My New Years Gift of Sweets

I spent my vacation over New Years traveling around Central Japan and the Kansai region. New Year's Eve was in Kyoto, and in addition to a little sightseeing a picked up a few traditional things.

My gift for the office was a box of yatsuhashi, which most likely Kyoto's most iconic food. It's a lightly sweet snack that is essentially a souvenir sweet these days. It comes in two forms and several flavors.

The baked version is mostly found in curved long triangles, similar to a stick of gum curved into a long semi-circle. 

In its raw form, it's a soft, flexible dough. Many prefer the raw, unbaked yatsuhashi, which is usually cut into squares about 4" in size and folded into a triangle with a small bit of red bean paste filling inside. 

The "basic" flavor is cinnamon, and unlike most snacks in Japan, the cinnamon can be quite pronounced. But baked yatsuhashi is also found in matcha (green tea), and raw yatsuhashi is found in at least half a dozen non-traditional flavors, like strawberry, chocolate, and yuzu (a sweet lemon-like fruit). Chocolate might be my favorite, although the other flavors are pretty good too, and the traditional cinnamon is certainly good as well!

 A gift to myself (as a sampler for the blog, naturally!) was the box you see above. The shopping street leading to Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto is full of, well, shops, mostly selling souvenirs and traditional goods. After picking up some yatsuhashi, I wandered into a different store that had a shelf of small jellies and some boxes to pack them in. I grabbed a nine-pack box (there are larger sizes, too) and picked out a selection of gorgeous sweets.

You can see my non-harmonious arrangement above. One of these wasn't really a jelly (top-left) but was okay-tasting; the rest were mild but sweet. They're really beautiful, though! The sweets go by the name of wagashi, and are generally served with tea. As with most Japanese sweets, the base is usually mochi and/or anko, or fruit jellies. I believe the form above is namagashi, a "wet" type made fresh without preservatives.

Japan has an obsession with fruit flavors with dessert, and the fruits themselves are usually fairly expensive still too. Grapes, apples, and strawberries aren't just snacks here. Gummy candies are all over the place with fruit flavors - fine by me, because I love them! These are much milder, but I think they would go great with a cup of tea on this cold winter night!

I was Santa!

Today was my last teaching day of the year; I'm on vacation for a couple weeks now! We had our children's Christmas party today and in addition to teaching a bunch of regular classes and playing Christmas games, I spent a while taking photos dressed up as Saint Nick.

I've mentioned gift giving in Japan before. A few of our students brought Christmas gifts this week, and one of my adorable ex-students (now being taught by a different teacher due to a schedule change) gave me a great little box. Inside are some appetizing-looking chocolates!

So while it was a busy day (and difficult because I said goodbye to another of my favorite students) I had a great time!

Meanwhile, the blog has been kind of silent lately because I've been busy prepping for my vacation. I plan on posting from South Korea starting around Tuesday. Yep, Christmas! If I don't write until then, have a great weekend!

Oishii-so: Give me a break! KitKat Flavors in Japan!

Japan is known for it's flavor. More specifically, it's odd flavors. I haven't had much of a chance to try the ice cream flavors, though I see green tea flavors in almost everything. I tried some steak flavored cheetos last month. That was an adventure.

Nothing seems to be more coveted than the variety of Kit Kats found in stores, though.

Some of them are available only for a limited time, or in certain places. The key is to always keep your eyes open!

The first flavor is one I found in a special box, and it didn't come cheap. 800 yen for a souvenir box from Yokohama.  This is the one in the middle-right package above, and as you can tell from the picture, it's flavored like a strawberry cheesecake. The flavor is awesome, just like you'd expect from a strawberry cheesecake. It isn't as tart as a cheesecake would be, though - more sweet. It looks like this:

From there, we move on to the other white-colored Kit Kat, in the white wrapper:

This has a cookies and cream taste, with a black Oreo-style center. The cream flavor is stronger than the cookies, but it is pretty good! There is an aftertaste similar to eating just the center of Oreo cookies.

Next, let's get one of the patriotic ones. How about the blue-edged wrapper?

The chocolate tastes different on this Kit Kat. It came in a bag of three different types (whatever happened to one of them I don't know - or maybe it was only two types). It is supposed to be some sort of worldwide edition, so maybe this is a dutch chocolate or something!

And as for the red-edged wrapper:

The chocolate tastes more "normal" - in fact, there really isn't much diference from normal Kit Kats. Maybe they are normal for me - perhaps English.

Next, the green wrapper:

Green tea!

They taste just like green tea, but similar to the cheesecake, are sweeter. These are pretty good too! But I don't care much for green tea, so they aren't a favorite.

Last, my favorite bunch:

Pink Kit Kats! Strawberry flavored, these are super-sweet and strawberry-y. I really like these Kit Kats! 

And one more for good luck. These aren't mini Kit Kats:

This is a long bar, and costs about 100 yen. This is "Salt and Puff" flavored. There is a hint of salt flavor, and little cereal puff balls around the "cookie" part of the bar. It's really good!

As I find additional flavors, I'll let you know. There are dark chocolate bars out there for sure, plus I know I'll come across some other flavors over the year. Here's hoping I find a blueberry flavor soon!

White Day/Shake, Rattle and Roll

Today is a special day for ladies here in Japan. One month after Valentine's Day, Japan celebrates White Day. No, it isn't a sale on bed sheets at Macy's. White Day is when men give women gifts in return for gifts received on Valentine's Day. Many students bring gifts for one or both of the days for us teachers (shared with everyone of course) and I brought a box of chocolates. I probably didn't bring enough, but I can't afford much else now. I think I'll add to the pile once I get paid next month. Maybe I will pick up some of those cream puffs everybody loves!

Meanwhile, right around 9pm, we had a pretty big earthquake/aftershock. The nearby quake was reported as 5.7 by the USGS, though the local news called it a 6.1. It was the biggest earthquake to come from Chiba since the March 11 quake. There were also a couple stronger quakes up to the north. I was surprised that nothing fell off the shelves in my apartment, as I had given no concern to earthquakes when I placed stuff. I guess it just comes naturally? Anyway, everyone's fine although the news said there was some minor(?) damage in the Chiba area.

Hey, there's stand up comedy on TV. In Japanese. I didn't know Japan had stand up comedy. If only it was in English!

Valentine's Day in Japan!

Gift giving in Japan is a big deal. There's an art to it here - people are in a constant struggle to provide equal-or-better gifts in return for previous gifts. So it should be no surprise that Japanese culture has adopted a few gift giving holidays from the west, including Valentine's Day.

Things are a bit different here, though. On Valentine's Day, women give men gifts - usually chocolate - but men don't give anything in return. It's a time for women to show men they like them, where normally they might be too shy or reserved to say anything outright.

Not all gifts are signs of love, though: women might give all the men in the office a small "obligation" gift. And the holiday carries down to the children, as girls bring sweets for the boys in class.

So is this fair? The women do all the shopping while the men don't have to buy anything! Well, not quite. One month later men give gifts to the women on a day known as White Day.

Most of the stores have Valentine's Day advertising campaigns, with sometimes quite-large areas of the floor devoted to chocolates and other gifts. Kiosks and tables are set up in the malls with even more sweets selection. It's a big deal here!

I received my first gift yesterday (Friday) evening, from one of the children. It's very kawaii (cute)! Chocolate covered marshmallows with sprinkles and little silver balls (are those edible? I think they are). And it came in a cute Mickey and Minnie bag!

Should I receive any more gifts this weekend and Tuesday, I'll be sure to share!