HI-TECHNICAL * EXCELLENT TASTE AND FLAVOUR

“Black Black”, the famed Japanese chewing gum, came into my life at age twelve in a big way, on a trip to Japan with my Hawaiian auntie Amy and my cousin Tori. We stayed on the US military base in Yokohama with Amy’s brother and his family. Having been to Japan before, Amy showed me what was what. “Black Black” was what. It scared me in a number of ways: 1) while not being legitimately black it’s slivery grey color is dangerously unheard off in the gum world of light green spearmint and cinnamon reds, which means that it is not a normal gum, which means that it is probably bad, 2) Like the black gag soap that I left in the guest bathroom for visiting relatives, I wondered if the gum would leave black stains on my teeth, and 3) “Black Black” sounded satanic or heavy metal, two things that a young impressionable girl like me was scared of at age twelve. But I felt adventurous, so I tried it, loved it and chewed “Black Black” the rest of the trip. It became a symbol of the true extent of American globalization; a dramatic West meets East and then share a teriyaki burger together at McDonald’s sort of symbol. “Hi-Technical, Excellent Taste and Flavour,” just the sort of absurdity that populated the food court at the Yokohama mall; when eating a bowl of Ramon I heard the distinct cry of “Rawhide” coming out of the stereo speakers, not to mention the life-sized replica of Colonel Sanders himself testifying for the authentic Kentucky taste of the Japanese salmon sandwich that could be purchased right then and there. I loved it. The hodgepodge of familiar and the unknown, re-contextualized pop culture, like some strange MTV video. To this day when I chew “Black Black,” I taste a perfect amalgam of all this: bean curd and noodles, ginseng, rawhide, green tea, KFC, the incense I put in front of the big green Buddha, karaoke in the living room, and seaweed.

YES, CHEWING!