Hey ho ikimashou! 
Hello and welcome to the second Punky
Pocky Party. Today, we will review The
Sensations and Sakura Pocky.
Let's take a closer look at
Sakura Pocky. This was actually released
in Spring 2017 as that time is of course,
Sakura or cherry blossom season. There are loads of Sakura flavored or themed snacks
available at that time and there should
be again soon.  As you can see the
packaging is very nice high-quality
and you can see it's part of the Trinity
range which also includes Orange Peel
Pocky and Almond Pocky.
Actually, all three of these have three features which
is why they're called Trinity.
On the back we can read here
Sakura Pocky has....
No. 1 Fermented butter is used to make a very crispy
crunchy pretzel stick.
No. 2 Very rich Sakura chocolate is used to cover the stick
and No. 3 The stick is
sprinkled with zarame (ザラメ）sugar.
I'm looking forward to trying it
Okay let me introduce The Sensations..... oh no not those Sensations..... these Sensations!
That's better.
They were formed in 2008 in Tokyo and
have been through a few member changes over the years but the current lineup is...
Ichikawa on drums, Osawa-san on vocals, 
Red on guitar and Kiichi on bass.
Osawa-san actually has his own record label called I Hate Smoke Records
They host many of the best local bands
including Starvingman from the last episode.
Okay it's time to review Sakura Pocky!
So let's open it up...oh it's got very
satisfying opening sound and very nicely
presented inside...see this packet...and
there are one two three four five six
sticks in each mini packet and four
packs so you got twenty four sticks there.
Open it up!
Ok let's have a look at one stick...dunno if
you can see that but yeah it's a very
nice looking stick and it's got... you can
see the little pieces of sugar on the end there.
Very interesting okay let me try......
Yeah that definitely has the kind of
cherry (blossom) sakura taste to it.
mmm and I really like the way the sugar
sprinkled on the outside gives a really
nice kind of satisfying crunch and a
little bit more sweetness so that's a
thumbs up for Sakura Pocky! Really
delicious original taste and even the
stick has a bit more kind of buttery
taste to it so I think it's very high
quality Pocky and I hope they re-release
it again this Spring.
Okay let's listen to The Sensations.
So The Sensations have a couple of full
albums. The first one, it was released in
2010 and this is self-titled and has
some cracking tunes on it and yeah I
definitely recommend this one
but the follow up which was 2013,  catchily-titled
Twistin' in the shits groovin'
.....yup that's the real title. This is a
really good one too and has a lot of
their classics on I'd say.
Yeah let's listen to one of the songs now...
"Stay Young"
As you can see they're a really fun, 
energetic band and it really stems from
the energy of Osawa-san. Actually, I
recommend seeing them live as I think
that is the very best experience of The
Sensations. As you can see from these
pics, Osawa-san always performs with a
perfect balance of energy and crazy!
To describe them as a ska-punk band would be too simplistic I think as they don't
really sound much like everything else
out there in that genre. Their sound is
influenced by Motown, Northern Soul and
60s music but with a Punk edge.
They also have a few EPs and the latest one is called Dig Your Own Grave.  I really like
this and it's good to hear some new
recordings from them. Yeah let's listen
to the title track....here you go "Dig Your
Own Grave"
Actually, they have a very exciting gig
coming up tomorrow Saturday 27th January
at Shimokitazawa Basement Bar
and Three (that's two venues).
There's loads of awesome bands including Starvingman from the last show,
A Page of Punk, Seventeen Again, Number Two.....too many to list!  The first band is on at 5:00 p.m.
so get there early and enjoy... I'll be
there!   But don't worry if you can't make
that one or you're watching this after
the 27th,  as they will have plenty more shows.
A link to their website is below.
Okay it's time for the all-important tea
dipping test and today's mug comes
courtesy of The Hostiles who are a Glasgow based ska punk band they are really good
and I think you should definitely check
them out....and if you're in Japan they may
even make it this way sometime this year
so look out for them!
Ok let's have a dip .......a couple of dips.....
mmm not bad not bad
mmm just try one more...stir a bit. 
hmm yeah I think it's quite satisfying.
On the second dip...it melted a bit more of
the chocolate and maybe the sugar was
lost in the tea there...might taste a
bit different later but overall pretty
good stick for dipping....still stays
crunchy afterwards as well so that's a
pass for Sakura Pocky in English tea.
So thank you to everyone for watching....please give us a subscribe and give the video a like.
See you next time!
"Twistin' In The Shits Groovin'"
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