My First Japanese Ice cream

I still remember the first time I went into a supermarket here in Japan, looking for ice cream. I was standing in front of this freezer, though not a big as ones in Canadian supermarkets, it was filled with boxes of ice cream that I had never taste. Any box I picked up would have been a brand new adventure, and I had an entire freezer full to choose where the adventure begins. So I decided, I will get the most "Japanese" ice cream that was available.

That led me to pick up this green box of popsicles. I studied the box for a long time. Green tea, red beans, shaved ice, condensed milk, many of these things just had "Japan" all over them, and this combination was something I had never seen, and never even imagined, so finally the decision was made. My first ice cream experience in Japan was, little did I know at that time, one of the most popular combinations of two flavours in Japan.

I happily bought the box home. Back then, I did not own a real fridge. Instead, sitting at home was a 2nd hand white mini fridge that I picked up for 3500 yen. The thing did not, I repeat, did not have a freezer, and instead it just had a little corner on the top right section of the fridge that would keep things extra cold, and with luck, frozen. 

I didn't know that. Upon returning home, I threw all 6 green tea red beans popsicles into the little corner immediately, thinking "yes, this is only the beginning". By the time I had my first one, I realised that the greej tea shaved ice inside the creamy shell had mostly melted due to the fridge being too weak. So then, I did what I had to do, I ate all of the popsicles in one go, and I had no regrets (because they were delicious).