In Japan it’s usual for snack and candy manufacturers to put out special “seasonal” editions of their products that are only available for a limited time each year. So for example, in the fall you’d be able to find sweet potato flavored potato chips, but wouldn’t be able to get them in, say, summer.

This is cherry blossom season, and many food manufacturers incorporate this theme into their seasonal products. I can always count on cherry flavored Kit Kats to make their appearance at this time, which is great because I really love this stuff!

I also found this ogura version, which I’d never tried before today. Ogura is red bean paste and is a common ingredient in Japanese desserts. I usually don’t care for the stuff, but this ogura Kit-Kat wasn’t that bad. The ogura was really light and hardly noticeable. I don’t think I’ll have it again, but I’m glad I tried it.

So what do you think? Would you be willing to try these flavors??

I spent most of last night printing out photos of some of our past vacations so I can finally get them off the computer and into a scrapbook. As I was doing so, I was of course reminded of all the wonderful, exotic places we’ve been fortunate enough to visit over the years. I then got to thinking how nice it would be if we could live in one of these places instead of limiting ourselves to week-long visits once in a while.

I probably started thinking about this because a friend of mine told me she and her husband are planning to retire early and move to the Virgin Islands. I’ve blogged about this couple before: they’re the ones that never travel anywhere except Vegas and St. Thomas. Anyway, I became curious, so I looked into some us virgin island real estate to see what typical home prices are like.

Unfortunately, everything I saw was way, way out of our price range, so I don’t think we’ll be calling the Virgin Islands “home” anytime soon. Perhaps a vacation rental would be more in line with what we can afford to pay!

With good weather finally approaching, I’m looking forward to spending more time outdoors. I absolutely hate the winter and barely even leave my house from December to February, so I’m definitely ready for some sun and fun!

Of course that means I’ll need to stock up on sunblock and other summer skincare products. I’ve heard some good things about the Skinceuticals line, so I decided to check out the website for myself. I saw that they offer a waterproof/sweatproof SPF 45 sunblock that’s designed to work while playing rigorous outdoor sports. That’s precisely what I need, so I might end up buying this product!

I just read a fantastic Amelia Earhart article by Richard Pyle of the Associated Press. In it, Pyle talks about how a diary from a reporter stationed at Howland Island yields new clues to what Earhart’s final airborne hours must have been like.

Of course no one really knows what happened to Earhart on July 2, 1937, but Pyle’s article talks about a bunch of different distress sginals that were picked up by people around the world and about how various expeditions have shown that Earhart might have ended up on an atoll called Gardner Island. Discoveries on the island include a campsite with signs of food remains, a partial human skeleton, and part of a woman’s shoe.

I’ve never read any in-depth reports about Amelia Earhart before, so I don’t know how new the info in this article is. Still, I think it’s pretty amazing that people are putting all this time and money into finding out what happened to this woman 70 years ago. I mean, if they find out where Earhart eventually ended up, what would that change in the grand scheme of things?