look at each style in a bit more detail.

1. Halter style / 7,500 yen (US$68) and up

The longer style of the two, this halter-style apron provides the fullest coverage over your clothing and handy pockets to store small items.

An adjustable neck strap ensures your comfort as well.

Here’s an example design of the halter style:

▼ (Left) Front surface: Slowbro pattern, (Right) Reverse surface: Slowpoke pattern

2. Café style / 5,500 yen and up

Right out of a chic eatery, this café …continue reading

    

Out of all the motifs to come out in this collab, there was one which completely blindsided us.

One of Japan’s premier watchmakers and the inventor of the quartz watch, Seiko is not only known for its craftsmanship but also for its special collaborations. Time and time again Seiko wows the world with its creative and stylish takes on our favorite franchises, and starting from the end of April, the renowned watch maker will be collaborating with stylish Tokyo-based Evisen Skateboards to create a series of snazzy watches with one tongue-in-cheek exception.

In total, there are three new watches in this limited edition collab. The first watch is based off a kabuto, or samurai helmet, which is no surprise seeing as the “E” in “Evisen Skateboards” is based off the crest of a kabuto rotated onto its side. For the kabuto-themed watch, its design includes a black silicone wristband set in a paisley pattern as well as a golden case to complements its darker colors.

One more special touch to this particular watch is the inclusion of daiji. Daiji are a specific set of kanji used for numerals in financial or legal documents in order to prevent unscrupulous folks from messing with monetary values, given how easy it is to change certain numerical kanji with one stroke. The daiji are engraved on the watch’s outer case as numerical denominations, providing a practical and cool but not overly flashy touch.

…continue reading