Unboxing Windows 7: Whopper Edition

By now most of the internet has heard of the Windows 7 Whopper. It is a cross-promotional deal between Microsoft and Burger King in Japan. Queue up all the old jokes about Windows and bloat, Vista and Blue Screens of Death, etc and what have you. Obviously, we had to go see this thing for ourselves.

We went to the Burger King in Shibuya, thankfully not too far from work. Above is a shot of the poster in the window. Obviously the poster-burger will look far better than the real thing. When I first saw this on the web I thought it was a clever Photoshop hack. Now I know better.

There were five of us on this expedition, so we bought two burgers. Sadly we did not get the introductory pricing of ￥777; apparently there was a line when the shop opened for folks who wanted in. We paid the normal price. That and a drink and a split of fries and onion rings made the lunch about ￥850 per person, not exactly cheap.

After about 5 minutes of fussing aroud and picture taking, we finally unwrapped the first burger. Then we spent another 5 minutes fussing and taking more photos.

And fussing...

And taking more photos... Someone dropped an onion ring next to the burger to get a size comparison. However, onion rings here are tiny. Or I've been spoiled by the mammoth rings at Mel's.

Finally got the second burger unwrapped. We took many more photos. In fact, a random patron who was walking by us paused, and also took photos. This thing demands photos be taken of it, to prove to the world that American fast food is utterly insane, and that the Japanese are even crazier for one-upping us. Or that you'll always find that one demented genuis in marketing who will be able to sell anything. There are photos of us posing with the burgers, but they are on someone else's camera. You folks are stuck with my Android shots.
Finally, we got down to the business of eating. Since there were 5 folks and 14 patties, we had to figure a decent way of splitting. 3 of us split one (2-3 patties each) while two of the guys split the other (3-4 patties each). It was a lot of burger. And while Burger King Whoppers are decent fast food burgers, I've had way too many meals at In-and-Out and Burger Joint to find eating my pair of patties (and half a bun) particularly enjoyable. As one of the guys pointed out, it was just the same taste over and over again. A bowl of ramen may have just as many calories, but at least you're getting noodles and broth and pork and fish cake and seaweed and green onions and maybe one or two other things, depending on the shop.