Show Your Hanshin Tigers Pride with... Jagarico Potato Sticks?!

If you follow Japanese baseball (and perhaps even if you don't), you know of the Hanshin Tigers and their fans. For the uninitiated, the Hanshin Tigers are the baseball team based in Hyogo prefecture, whose fans are known for being extremely wild and dedicated.

As a Tigers fan myself, I make it a point to visit as many game as I can. But not only that. I try to buy as much Tigers-related goods as I can to show my Tigers pride. On my most recent trip to Osaka, I thought it would be a good opportunity to check out the new merchandise.

At one of the many souvenir shops I visited, I saw something perfect... It was a cross between three of my favorite things in Japan... My favorite baseball team: the Hanshin Tigers. My favorite Japanese food: takoyaki. And my favorite Japanese snack: Jagarico.

If you don't know, Jagarico are potato stick snacks sold by Calbee brand. You can find them at supermarkets, grocery stores, anywhere pretty much. They're generally associated with being snacks for children. People usually have strong feelings about them. They either love or hate the super crunch they have. I'm in the "love" category and I eat Jagarico pretty much every day.

The box was a bit expensive at almost 700 yen for three little packets. The packets contained only about half of the normal 130-yen cup, but I was paying for a brand, so I understood the markup. But, the packets all had different artwork and they were cute on their own, so it was okay.

They were advertised as takoyaki flavored (as takoyaki is a food famous in Osaka) but I was skeptical. I've tried other takoyaki-flavored snacks and have been disappointed; I didn't want to be disappointed in Jagarico.

And luckily, I didn't have to be! They tasted exactly like takoyaki, apart from the temperature and texture. I'm not even joking. I don't know how they got a potato stick to taste like batter, mayonnaise, takoyaki sauce, ginger, nori... Pretty much every flavor that makes up takoyaki.

And they didn't all hit at the same time, either. Much like biting into a takoyaki, you tasted a different part of it with each second that passed and when each part hit your tongue. It was magical. Now, I wish that I had bough more than one box, and I wish I had saved them for the next Tigers game...