Does Japan’s T.M. Revolution J-rock cake really look like the song it’s named after?

Takanori Nishikawa’s residence prefecture grocery store has a complete line of Christmas muffins named after his songs, however do they give the impression of being the half?

The next is a Christmas cake story from our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa.

I’d heard that Takanori Nishikawa, the well-known J-rock musician who performs below the stage identify T.M. Revolution and was born in Shiga, is a form of tourism ambassador for the prefecture, and he does rather a lot to advertise the realm, however he’s much more concerned than I’d anticipated! With such an enormous star supporting them, I really feel like Shiga is in a very great place proper now.

For instance, there’s a Shiga grocery store chain known as Heiwado that Nishikawa is a normal supervisor of, they usually’re promoting a Christmas cake that he produced known as White Breath, which can be the identify of one in all T.M. Revolution’s songs.

▼ “White Breath”

I purchased one of many muffins on a whim, and it ended up being a lot enjoyable that I simply needed to inform you all about it!

Anyway, Heiwado’s Christmas muffins have me actually fired up concerning the chain this winter, so let’s check out the entire lineup.

Each shares its identify with successful T.M. Revolution music, like “Burning X’mas,” “Thunderbird,” or “Coronary heart of Sword-Earlier than the Daybreak.” All three of these are solely accessible for pick-up inside Heiwado shops. In the event you don’t reside in or close to Shiga, it’s actually exhausting to get your palms on them.

However fortunately a number of the others, like “Scorching Restrict,” “Wild Rush,” “Stage 4,” and “White Breath” might be shipped frozen. So after pondering it over for a very long time…

…I ordered the White Breath cake. You recognize, as a result of it’s winter.

“White Breath” was launched by T.M. Revolution in 1997 and offered 1,000,000 copies. It’s a music that’s burned into the reminiscences of anybody who was round again then, in the midst of the Heiwa period. It was a enjoyable time.

This was the primary time for me to order a cake for supply by the mail. I used to be impressed by how good it appeared!

OK, let’s zoom in nearer on the White Breath cake.

First, since “White Breath” is a winter music, the general impression of the cake could be very “White Breath”-y. The way in which it appears actually brings to thoughts lyrics from the music like “The season is getting colder,” “Such a chilly time,” and “It should be as a result of it’s winter.”

And this chocolate cottage? Completely makes me consider the lyric “At a lodge in the midst of a blizzard.” The swirls of whipped cream remind me of “Watch your step on the transferring sidewalk.” And the spherical form of the macarons? They seem like zeros, form of like the road “The restrict is off at 12:00 a.m.”

So for me, the extra I have a look at the cake, the extra it jogs my memory of the music, however I already knew it was a “White Breath” cake after I purchased it. Would different individuals be capable of discover the theme in the event that they didn’t learn about it beforehand?

So I requested a few of my coworkers, beginning with Ahiruneko, who was the man within the workplace that day who I feel is probably to be a T.M. Revolution fan. All I instructed him was, “This cake is predicated on a well-known music,” after which I requested him to guess which one. He stated “I do not know,” so I figured I needed to give him a touch, so I added “It’s a million-selling hit that got here out in 1997, and was on the Kohaku New Yr’s Eve music tv program that yr too.”

After which…

…everybody else within the workplace jumped in, saying “Let me attempt to guess too!”

That’s proper…a number of them have been of their teenagers when “White Breath” got here out. P.Okay. Sanjun particularly, standing up on his chair, appeared like he was dying to say “I do know it! I do know which music it’s!”

“It’s ‘White Love,’ isn’t it?” P.Okay. shouted.

▼ “White Love”

“White Love,” the music from idol group Pace? No, that’s not it in any respect!

…or at the least, that was my first response. Really, although “White Love” got here out in 1997 too, and it additionally was a part of the Kohaku present that yr. It even launched inside every week of when “White Breath” got here out. They’re each “white” songs, so I can’t really say that P.Okay.’s guess was all that off the mark.

So I gave them one other trace, telling them that the music the cake is predicated on is sung by a male vocalist (Pace was a gaggle of 4 ladies). Somebody guessed “Winter, once more” by Glay (however that got here out in 1999)…

…and another person stated “Shiroi Koibitotachi” (which implies “white lovers”) by Keisuke Kuwata (2001).

Ultimately, it was P.Okay. who lastly discovered it was a “White Breath” cake, however all of us had a number of enjoyable taking a visit down reminiscence lane and remembering hit winter songs from that period!

Getting again to the cake itself, the White Breath often prices 4,212 yen (US$28), however they have been operating an internet sale so I bought it for 3,790 yen (sadly, on-line gross sales for this yr have now ended).

The cake makes use of Mio Shizuku strawberries, a spread grown domestically in Shiga, that are made right into a gelee which is combined with white chocolate mousse and goes contained in the sponge cake.

“White chocolate mousse” had me worriedly bracing for a really candy taste, however I used to be completely happy to seek out that my prediction was unsuitable, and the style was gentle and refreshing (I’m an individual who doesn’t like tremendous candy deserts). The strawberry gelee turned out to really be the sweetest a part of the cake, and for this degree of high quality, it’s effectively well worth the value they cost for the White Breath.

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