In addition to lots of anime-related panels, video rooms and other interesting events, anime conventions are great because you can wander the dealer’s room and find some cool things to buy, like, well, J-List stuff. While there are always plenty of companies selling anime, manga and similar products, I like to check out what non-anime booths there are at a given show, hawking things like swords or vampire contact lenses or steampunk art. At Anime Expo I happened across an interesting booth by Japanese bottled tea company Ito En, giving out samples of that most Japanese of beverages, green tea, and carrying their marketing message of Oi, ocha! (“Hey! Tea!”) to Americans. Bottled tea beverages are extremely popular in Japan, with twice the volume sold compared to carbonated soft drinks (6 million vs. 3 million kiloliters, if you’re curious). Since all Asian-style teas are consumed without sugar of any kind, they’re extremely healthy, and it seems clear to me that the #1 beverage of choice among Japanese being naturally free of sugar (unlike, say, Coca-Cola, or virtually everything sold in any store in America, as I learned today when the store I went in didn’t stock even non-sweetened iced tea) is probably the single most important reason why Japanese are among the thinnest nations on Earth, which is certainly something to think about. (As an aside, today I was eating some tuna salad from a supermarket here in the States and was surprised to find there was sugar in it — ack.) Incidentally, J-List offers various kinds of good Japanese tea for you to sample and enjoy, including a beverage I can’t recommend enough, mugi-cha, the refreshing Japanese barley tea that’s so cold and good in the summer. It comes in handy cold-water tea bags so you can always keep some in the fridge.
