I Need Ramune!

It's 10.30 pm and I need Ramune. No, it's not a man.

It's a soda. Japanese Soda that Nanairo@ Liang Court basement used to sell for just $2 a bottle, in only 1 flavor.

The last time it was out of stock a few months back, I asked the Japanese boss when the shipment was coming again.

He shook his head, saying, "Not coming.".

I thought he meant not shipping it in anymore. But he said, "seasonal" "summer" and "next year".

Next YEAR??????????

My god. How can the Japs do such a thing? (I'm sure it's an often-said phrase in the war).

How can they possibly sell something ONLY for Summer?

Isn't this a business? Don't they want money?

This is a man-made drink. It Is Made. Therefore, it can be year-round. Why only Summer?

*groans* I can't believe it. Where to get Ramune?????? *weeps*

Why do I suddenly need it?

*sighs* I don't know. I want to drink it now.

I looked online, and discovered, there's even more flavors that Nanairo wasn't selling. A different brand. Melon, Strawberry, Blueberry, Yuzu, Hello Kitty flavors, Mango, Banana... (oddly, they are not selling what Nanairo sold).

At Asian Food Grocer website (US site), I added 15 bottles to cart and looked at the airmail. $149 for express international mail...

I removed 5 bottles. For 10 bottles, the airmail is $105....

That's just insane for a few bottled sodas.

Somehow, I need...to see if anyone is selling it in the countries where I have contacts.

Bro said the US websites cater to US people, so if you live in the US, delivery is cheap. But not so for us living outside...

I need Ramune... RAMUNE!!!!!

The drink with a marble. The bottle with a marble. A marble inside a bottle! A drink with a rolling marble inside a bottle!!!!!!

You Tube has many videos on how to open a Ramune bottle and drink from it.

Someone even went through the ... wu liao (for nothing) trouble of getting out the marble without breaking the bottle.

My take is, what the hell is the marble for without the bottle?

I had actually thought of keeping the marble with the bottle, rather than just extracting the marble.

The significance of the marble is lost without its bottle. Out of its bottle, the marble has no purpose and is just any marble (yeah, only the person who took it out knows it's not just a marble, but it's still just a marble without its function).

Intrigued and fascinated, I also did a video of opening a Ramune bottle.

The first time after buying it, Bro and I didn't know how popular it was, or that how to open it was already in plenty of You Tube videos.

So, I looked at the plastic blue cap that it came with, after opening the wrapper, and wondered how to use it.

Surely, it was meant to be used for opening the bottle that had a glass-sealed convex top. The cap's the only thing accompanying the bottle (besides the white ring that now I remember was there, after seeing my own video now).

I didn't think the cap was meant to be a frivolous throw-away. Somehow, the white ring... didn't fit into the opening process, so I figured it was probably useless.

The cap had an extension at the end that seemed to fit into the top of the bottle, but unlike the usual bottle opener... it was intriguing how it could be used.

Placing the cap with its extension onto the bottle opening and applying a little pressure, didn't seem to do anything. I was more afraid of shattering the bottle or worse, so I stopped.

However... that position is actually the correct way to open the bottle. And more pressure must be applied more forcefully to have effect.

Bro said maybe we should bring the bottle back to the shop and ask the Japanese man how to open it.

( I know he just wants the excuse of seeing the Japanese man talk. He gets a kick out of seeing how the man would respond, and how the proceedings would go when I do the talking.).

I wasn't going to do that. Come on, how hard can this be? It's just a soft drink bottle. Surely they didn't make it that complex.

Absurd to bring it just to ask how to open it. We'll figure it out ourselves, unless it really cannot be opened.

After a while of figuring... I began to think the Japanese didn't want people drinking it.

It was the worst... most devious...most devilish.... soft-drink bottle I've Ever come across.

Why can't they just make it like any soft-drink bottle with a cap that can just be opened with a bottle-opener for old times' sake?

But noo.... Trust the Japs to come up with something like this. Are we monkeys or mice?

That's what I felt like when trying to figure out the bottle. Like the Japs were making fun of us...in making a soft-drink bottle like this. Like the way scientists do to the animals under study, by giving them food in gizmos that they have to figure how to get out to eat.

It was not really frustrating, but a little annoying.

Now, I ask my Bro while typing this here in my room, "That time, I opened the bottle after seeing online one, right?".

Bro in his room, "Yeah lah.".

Me, "Not we open ourselves one, right?".

Bro, "Of course.".

There you have it. We are not geniuses. Or rather... I nearly was, if only I had applied more pressure and if Bro hadn't stopped me from trying too hard in case I broke it.

I already figured it out when I placed the cap downward into the bottle opening. All that was needed was more guts to push down hard.

And that's what this is about. Guts. To drink the Japs' soda drink. The samurai spirit. He who is not afraid.... will get to drink.

Here is the video after knowing how to open it. Taken a few months back, the first time opening.

(Bro figured that the 2 indentations of the glass bottle were meant for something, maybe to help in opening, but seems to be nothing.

I'm wondering why the Japs did something like this. How did this idea come about?

I know from watching a Japanese man mention in his You Tube video that he had drank it when he was a kid. So, this drink has been around for many years. Who invented it and what was the rationale behind it?).

How does the soda taste? Well, at first, it was surprisingly ordinary after all that amazing trouble. But after a while... *nodding*... the taste hangs on.

It's lighter and less sweet than the usual fizzy drinks. But it's nice.