checking in on "Japanese 7-Eleven in America"

No one would be more excited than me if 7-Eleven were to make its American stores more like its Japanese ones. I have watched a truly troubling number of video hours of people touring, shopping, and trying East Asian 7-Eleven cuisine. I could have easily made it to Japan and back in the time I’ve been glued to YouTube, slack-jawed, mentally cataloguing all of the little delights I’d love to try: melon milk, instant ramen with slices of instant char siu pork, those little cream and fruit sandwiches. But when 7-Eleven announced it actually wanted to pull off exactly this feat, I took it with a heavy dose of skepticism. Now that was a few months ago, and I hadn’t seen anyone follow up on it. So I went to check in on my nearest 7-Eleven, as the self-designated highest domestic authority on Japanese 7-Eleven who has never set foot in Japan.