Haro!

Today i wanna talk about Yakult! It is a long post (i promise i will have an interesting story), so have some patience with me! (Also it involves Japan, haha bonus point for you!)

 

INTRO

If you haven’t already known, Yakult is a cultured milk drink/probiotic drink that is very, very, very famous in Japan. Actually make it the world! It is sold in 33 countries in the world, millions and millions of bottles are consumed everyday!

Of course, i myself have become a big fan of Yakult recently, especially since the danna made Yakult a must-buy item in the grocery list. We drink at least a bottle every day because he has managed to convince me how beneficial it is to our health (he didn’t really explained why, i just trusted my husband lolol), so every bento i make now always comes with a bottle of Yakult.

Anyway, since Yakult Malaysia knew that i was a fan, they decided to bring me to Japan to join their annual Yakult media trip, along with other journalists from Malaysia and Indonesia!

Meeting with Yakult Malaysia to finalize the trip detail.

 

Only after the trip, i discovered the success secrets of Yakult, all its philosophy and goodness.

In the very essence (quite literally), Yakult contains lots of good bacteria, Lactobacillus casei Shirota. Only Yakult has over 30 billion good bacteria in each bottle!

And you can pretty much say that Yakult was created by Dr Minoru Shirota, because he wanted to save the world. (Big, big vision!)  He was the first in the world to succeed in culturing a strain of lactic acid bacteria beneficial to human health. This bacterium was named Lactobacillus casei strain shirota after Shirota. You can Wiki it!!

 

JAPAN!

DAY 1

So everyone arrived in Japan safely! I was there earlier for other work stuff, and i was only able to join the team from day two onwards.

We were put up in an amazing hotel near Yakult Honsha (Yakult HQ in Tokyo).

And in the hotel there were Yakult drinks waiting for my arrival!! (Did you know that Yakult has not only Yakult the drink, but a wide array of products including skin care products??)

Also, did you know that Yakult in Japan does not come with a straw? You are supposed to just (very easily) peel of the top and drink from it!! We Malaysians are so spoilt!!

So right away i had to join other media for seminars about the history of Yakult and health related topics, which is where i learnt about all the astonishing facts about the benefits of Yakult i didn’t know before.

In Malaysian team there were Kevin the Fitness consultant, Diana Amir the actress and a few journalists from different publishing companies.

 

And then we proceeded to dinner!

At night there was a welcome party by Yakult Honsha, we had amazing seafood shabu shabu and everyone was really excited for some reason! Trust the Japanese to make everybody comfortable (with the most thoughful services, lots and lots of gifts haha)!

It was a fun and easy night.

 

DAY 2

The second morning we had another seminar about human’s immune system and how Yakult is helpful to that.

Trust the Japanese to make the most complicated and technical talk interesting with cartoons lolol.

Don’t wanna bore you with scientific details now, maybe i will elaborate in future posts!

 

In the afternoon, we visited the Yakult Susono Factory.

 

To bad it was rainy, otherwise we would be able to see Mt Fuji from up close.

Like this.

We were welcomed with a briefing session and of course our welcome drinks were Yakult, which were freshly made in this factory!!!

Yakult Joie, a yogurt drink (different from cultured milk), is made in this factory. Tens of thousands of fresh bottles every single day.

And interesting change of Yakult bottle design since the 1940’s! The history goes a loooong way.

Well, you must be wondering the change from glass to plastic bottle is not really environmentally friendly. I had the same question.

Of course, trust the Japanese to remain eco all the time and recycle used bottle to reproduce other plastic items, like this Yakult coin bank.

As i said, Yakult is sold in 33 countries worldwide (they just launched Yakult Switzerland last week!!! Yay to all you Swiss people!!!).

I wish Malaysia will come up with more varieties, especially Soful, it’s a yogurt that taste like hotel grade pudding dessert lolol.

My breakfast after just landed at Narita airport lolol.

If you ever go to Japan you MUST try it out!

 

(Ok back to the factory)

Display of worldwide bottle designs.

Anyway. As i looked closer, i was puzzled.

If you are a Malaysian, you will too.

(Malaysian bottle is second row – rightmost)

Notice what is strange?

Have you realized that the Yakult bottles worldwide is the same, except Malaysia??? 

All the bottles from other parts of the world have a slim waist but the Malaysian bottle which oddly stands out looking strange.

Curious, i asked why is that. And when i knew the answer i got very very angry wtf.

Anyway, again, if you are a Malaysian or Singaporean, you will realize the original Yakult bottle is very similar to another cultured milk brand in Malaysia, no?

In fact, it is exactly the same. In more fact, it has been so ingrained in our mind and heart since years ago that we thought that was the original. I even supported the brand godammit. Now i feel that i have been lied to since childhood. (And then got very very angry again lol).

There were more shady stories behind it which I cannot reveal la later get into trouble.

Well, business is business. There are always the less honest and incompetent loser who can only steal. (Really, if you even have any substance at all, why steal??) I should refrain from questioning the ethics of another company further, but at least now i know the truth.

Yakult, from Japan, since 1935. THE ORIGINAL. Loved worldwide.

Even though they lost the patent to a bottle design, they are still Yakult. And people will always be loyal to it.

 

Don’t trust me.

Trust Ken Watanabe. It’s him who incepted me on the flight. I swear.

Yakult dispenser machine!!! Apart from cultured milk drink, they also have healthy tea, juices, etc. 😀

After that we also had a factory tour, no pictures were allowed inside but i could just say i was beyond impressed (to the point i felt touched) to see how they stress on hygiene and quality control to ensure the best of their products.

 

Anyway, there’s Day 3, where i experienced being a Yakult Lady in Japan! What is a Yakult Lady? Stay tuned to find out more hehehhe.

That’s all for today!!!!

 

So now when you do your grocery and walk down that chilled drinks aisle, you know which one to pick. 😉

I always get the double pack Yakult Lite, because it has less sugar (only 46 kcal a bottle!!!) and cheaper than single pack of course!! Hehe. *monster housewife mode*

Of course also, if you need more facts, Yakult is supported by over 75 years of research experience, (reliable!!) totally free of preservative and stabilizer as well as artificial coloring, which is why they don’t have other fancy fancy colored drinks.emo5 Natural is always better!

 

There are so many more things i learnt about Yakult (all awesome things!!!) that i can’t finish writing in just one blog post, so if you wanna find out more, there’s always the website:

www.yakult.com.my

 

And FB page:

www.facebook.com/yakultmalaysia

Go give it support!! I love Yakult so much!!!

 

 

 

Share: