STB47: Kyoto
*shrugs*
Review — Starbucks JIMOTO Frappuccino #26 Kyoto
In the last few weeks, I’ve been on a big green-tea-flavored binge. It probably stems from this Frappuccino. Generally, I don’t gravitate to Starbucks’ matcha offerings, but this special dessert drink flipped my entire image of what it can offer. The mix of cream and tea works wonder, but the true key to this one being a JIMOTO highlight are the pieces of cake blended in. Here’s a recurring theme in this review series — offering some textural diversity in the Frappuccino, whether from fruit or candy, helps a prefecture’s special creation to stand out. Cake might be the best possible addition of all.
Have you had the chocolate cake shake from Portillo’s? This reminds me of a less intense, vaguely refined version of that, at least in how it feels. A true contender.
The closest I was to being outside Kyoto Station.
Here’s the strongest evidence that I’m experiencing some sort of crisis, playing out through this Frappuccino expedition. After drinking the Aichi Frappuccino, I decided…Kyoto is just a brief Shinkansen ride away, why not? A brisk train ride after, I arrived at Kyoto Station, and found the exit gate. Two minutes later, I found the station’s Starbucks kiosk. Ten minutes later, I had the prefecture’s match-based installment in this series. I found an empty corner of the station to sip this one up, briefly considered jumping on the Kintetsu Line to hit up Nara, and then settled on heading west instead.
I never left Kyoto Station. I guess I was briefly outside while heading to the gate, but that was just in the open-air mall. I never ventured beyond the bus stops. I was on another train out of the prefecture soon after, meaning I was there for about 25 minutes total.
Here’s the only point in any of this where I felt like I was out of my mind.
Great station though!
Seeing as I’ve already spent chunks of Substacks past reflecting on Kyoto’s rich indie music community, let’s keep it to where I stayed on this most recent trip. Kyoto Station has some pretty good train melodies! Japanese station jingles boast their own hardcore subset of devotees — I remember back when I would go to Nico Nico Douga’s annual festival, there was an entire area full of just CDs loaded with regional tunes for arriving and departing trains — so it is not a shock to find detailed web pages gathering all of the various sounds playing at Kyoto Station, down to samples for every platform. Just start clicking links and be amazed by the detail.
Down to the speakers used!
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies