The Good Old America (5)

My first visit to North America was in 1972. During my childhood in Tokyo, I would often peer through the fences at Washington Heights (now Yoyogi Park) to glimpse the U.S. military officer residences. Omotesando had several stores catering to the families of U.S. military personnel. The areas around U.S. military camps in Yokosuka, Atsugi, and Fussa were dotted with entertainment facilities for servicemen.

The first black-and-white TV I ever purchased broadcast many American shows. Titles like “Father Knows Best,” “Rawhide,” “The Virginian,” “Lassie,” “Bonanza,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” and “The Twilight Zone” captivated my childhood, with some episodes being so terrifying I couldn’t sleep at night.

In those shows, I often wondered what was inside the rectangular cartons pulled from the large refrigerators in the kitchens. With a black-and-white TV, it was hard to tell. It wasn’t until my first trip to the U.S. that I discovered they contained milk or orange juice. Back then, Japan had no McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, or Kentucky Fried Chicken. The first McDonald’s hamburger I ate had shockingly bright yellow buns, and the drink I ordered, thinking it was cola, turned out to be root beer.

While many Japanese find root beer’s smell unpleasant, I was enchanted. Despite its name, “Root Beer” contains no alcohol. It’s a cola-like drink made from over ten types of herbs and yeast for carbonation. Pioneers in the 1800s perfected the recipe, and cola emerged from this lineage.

I recently learned that root beer was originally a homemade beverage in American households. Apparently, even Snoopy is a fan! In Japan, my earliest memory of enjoying root beer was at the Amand Café near the Roppongi intersection. Over the years, A&W made several attempts to enter the Japanese market but struggled to gain traction, finding success primarily in Okinawa, which was once under U.S. occupation. Other unique sodas, like cream soda and Dr. Pepper Cherry, also failed to gain widespread popularity in Japan. Why such delicious drinks remain niche here might be a question for epigenetics!

To be continued in “The Good Old America (6)”

PROFILE
Profile picture of Mr. Hisashi Iwase

Mr. Hisashi Iwase

Life Science Innovation Advisor at the Japan Analytical Instruments Manufacturers’ Association (JAIMA),
and President & CEO of BioDiscovery Inc. Born in 1951, Tokyo.
Graduated from the Department of Industrial Chemistry, College of Science and Technology, Nihon University.
Mr. Iwase’s extensive career in managing and marketing analytical and bioscience instruments includes
positions at Merck Japan, Waters Japan, Millipore Japan, PerSeptive Biosystems Japan, Applied Biosystems,
Varian Technologies, and Agilent Technologies. In 2001, he established BioDiscovery Inc., and since 2013,
he has served as a Life Science Innovation Advisor for JAIMA.

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