Here’s another thing about Japan that will stump me for all eternity: American pizza chains are actually cooler over there than they are in their home country! Sure, some may argue that squid ink pizza doesn’t sound all that appetizing, but this time I’m not talking about the pizza itself, but rather all the awesome freebie tie-in merchandise American chains like Pizza Hut and Domino’s get in the land of the rising sun.
First of all, here’s what spurred me to write this post in the first place: Pizza Hut is currently having a campaign until October 21st where if you buy a kid’s crispy pizza, you get a Rilakkuma bowl for free:
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| 200 lucky customers will get their pizza in that adorable box! |
For the curious, the pizza contains the following ingredients: sausage, sliced potato, corn, parsley, mayonnaise, and tomato sauce. As it’s a kid’s size, it’s only 15 cm big, but is priced pretty reasonably at 500 yen (about $6.40). More importantly (why would anyone order Pizza Hut for the food?), here’s the bowl that comes free with every purchase:
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| official site |
Unlike a lot of these campaigns, obtaining the bowl isn’t a matter of buying x amount of kid’s pizzas to collect stamps or points, but you’ll actually get a bowl with your very first order. If you’re a sucker like me who’d want to have both bowls, it’d still only set you back about $13 –– a pretty good deal for two little pizzas and two adorable bowls, if you ask me!
Though it pains me that I can’t partake in this awesome campaign, I think this is a fine occasion to share my own pizza delivery tie-in merchandise experience. And what better franchise to feature a tie-in than with Pokémon?!
This Pokémon x Domino’s Pizza campaign was going on back when I was in Japan in 2009, and my host mother was sweet enough to order me one! And it came with not one, but two awesome freebies:
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| Plastic tote bag – front |
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| Plastic tote bag – back (note the Domino’s logo and the Arceus; this promotion coincided with the release of the film Arceus and the Jewel of Life |
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| An adorable pouch! I use it to carry my camera |
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| Close-up of pouch detail |
Oh, I have no doubt moving back to Japan would make me go broke… from buying so many pizzas for their adorable freebies!
A Pokemon pizza? count me in
Adam – It was a crying shame that the pizza wasn’t actually shaped like a Pokemon!
I really hate when you do these things, Anne. I so badly want to go back to Japan for the Rillakuma bowl 🙁
Matt – I’m sorry, but I need someone to share my pain! 😉
My girlfriend is going to get way too excited when she see’s those Rilakkuma bowls.
You know, Anne, I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that visiting your blog is bad not only for my mental health but for the health of my marriage, too. (Because you keep mentioning things that make me want to pack my bags and move to Japan, of course.) Still, I like it — and you — so much that I’m willing to risk it 😛
Anyway, as for this particular post: First, I love the toppings on that pizza. Potato seems OK, although definitely a bit weird for red-blooded American (which, admittedly, I’m not), but corn and mayonnaise? Then again, I love mayonnaise, so maybe I shouldn’t knock it before I try it.
Second, are those bowls plastic or glass? I’m guessing plastic, but it would be sooooo awesome if they were glass. Either way, though, they’re adorable and well worth owning, I’m sure.
Third, I love the little Pokemon pouch you got with your Domino’s order! So adorable 🙂
Bryan – Well I’m sure your husband would be willing to move to Japan with you, if that’s what it comes to! 😉 Admittedly I feel bad making everyone else so wistful but I’ve gotta share my one personal pain with the world! It’s almost worse when you’ve gotten a taste of how nice it is to get all these adorable cute things…
Believe it or not, corn and mayo are very popular pizza toppings in Japan! I think if you like both of those things then you’d probably enjoy them on a pizza, too! I like it, but I suppose it’s not really your “traditional” pizza.
As for whether the bowls are plastic or glass… Actually the website doesn’t appear to say! I’m gonna bet they’re glass, though… I don’t really have good reasoning for that either than the fact that the Peter Rabbit dish set I got from KFC (I didn’t include it here since it’s not a pizza chain, haha) is ceramic, so I’m inclined to believe they’ll actually go for the higher quality material. But I’m not sure!
Glad you like the pouch, too 🙂 I like wearing it around my neck but people usually give me weird looks. Who says I’m too old to wear Pokemon pouches?!
Retr0gamer – All the ladies love Rilakkuma, don’t they? Actually, I think pretty much everyone likes Rilakkuma! I remember thinking he looked too much like a regular bear, but I just love the relaxing theme. There are so many cute things of him just sitting around, having a good time. Too cute!
Japan’s pizza chains are so awesome! Whenever I get the chance to go again, I have to try one. There’s so many awesome wacky toppings, and of course amazing merchandise tie-ins. I miss the halcyon days of my childhood where I would go to Pizza Hut and the kids’ meals were all themed and came with an awesome prize. I very rarely got to go to Pizza Hut so it was a HUGE deal. When Code Geass came out and had all the Pizza Hut tie-ins, it gave me quite a big craving for Pizza Hut!
Riven – So sorry for the late reply! >_< Believe it or not, I’ve never actually had Pizza Hut pizza outside of Japan! Crazy, huh?!