fusion – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today. Wed, 18 Jun 2025 01:00:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/05/en_rocket_1024.png?w=32 fusion – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com 32 32 176746664 Is 7-Eleven’s new anko butter burrito un-bean-lievably bad, or burrito bliss? https://soranews24.com/2025/06/18/is-7-elevens-new-anko-butter-burrito-un-bean-lievably-bad-or-burrito-bliss/ https://soranews24.com/2025/06/18/is-7-elevens-new-anko-butter-burrito-un-bean-lievably-bad-or-burrito-bliss/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2025 01:00:09 +0000 https://soranews24.com/?p=705205 
We spill the beans on 7-Eleven Japan’s latest fusion food.
Burritos aren’t all that common in Japan, to the point that one of our Japanese-language reporters had never eaten one until last year. Therefore, we’re always intrigued whenever a common chain like 7-Eleven Japan announces that a new burrito product is joining the ranks, like one did on June 11. The An Butter Burrito, which is currently retailing for 302 yen (US$2.10), isn’t a typical burrito filled with pinto beans or black beans, but rather with anko (sweetened red bean paste) and butter instead. It’s solidly in the Japanese fusion-food category, similar to many of the chain’s burritos of the past.
We were insanely curious to try this new offering, whose main ingredient is more of a traditional Japanese dessert than a meal, so we grabbed one from our local store and brought it home. Its label stated that the high-quality tsubuan (coarse sweetened red bean paste) filling was sourced from the Tokachi district of Hokkaido.
After popping it in the microwave, we took a generous bite. While the butter didn’t really have much of an aroma, it was solidly reflected in the taste (actually, we wouldn’t have minded even more!). The combination of sweet anko and moderately salty butter in a springy tortilla was simply divine.
Despite using tsubuan, which retains some of the lumpiness of the red beans, the filling felt smooth. Rather, it mainly seemed melty and sticky, more like koshian (strained sweetened red bean paste). All in all, it was quite satisfying and will be perfect for whenever the desire to fill ourselves up with something sweet strikes.
Well, that’s a wrap on 7-Eleven’s new An Butter Burrito. If you’re still craving more Japanese fusion burritos, luckily there are plenty to be found, from sushi to okonomiyaki varieties.
All images © SoraNews24
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]]> https://soranews24.com/2025/06/18/is-7-elevens-new-anko-butter-burrito-un-bean-lievably-bad-or-burrito-bliss/feed/ 0 705205 5_f28695 Tokyo luxury hotel teams up with Cup Noodle for 50th anniversary ramen cocktails and course meals https://soranews24.com/2021/06/15/tokyo-luxury-hotel-teams-up-with-nissin-cup-noodle-for-a-50th-anniversary-celebratory-menu/ https://soranews24.com/2021/06/15/tokyo-luxury-hotel-teams-up-with-nissin-cup-noodle-for-a-50th-anniversary-celebratory-menu/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2021 04:00:19 +0000 https://soranews24.com/?p=545536 
‘Cause what better way to celebrate turning 50 than with some “noods”?
One wouldn’t normally associate the Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo, a well-established luxury hotel (and first high-rise hotel in Japan!) in Tokyo’s Nishi-Shinjuku district, with the humble and cheap cup instant ramen brand Nissin Cup Noodle. However, this year they do have one very particular thing in common–each of them is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1971.
To commemorate this milestone, Keio Plaza Hotel chefs and bartenders have (literally) cooked up an extensive menu featuring various flavors of Cup Noodles as the basis for each dish. In fact, the final selections gracing the menu were all winners from a friendly internal cooking competition. Whether you’re planning a short stay at the hotel or are living there for a month, be sure to check out this unusual rags-meets-riches fusion menu.
▼ They’re either mad geniuses or simply mad–we won’t know until we’ve tried it.
Each of the menu offerings falls under the general categories of Western, Japanese, or Chinese-inspired cuisine as well as buffet items and cocktails. Let’s take a look at the fare now in more detail.
● Western-style dishes: Lunch & Dinner 50th Anniversary Collaboration Course (4,500 yen [US$41])
This selection consists of an all-day-long dining course composed of the three dishes detailed below.
Chili tomato Cup Noodles petit chilled salad (3 types, 1,800 yen)
European cheese curry Cup Noodles pot pie soup (1,500 yen)
Smoked salmon and white fish stuffed with seafood Cup Noodles, broth-style (2,500 yen)
● Japanese-style dishes: Lunch Cup Noodles Feast, (3,800 yen)
This extravagant course takes its cue from a traditional Japanese kaiseki meal featuring many small courses.
If you’d rather not spring for the full feast, you can purchase one of the three types of takikomigohan (rice cooked together in the same pot with various ingredients) made using salt, miso, or plain Cup Noodles (1,200 yen)
● Chinese-style dishes
There are only two menu items to choose from here.
Mystery meat and Kobe beef curry Cup Noodles fried rice (2,800 yen)
Twice-fried spicy tonkotsu Cup Noodles, seafood stew style (3,400 yen)
● Buffet items
Prices for the all-you-can-buffet (two-hour limit; reservation required), featuring the following eight dishes, are as follows:
- Adults: 5,800 yen (lunch) or 7,800 yen (dinner)
- Children (4-12 years old): 2,900 yen (lunch) or 4,000 yen (dinner)
- Children under 4: free
Cilantro-flavored Cup Noodles salad
Chilled shabu-shabu with spicy tonkotsu Cup Noodles and green onion sauce
European cheese curry and Keio Plaza Hotel’s traditional curry
Chili tomato Cup Noodles mini hamburgers
Salt Cup Noodles sandwiches
Seafood Cup Noodles gratin, flavored with lemon
Curry Cup Noodles and mystery meat baked sweets
Chocolate mousse with miso Cup Noodles
Cocktails
Pick your poison–or, rather, favorite Cup Noodles flavor paired with your favorite alcoholic beverage!
Vodka-based seafood Cup Noodles cocktail / 1,650 yen
Bourbon whiskey-based Cup Noodles cocktail / 1,750 yen
Tequila-based chili tomato Cup Noodles cocktail / 1,000 yen
Coconut liqueur-based curry Cup Noodles cocktail / 1,200 yen
Are you watering at the mouth yet?
This 50th anniversary collaborative menu will be available at Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo between July 1-August 31. With Cup Noodles’ newfound touch of opulence, it certainly brings a whole new vibe to the lyric “Guess it’s Nissin Cup Noodle today” that J-pop superstar Utada Hikaru sings in her 2007 song “Kiss & Cry.”
▼ Cup Noodles mentioned at the 1:53 mark
May we all have a deeper appreciation for the humble instant “noods” moving forward.
Source, images: Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo News Release, Keio Plaza Hotel
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]]> https://soranews24.com/2021/06/15/tokyo-luxury-hotel-teams-up-with-nissin-cup-noodle-for-a-50th-anniversary-celebratory-menu/feed/ 0 545536 4 Twitter user plays God with unholy cat and Roomba fusion https://soranews24.com/2018/07/10/twitter-user-plays-god-with-unholy-cat-and-roomba-fusion/ https://soranews24.com/2018/07/10/twitter-user-plays-god-with-unholy-cat-and-roomba-fusion/#comments Tue, 10 Jul 2018 04:00:01 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=418374 Some Twitter users just want to watch the world burn**. Others want their personal vacuum cleaner to have an unnerving cat’s head atop it at all times.**
There is just something so dreadfully compelling about the idea of breaking two things down to their salient parts and then recombining them into something bigger, better and more powerful. Sometimes that’s as simple as two great-tasting foods that are combined into one product, sometimes it’s as complex as smushing an animal and a fruit together and turning it into a plastic toy.
Kids’ shows like Steven Universe and Dragonball Z are quick to show us how teaming up with a fusion dance can help us save the day:
Sometimes, though, we go too far in our quest for power. Sometimes we play with the rules of nature too quickly and easily.
Sometimes, we create monsters.
Twitter user @sacocho proudly displayed one such creature, and the Japanese Internet promptly cowered in terror at man’s hubris.
▼ “A fusion of a cat and a Roomba.
#FantasyCreatureAnthology #MAkeAFantasyCreature #Wool #WoolFelt”
ネコとルンバの雑種。#奇想生物図鑑 #奇想生物 #奇想ものづくり #羊毛 #羊毛フェルト pic.twitter.com/gM7Dt6SRWJ
— 人工猫ウ (@sacocho) July 7, 2018
The creature in question is filmed entering the room, slowly, steadily and with an increasing sense of menace. Its eyes contain no light or reason. It moves like a tragic ghost towards the camera, the fur on its right-hand side rippling erratically as it goes. What does it want? Where will it go from here?
We are given no answer.
@sacocho remained remorseless after the tweet’s initial success, posting another image.
▼ “Thanks for all the retweets! His name is Baroom, and he’s a zero-year-old male cat.”
たくさんのリツイートありがとうございます。
オスの0歳、名前は「バルン」といいますpic.twitter.com/pWF3YrgTaA
— 人工猫ウ (@sacocho) July 8, 2018
Wait – it can’t be… This isn’t @sacocho’s first cat hybrid?!
▼ “I got a cat.
#CatRail #FantasyCreature #FantasyCreatureAnthology”
https://twitter.com/sacocho/status/981137633597206529
Apparently Cat Rail is a female cat, also zero years old, named “Rel”.
After thousands of likes and a litany of comments begging for explanations (and in some cases, drastic extermination measures), @sacocho posted one last update:
“Thank you so much for over 10,000 RTs and likes.
Right now I only have the two cats, but I’d love to adopt more and more and then maybe open up a limited-time cat cafe with them…
If you guys know of any kind of event space in the Kansai area where I can set that up, it’d really help me out.
Oh, and one last thing.
I’m a dog person!”
It makes sense that a dog lover would only exact such terrible experiments on the feline population. Maybe somewhere out there in the Twittersphere there’s a real-life Shou Tucker from Fullmetal Alchemist doing the exact same thing in reverse.
▼ “Wait ’til you see my next chimera, Edward. It cleans your apartment for you!”
If @sacocho does go through with this scheme for a cat cafe, here’s hoping it’ll be confined to hybrid cats only. We shudder to think how regular cats would react to a man-made disaster like this one.
Source, featured image: Twitter/@sacocho
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/07/10/twitter-user-plays-god-with-unholy-cat-and-roomba-fusion/feed/ 0 418374 Screenshot_5 Sailor Moon herself wants you to buy a new Ford in English-language anime commercial 【Video】 https://soranews24.com/2016/11/11/sailor-moon-herself-wants-you-to-buy-a-new-ford-in-english-language-anime-commercial-%e3%80%90video%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2016/11/11/sailor-moon-herself-wants-you-to-buy-a-new-ford-in-english-language-anime-commercial-%e3%80%90video%e3%80%91/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2016 04:00:36 +0000 http://en.rocketnews24.com/?p=353883 
It’s even available in schoolgirl uniform blue!
Getting older can be a little strange when your hobbies include things as unabashedly youth-oriented as anime. After years of feeling like the tone of the medium is in tune with your own psyche, one day you realize you’re twice the age of the main characters of the latest hits, and as the time demands of adult life pile up, it becomes harder and harder to watch every single episode of every new series.
But perhaps the most surreal moment is when your favorite anime characters aren’t just being used to sell you posters and plushies, but actual automobiles.
As part of its sporadic Overdubs series of Internet advertisements, Ford Motor Company is once again tapping into the nostalgia that lies in the hearts of 1990s-era otaku with a new video featuring Sailor Moon pining after the automaker’s Fusion compact sedan.
As the video opens, we see series lead Usagi (the video earns a little otaku cred by calling her by her original Japanese name, as opposed to Serena, Bunny, or one of her other localized monikers) staring up at the night sky with feline mentor Luna. Together, they spot the constellations Sagittarius, Libra, and…Ford Fusion…?
▼ Huh. Don’t remember seeing that one at the planetarium.
Charmed by its looks, Usagi gushes “It’s the most stylish car I’ve ever seen.” Relatively handsome though it may be, that seems like a bit of an exaggeration, but then again, restraint was never Usagi’s strong suit. The cooler-headed Luna points out that the car also has some hi-tech safety features, such as pre-collision assist and pedestrian detection, before Usagi adds “A Lightning Blue one would match my uniform perfectly.”
▼ She’s got a point, although I can understand why Ford, to appeal to the widest market possible, went with the name “Lightning Blue” instead of “Japanese Schoolgirl Navy.”
Of course, as Luna points out, junior high student Usagi is to young to get a license just yet. She’ll be old enough in a couple of years, though, and when she finally does find herself behind the wheel, hopefully she’ll have the maturity to resist the urge to race Dragon Ball’s Krillin and Gohan when they rev up on her in a Ford of their own.
Source: YouTube/Ford Motor Company via Anime News Network/Lynzee Loveridge
Images: YouTube/Ford Motor Company, Ford Motor Company
]]> https://soranews24.com/2016/11/11/sailor-moon-herself-wants-you-to-buy-a-new-ford-in-english-language-anime-commercial-%e3%80%90video%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 353883 sf-0 sf-1 sf-2 sf-3 sf-4 Fan artist fuses Pokémon into creatively cute combinations【Pics】 https://soranews24.com/2016/08/27/fan-artist-fuses-pokemon-into-creatively-cute-combinations%e3%80%90pics%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2016/08/27/fan-artist-fuses-pokemon-into-creatively-cute-combinations%e3%80%90pics%e3%80%91/#comments Sat, 27 Aug 2016 03:00:19 +0000 http://en.rocketnews24.com/?p=341146 We’re more than a tad disappointed we’ll never be able to catch these fusion versions in any of the games.
In the past, we’ve seen cosplay inspired by Pokémon fused with other games, but it turns out that there’s a whole other world of fan art featuring Pokémon fused with other Pokémon, too.
Artist and Twitter user Nintendobratkat has been making these Pokémon combos since 2014, and at one time had the goal of fusing Pikachu with all 150 original anime characters. The task proved a bit too tedious, however, and she decided it would be more worthwhile to devote her time to taking requests instead.
Just take a look at these cute combinations, and you’ll see just why she’s gotten so many points on popular image sharing site Imgur.
She’s even created some cool evolution fusions, like:
▼ Bulbachu → Ivychu → Venachu
▼ Charchu → Pikameleon → Pikaizard
Things get a little crazy with three-in-one fusions like these:
Quite a few more can be found in her full gallery, which is available here.
You may be surprised to find learn that Pokémon fusions are so popular that they have their own subreddit, and there’s even a market for making Pokémon fusion plush dolls on Etsy and other sites.
Tentaish (Tentacruel + Oddish) Fusion Plush on Etsy, by theBlackLory
Considering that there are over 720 official Pokémon now, I would imagine many of the animators are exhausted from coming up with new original character designs. In the future, Pokémon fusions could be just the breath of fresh air needed to keep the franchise going.
By the way, if you’re interested in asking Nintendobratkat to draw any fusion ideas you may have, you can reach her on Imgur or DeviantArt.
Source and featured image: Imgur/nintendobratkat
Insert images: Etsy/theBlackLory
]]> https://soranews24.com/2016/08/27/fan-artist-fuses-pokemon-into-creatively-cute-combinations%e3%80%90pics%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 341146 fusion pokeplush It’s the California Croissant … where western baking meets sushi! https://soranews24.com/2015/09/02/its-the-california-croissant-where-western-baking-meets-sushi/ https://soranews24.com/2015/09/02/its-the-california-croissant-where-western-baking-meets-sushi/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2015 03:00:43 +0000 http://en.rocketnews24.com/?p=262758 
Sushi … yum! Croissants … flaky, buttery goodness! Sure, we love them both, but while hybrid foods like the cronut seem to be increasingly common these days, does it mean the two foods would taste good combined together?
Well, unexpected as the combination may sound, there actually exists such a product, and what’s more, enough people who have tried it seem to enjoy it. Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the “California Croissant“, a sushi roll inside a croissant, which some people are eating with chopsticks and soy sauce!
The interesting creation is available at the Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in San Francisco, but seriously … sushi and croissants? How could that ever work??
Here’s what the bakery has to say about their east-meets-west culinary hybrid on their Instagram account:
https://instagram.com/p/2jxmcSFWPf/
▼ Some closer shots at the inside of the California Croissant, showing the seaweed, salmon, ginger and wasabi:
https://instagram.com/p/3mEtdPFWBQ/
Now, to the Japanese, the combination may come as something of a shock, but there seem to be quite a few fans of the California Croissant, judging from Instagram comments like the ones below:
“I have to check out this bakery!”
“I just have to try these!”
“This is making me hungry.”
“Love this! It’s really good! Who thought of putting salmon inside a croissant?”
“I had this, and it was amazing … have to go again.”
Wow, so people really do like the sushi filled croissant? Hmm … maybe it’s not as bizarre as it looks!
▼There probably aren’t any set rules or manners to follow, but this video shows how one Instagram user eats the California Croissant. Quite bold really, using chopsticks to dunk half a croissant in the soy sauce, which by the way, seems to have been poured into a Chinese-style spoon!
And for those of you in Japan and dying to find out how the California Croissant tastes, don’t worry, you won’t have to travel to San Francisco to try one. The sushi-pastry hybrid will be available at the World Breakfast Festival 2015 that will be held at the Showa Kinen Park in Tokyo’s Tachikawa City from September 8-17. If you’re brave enough to try it, it’ll certainly make for a unique breakfast. Bon appetit!
Source: Instagram
Featured/top image: Instagram
Original article by: Yayoi Saginomiya
]]> https://soranews24.com/2015/09/02/its-the-california-croissant-where-western-baking-meets-sushi/feed/ 0 262758 california-croissant California Croissant What’s next after green tea ramen? Why, chocolate ramen, of course! 【Taste Test】 https://soranews24.com/2015/02/13/whats-next-after-green-tea-ramen-why-chocolate-ramen-of-course-%e3%80%90taste-test%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2015/02/13/whats-next-after-green-tea-ramen-why-chocolate-ramen-of-course-%e3%80%90taste-test%e3%80%91/#comments Fri, 13 Feb 2015 05:00:36 +0000 http://en.rocketnews24.com/?p=218242 
Ramen, understandably, is one of the Japanese foods that foreign visitors (and locals too, for that matter) find hugely appealing, and there’s certainly no shortage of ramen shops or unique ramen flavors to be tried in Japan. Now, you may recall that back in November last year, we brought you news of the very interesting matcha green tea ramen from Menya Musashi. Well, this month, it looked like it was time to make a repeat visit to Menya Musashi, to have some… chocolate ramen!
Yes, it’s Valentine’s Day week and everything is chocolate themed in Japan at the moment, so why not ramen too, right? We definitely weren’t about to miss this dish that combined two of our favorite foods!
This is actually the seventh year Menya Musashi has created a ramen menu in collaboration with snack maker Lotte’s Ghana Milk Chocolate, so they know what they’re doing when mixing chocolate with ramen, and we’d heard that this year’s offering, the “Tsuke Ghana“, was a tsukemen-style ramen, where the noodles and soup are served separately and you dip the noodles in the soup. Mmmm … dark, milk chocolate mixed with rich ramen stock — we were getting excited already, especially since this year’s chocolate ramen apparently contained more chocolate per serving than ever before!
▼Yes, we’re back at the Menya Musashi shop in Shinjuku:
▼It was dinner time and the place was full.
▼First, we have to buy a ticket from the vending machine to place our order.
▼That’s the ramen we were looking for in the picture, the Tsuke Ghana. It costs 880 yen (US$7.33) including tax.
▼At last, we get to try the much-anticipated chocolate ramen. Since it’s a tsukemen, the noodles and soup come in separate bowls.
▼Let’s see what’s in the bowl of noodles: the noodles are topped with pickled peppers, radish and gobo (burdock), yuzu citrus jam, some mint, basil, stir-fried ground pork, and a piece of Ghana Milk Chocolate.
▼The vegetables add a nice touch of color:
▼Here’s the pickled burdock …
▼… and the pickled yellow pepper.
▼The ground pork is flavored with half a tablet of Ghana Milk chocolate, tianmianjiang sweet bean paste and red wine.
▼And of course, we can’t forget the piece of chocolate that adds the final touch!
▼ And now, for the soup! The actual soup contains roughly an entire tablet of Ghana Milk Chocolate, fond de veau veal stock, red wine, thyme and bay leaf and is topped with a sprinkling of several spices including oregano and black pepper. Combined with the ingredients in the bowl of noodles, that’s a tablet and half of chocolate used in a single serving of the “Tsuke Ghana” ramen!
▼Well, enough looking; it was time to actually taste the ramen! The noodles were on the slightly thick side.
▼We dipped the noodles into the soup.
▼The soup had a nice consistency — not too runny and thick enough to mix well with the noodles.
And what did we think after tasting the actual chocolate ramen? In one word, surprisingly delectable! (Sorry, we guess that’s two words.)
We thought the soup was a very pleasant combination of chocolate and Western-style stock, with just enough chocolate flavor to satisfy our love for sweets. In fact, we were quite impressed with how we could clearly taste the chocolate in the soup, but it also had enough character to stand on its own as a rich soup and not just a sweet sauce for the noodles. Together with the ramen noodles and the ground pork flavored with tianmianjiang sweet bean paste, we thought it was a case of Japanese, western and Chinese tastes coming together in quite a delightful way. The ground pork also had plenty of flavor, and having the noodles with the pork alone was definitely enjoyable as well.
The “Tsuke Ghana” ramen is on the menu at the Shinjuku and Kamata shops of Menya Musashi until February 15, and only 20 servings are available each day. And if chocolate isn’t quite your cup of tea, they still have their regular ramen in both soup noodle and dip-in-the sauce tsukemen style, so as long as you’re in the mood for ramen, you definitely won’t go hungry. We, for one, hope this chocolate ramen is a Valentine’s tradition Menya Musashi willl continue for many years to come!
Read our previous chocolate fusion adventure: Chocolate Pizza at Max Brenner, Shibuya
Reference: Entabe (Japanese)
Photos © RocketNews24
]]> https://soranews24.com/2015/02/13/whats-next-after-green-tea-ramen-why-chocolate-ramen-of-course-%e3%80%90taste-test%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 218242 Noodlestop 5 P1130053 1 P1130076 2 P1130042 3 P1130044 4 P1130050 5 P1130053 6 P1130056 7 P1130058 10 P1130069 11 P1130070 9 P1130062 12 P1130065 8 P1130060 13 P1130072 14 P1130073 15 P1130075