Sweet & Spicy

This title of this post was inspired by a bag of Japanese rice crackers from Trader Joe's.  I was sitting down yesterday watching a few episodes of Andor, when I remembered I had purchased a bag of these snacks.

It reminded me that I hadn't done a Monday Munchies post for the month of May.  If you're not familiar with this series, it's where I review some Japanese snacks that Ryan @ SumoMenkoMan sent me earlier in the year.

Today's featured snack is two packages of 2024 Bandai Ive Wafers.  Here's a peek at the packages:

2024 Bandai Ive

2024 Bandai Ive

And here's a view of the contents in one of the packages:

The wafer is very similar to the inside of a Kit Kat bar, so it's definitely on the "sweet" side.

2024 Bandai Ive #12

2024 Bandai Ive #19

As for the group, I wasn't familiar with them until today... but according to Wikipedia they're a South Korean girl group.  Just like the wafer, they seem to be more "sweet" than "spicy".

Don't worry, because things are definitely going to heat up in this post.  Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards sent me a box with a bunch of autographs and memorabilia cards featuring some very attractive women.

Let's start with a ten card lot of Yumi Sugimoto costume cards:

Sugimoto is a Japanese model and actress.  Although she's wearing some short shorts and dresses, she comes off as being "sweet".

2010 Produce Yumi Sugimoto Costume Card #11

I'm guessing there was a time when Kenny was building this costume card set as he sent me ten out of the first eleven cards.

Next up were a stack of Honoka cards:

Not sure if Honoka is a model, singer, or actress... but she's definitely "spicier" than Yumi.

Check out that signature with the heart and a bunny rabbit sketch!  She definitely takes pride in signing her autograph for fans.

The final Honoka card is a signed costume card:

Here are more autographs from random models:

One of them was a little too "spicy" for the blog, so I had to blur things out.  No complaints though... because these were some gorgeous additions to my Japanese Model PC.

Here are four "cheki":

I learned about these over on Kenny's blog.  They're small Polaroids taken and signed by the models for their fans.  I started off with "sweet" on the left, but things get "spicier" as you progress to the right.

Before I show off my favorite autograph out of Kenny's care package, let's check out all of the unopened packs he included:

Kenny has been one of the biggest contributors to my unopened Japanese pack collection.  I might eventually open up the 2024 Topps Japan pack, but the other eleven are going into the collection.

Okay... here's my favorite:

2012 BBM Dancing Heroine Autograph #HO11

BBM's Dancing Heroine sets feature NPB baseball cheerleaders.  Out of all of their product lines, this is my favorite.

I'm not familiar with Yu-ka, but she might have been a cheerleader for the Softbank Hawks about a decade ago.  I like the simple design, well-cropped photo, and well-placed on-card autograph.  The flower in the signature is a nice touch.

There are a few more cards out of Kenny's care package that I want to share, but I'm going to wait until later in the summer (after I acquire a certain 2025 Topps Series 2 insert card).

Until then, let me wrap up this post with the latest additions to my 2011 Topps Update set build.

These twenty cards arrived last week from Greg over at The Collective Mind:

The other thirteen cards were from Chris @ The Collector:

They turned my wantlist from this:

To this:

Thanks to Greg, Chris, Tom, AJ, and Jim... I'm down to needing only fifty-four cards left for my sweet set build.

Thank you Ryan for providing today's snack packs.  And thank you Kenny for all of these "sweet" additions to my Japanese model and unopened wax pack collections!

Happy Monday and sayonara!