what is the best Japanese cigarette?

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natural american spirit menthol one / MY RATING: *** / 450 YEN

japan tobacco owns the rights to natural american spirit outside of the north american market. in most convenience stores, they occupy a prime position along the top of the rack. they seem to be relatively popular, i believe especially in my limited experience with young men that wear stussy jean jackets and hang out at rock clubs near shibuya and also heavily tanned 50something surfer guys. packaging is significantly less feminine than the majority of light cigarettes on the market. also, it's natural tobacco, so you can connect with the true heritage of native american tobacco culture and have a 100% guarantee that you won't get cancer.

the 1 mg menthol version has an inoffensive menthol background with a mild tobacco backbone. well constructed with a high dragability, good burn rate. a nice change after a run of virginia slim and lark fruit punch cigarettes.

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http://img02.hamazo.tv/usr/yashimatobacco/app-029495800s1316657885.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/H22Xz6F.jpg

what is the economic role of these women

promoting cigarette brand?

"cannabis free cigarettes available here" ?

herbal cigarette brand. doesn't really make sense in a country without serious weed culture, maybe.

I bought a case of those Jap-labeled Am Spirit lights at the duty free shop last time I was there.

Dylan, as always, excellent reportage.

thank you! your neglected thread was the inspiration of course.

In the mid-1960s, the American Tobacco Company introduced a cigarette brand with capsules of water in the filter that could be pinched to release moisture and provide a new flavour. More recently, cigarette filters containing menthol capsules appeared on the Japanese market in 2007, with brand variants featuring capsules now available in most markets. Capsules typically contain menthol and can include other often-used tobacco flavourings (eg, sugars, acetaldehyde, levulinic acid, clove). Spearmint, lemon mint, apple mint and strawberry mint are some of the more recently introduced menthol-related flavours in capsules. Capsules have been included in flavoured and regular cigarettes, incorporated into diverse stick sizes (eg, longs, superslims), and some new varieties include two differently flavoured capsules in one filter. Indeed, capsule technology is a key ‘premiumisation’ strategy for the industry, generating value across price categories.

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marlboro flavor one / MY RATING: ** / 430 YEN

if i pick up cigarettes at the grocery store, the choices are limited to budget japanese brands, mevius, and a few marlboro variants. 7-11 and family mart have many marlboro types i'd like to try and this wasn't one of them. the flavor one was formerly known as the filter plus and "the tobacco in the unique MULTI-ZONE filter delivers a satisfying taste with subtle flavor notes." there's a plug of tobacco in the filter and then cotton and maybe some other space age filter materials. lacks the full marlboro flavor but pleasant enough, something between a campfire and one of your father's sweaters. a two star cigarette.

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showcasing a few of the many marlboro variants.

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pianissimo aromatic fram / MY RATING: *** / 220 YEN

it's a basic 1 mg menthol cigarette but japan tobacco suggests that "the metallic pink and gentle fluttering of the brilliant flower motif expresses the optimistic and vivacious attitude of this compact product." on a rainy suburban kanagawa afternoon with the downtown sidewalks opened to bakeries and fast food chains handing out pre-reserved cakes and barrels of chicken under christmas illumination in leafless trees, the packaging brought me out of my sad daydream and i did in fact feel perceptibly more vivacious and optimistic. the slim package is cute and pocketable.

it supposedly tastes like raspberry and i smoked three on the walk home and five in the last twenty minutes, trying to decide whether or not there's some raspberry flavor there. my conclusion: maybe there is but it's faint and doesn't have the kool-aid punch of the fruit flavored lark cigarettes. it's classier.

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like other girly cigarettes, it also comes with many accessories to heighten your smoking experience and express a vivacious and optimistic attitude. there's a limited edition cigarette pack holder + frilly lighter holder [not pictured].

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throughly enjoying yr reviews and pictures.

oh my

dying @ "fram" which is a word my friends and I made up in college to mumble in place of words that we couldn't remember in songs

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chunankai 1 one / MY RATING: **** / 430 YEN

the 5 mg zhongnanhai was my cigarette of choice for many years. when i was in canada, i occasionally bought cartons from the many cigarette resellers on chinese language message boards and then momo or wechat. they're pleasantly toasty and flavorful, which i've always attributed to the unnamed herbs promised on the front of the pack. china makes great cigarettes.

in japan, they come with a pamphlet describing the high tech factory in beijing that produces the cigarette, featuring the glossy oversaturated foreign trade company images that you see in the train stations of third tier chinese cities. ZHANGYU INDUSTRIAL SOLVENTS, MANIFOLDS AND FLOOR COVERINGS, a phone number and then a picture of a factory in dongguan and some hazy closeups of industrial equipment. they also come with a free sample! two bonus cigarettes. despite the push to sell them in japan, i found them relegated to the bottom rack of the bottom rack of a mom & pop cigarette and liquor store near a concentration of chinese businesses in the city of machida. they were right beside the che guevara cigarettes. i saw the 5 mg and 1 mg and there seems to be a spot on the rack for the rare menthol variety. in the fliptop of each pack, a nationalist message is included. i got: 钓鱼岛是中国的. amen.

they're good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ3x-vhIXEY

this thread has convinced me to take up smoking again

Do you have anymore of those Japanese cigarettes? Or any other exotic tobacco products... from around the globe?

http://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20140720/22/eri117epawdgaja/fe/2a/j/o0480036013009054968.jpg

stick to 1 mg cigarettes, which are healthy

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: )

i got: 钓鱼岛是中国的. amen.

they're good.

― dylannn, Saturday, December 26, 2015 3:38 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lmao they snuck this into japan? nice

i was wondering what your favorite chinese cigarettes were

i only smoked pandas out of brand loyalty to deng + to be snobby

seems furongguang / blue colored cigarettes are popular now

man the novel dylannnnnnnnnn writes someday is gonna be sweeeeeet

i did smoke a lot of vietnamese marlboro red when in gz but domestic brands, zhongnanhai for sure, and then probably 红塔山 because they're cheap and strong and smoke like a chimney, various types of 双喜 which are one of the symbols of guangzhou and have an almost black licorice/anise flavor, cheaper variants of 黄鹤楼 with a preference for the one with the hologram filter, 七匹狼, 红梅.

how does smoking culture in japan differ compared to china and north america dylannn?

i'm not sure how well i could do that.

in china... now, i haven't spent much time in the more civilized quarters of first tier coastal cities but even there, it can't be much difference. it's expected that you will smoke, if you are male and trying to explain that you don't is the same as trying to explain that you don't eat meat or drink or like girls, nearly impossible to explain and nobody is convinced. men should smoke. all first time social interaction 99% / social interaction 85% involves exchange of cigarettes: exchange cigarettes with colleagues and business contacts and guys you run into on the street and uncles and cousins, carton of expensive cigarettes is a good bribe, packs of cigarettes at a business meeting or sitdown formal party or wedding, when you go into someone's house offering a pack of cigarettes is as normal as offering orange segments and tea. even in a chinese detention facility, we were still given a cigarette or two with most of our meals or at least breakfast.

you can smoke anywhere, even if a sign says you can't. yes, you could be an asshole and smoke in a hospital and nobody would say anything (prob unless in a first tier coastal city).

cigarettes are sometimes connected with local identity: regional brands popular in certain cities or provinces, people offering you a pack "try our NANJING cigarettes" / "these are what we smoke in HUBEI!" cigarette prices range from incredibly cheap, less than 50 cents usd a pack to thousands a carton; cigarette brands closely related to social status.

i think china is the only one of the three with a distinct important smoking culture.

but: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/09/smoking-set-to-kill-one-in-three-young-chinese-men-as-country-faces-epidemic

"even in a chinese detention facility, we were still given a cigarette or two with most of our meals or at least breakfast."

care to explain?

whoever dumped the shit bucket in the morning, the guard on duty usually tossed them a smoke, asked them how they slept. then with meals, we sometimes got a cigarette. if not, the kids patrolling for the warden would toss us one. there was also the option to pay extra to get a pack, unofficially.

yes but why were you in a Chinese detention facility?

early 2014, due to an issue with not registering in the city where i was working (splitting my time between datong and taiyuan, where i had registered with the police), i spent a few weeks in a detention. it was in the middle of winter in shanxi and very cold. it was just local police detaining me and there were no formal, like, charges. as it approached the time at which my visa would expire, they told me: here's a computer. book a flight. i have since returned to china several times. i told the story very briefly on a rolling china thread. if you want to know any details, please let me know!

oh wow. a few weeks!

http://i.imgur.com/rSDGQtt.jpg

virginia s ice pearl / MY RATING: *** / 430 YEN

virginia slim's entry into the filter capsule segment-- a zippy menthol cigarette with an extra hit of mouthwash-y sweet mint from the ice pearl-- comes in 5 and 1 mg strengths. also available in a metal slim pack. like other cigarettes on the impulse rack at family mart, these are heavily advertised in fashion magazines and are beautifully package.

the ice pearl dispenses with all harsh tobacco flavor and is meant to be smoke with short, ladylike pulls. a heavy drag will leave the paper torched and a tower of barely consumed filler burning unprotected. from lighting to stubbing, you've got about three minutes. a great breath freshener and after dinner cigarette.

http://imgur.com/nt6RKkc.jpg

barf

can you get plain old marlboro menthols in japan? are they the same as the ones i get here?

huh i guess this is a thing
http://www.shifteast.com/asia-trends/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/kool-tobacco-georgia-coffee.jpg

finally getting in on that coffee/cigarettes cross-branding opportunity

i don't recall ever seeing that type of combo pack!

would choke on the gummy overtones...yuck

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kool escape new york wbeat / MY RATING: * / 300 YEN (14 cigarettes)

from a line of that includes bali sunset and miami breeze, kool's new york wbeat delivers the thrill and chills of the big apple to quality conscious smokers in the 20-35 year old demographic. it tastes like a menthol cigarette dropped in a toilet and left to sit overnight on a windowsill to dry. a faint, faint menthol tingle on the tongue when inhaling followed by an exhale that tastes like opening the door of an abandoned car. tolerates a hard drag and produces an uncommonly thick smoke, likely rich with unapproved additives. they're made in korea.

sorry, fucked this up. i was staring at the box thinking how much they sucked and vaguely wondering why they're called double beat. i looked closer and realized hey there must be flavor capsules in them. there are two, a green and a red. the green tastes like lime jell-o and the purple tastes like grape kool-aid. combined together, you can only imagine!

MY RATING (updated): ***

yummm

dyl, after you run the gamut of cigs, can I suggest you do a similar thread for canned coffee? Boss, emerald mountain, and so on...

i wanted to do canned alcoholic drinks, non-beer category. but i could do coffee. i drink a lot of canned coffee.

moved to mexico this weekend and was pleasantly surprised to find the marlboro ICE EXPRESS here (they were never introduced in europe afaik). bought a pack for ~2$ and they decongested my nose quite nicely.

this is my favorite thread on ilx tbh