Japan’s pretty well known for its vending machines, so you’d think they’d have a gigantic range of drinks – and I guess they kinda do, but it’s not as massive as I thought it would. Y’see, I prefer drinking to eating, dunno why, always have – and I’m not alone in this. So generally if I’m in a store, I’ll grab almost anything to eat but I’ll take my time looking for something to drink that I really like or that I haven’t tried but looks interesting.

When I moved to Japan, I started going through all the local drinks one by one (not the bottled black coffee though – that stuff is just wretched), and the Kirin Lemon  (Or ‘Kirin Remon’ to translate the label accurately) was something that a teacher bought for me on a hot day, and without sounding too melodramatic, it was absolutely perfect.

Y’see, my biggest gripe with Western soft drinks is that they’re just too damn sweet. I don’t want my drink too be overly syrupy or sugary: I just want it to be refreshing, thirst quenching and some nice flavour in there to make it interesting… and the Kirin Lemon fits the bill nicely.

It’s carbonated and kinda like a cross between soda water and Lemonade (that’d be club soda and Sprite for our US’ian friends), so it’s got that lemon flavour, but it’s not sickly or overpowering – it’s just right. It also goes very nicely with vodka or gin.

I’ll drink this til the day I fly out of the country.

Cost: 120Y

Availability: Year round.

Tags: drink, Japan, kirin, soft drink