Not pictured, but also eaten: Japanese sweet potato kitkats, in the most perfect shade of lilac; pumpkin pudding kitkats for Halloween; vanilla ice cream kitkats last summer.

Japan’s ridiculous kitkat flavours are common knowledge on the internet now, I think, but nothing can take away the joy of actually finding them in convenience stores. Passionfruit kitkats! Just chilling on the shelf! Ice cream flavour, with pieces of waffle cone in the chocolate coating! BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE, I AM SO EXCITED.

The clear winner: matcha & cherry blossom. I found these in Narita airport - lots of these flavours are special editions and are only available at certain times, or in certain Japanese prefectures; the strawberry and the matcha/cherry blossom were airport-specific. Admittedly I love cherry blossom flavour, but it was subtle and floral enough here to cut through the matcha chocolate, which I find a bit boring on its own. Honourable mention to the cookies and cream flavour, which should totally be a year-round standard. Shrieks of joy over the blueberry cheesecake, in its Mount Fuji packaging. A respectful salute to the super-pretty sweet potato flavour of 2011. This isn’t over, Japan.