I’m a fan of Strike Witches, a fun anime that blends cute moe girls with World War II-style mecha and, er, pantsu, though naturally I only watch it for the animation and story. In the new Strike Witches movie there’s a scene in which a sailor on a Japanese aircraft carrier tosses Yoshika an ice cold bottle of Ramune, so I thought I’d write about that today. Ramune is a lemon-lime flavored Japanese soft drink (the name comes from the English word “lemonade”) first bottled in Kobe in 1872, making it older than Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper. It made use of the then-newfangled Codd-necked bottle design that placed a glass ball inside the bottle to create an airtight seal, requiring the purchaser to carefully push the ball down then hold the bottle at a level angle while drinking. Because Japanese Imperial Navy ships carried equipment for making carbon dioxide, Ramune was a popular on-board drink since the sailors could manufacture it themselves while at sea. The sight of a Ramune bottle is sure to cause Japanese to exclaim natsukashii (nots-ka-SHEE), meaning “that makes me feel so nostalgic I could die,” and virtually all Japanese claim to remember growing up so poor that the only toy they owned was glass Ramune marbles, which has to be some kind of strange racial memory unique to Japanese people. The Ramune brand isn’t owned by any one company but (like the Kewpie Doll) is generic, manufactured by several different bottlers throughout Japan. If you’re interested in trying some authentic Ramune soda, we’ve got several awesome flavors in stock in San Diego.
Ramune has an amazing 140 year history.
