Learning from Burger King

Last week Tokyo Five briefly mentioned the new promotional Burger King sandwiches, which are available now exclusively in Japan (lucky us): the All Heavy Whopper and the Meat Monster Whopper. I don't think these are getting as much coverage in the blogosphere as McDonalds' Big America burgers (probably because there aren't a whole lot of Burger King locations in Japan). They've had some interesting offerings in the past, though.

Man, looking at these things I'm kinda glad there are no franchises in Kansai. If there were I might be tempted to try one out.

While these beastly burgers don't do most of us any good, I noticed a few interesting and useful kanji in the above advertisement that I thought I'd point out. Yay - real kanji in everyday life action!

At the top of the poster, kind of hiding a little behind the All Heavy, we can see a splatter mark containing the kanji 「増量 無料！」Let's break that down:

増量 (ぞうりょう) = weight increase
無料 (むりょう) = free

It's funny because they really are offering you free weight gain, though I assume in this case they're referring to the weight of the extra toppings. 無料 is an absolutely pivotal word to know and recognize. You definitely want to understand when you're being offered something for free!

Next let's look at the Meat Monster's splatter. It reads 「追加自由！」.

追加(ついか) = addition(al), supplement(al)
自由 (じゆう) = freedom

So I guess here they're saying you're being granted even more freedom to have it your way. Wow, what a swell company. 自由 is another one that you'll want to be familiar with. One place you'll see it is on the Shinkansen. 自由席 = unreserved seat


This lesson is brought to you by Burger King, apparently.

Just another picture of the day 1/13/10

Yup, that's a Whopper Jr. set for ¥450 that includes a Highball. Have it your way, indeed. Now if only there were some BKs outside of Tokyo...

News to me

So Burger King is launching a new product in Japan, apparently: the Angry Whopper. I was surprised because I wasn't aware of the existence of Burger King in Japan. Not big news to all of you, perhaps, but it was somewhat exciting for me.

"Burger King? Here?" I exclaimed. "I must find one!"

And I began to scour the internet for any trace of a Burger King location near me. Alas, the trail was a short and disappointing one: Burger King Japan's website has a section listing all its store locations. As you can clearly see, all of the stores are in Kanto (the region around and including Tokyo). No Whoppers for me, angry or otherwise.