Souvenirs from Japan 2

I work in a Japanese company, so we have many visitors from Japan and they would normally bring some omiyage (souvenir) over, over the years, I had eaten many items from Japan and I found out that a lot of people would buy the similar items like below pictures. 

One of the items was KitKat, there're many "Japan only" KitKat. I used to like the matcha KitKat. Recently, there's even a flavour for sakura. Nice! 

Kit Kat Otona no Amasa オトノの甘さ

Below KitKat is quite special. The bake-able KitKat in cheese cake flavour. I have seen an article in Rocketnews24  that it could be baked. But I didn't do that, of course, I just got a few of it, too troublesome to do that. I ate it just out of the packaging and didn't get stomach ache. Hahaha! Very special product. 

bakeable Kit Kat in cheesecake flavour

Another KitKat product I got was KitKat Wa-Ichigo (和苺), loosely translated as Japanese Strawberry. According to some online source, it is made from Tochiotome strawberries, not sure true or not. I thought it is made from artificial flavouring only. Weird, normally the semi finished or finished goods made from strawberry tasted like chemical for me.

KitKat Wa-Ichigo

KitKat Wa-Ichigo (easy to open box design)

KitKat Wa-Ichigo

Other than KitKat, Meiji is also a big food brand in Japan. I think it makes a good decent souvenir. I quite often bought Meiji Chocolate when I was in Japan too, however, I did not buy this kind of packaging, I bought a bar of Meiji Chocolate, normally around 100 yen per bar in the supermarket very often.

Meiji Hi milk Chocolate

Meiji Milk Chocolate

Some Japanese souvenirs were very western type. Like the picture below, the GOUTER de ROI White chocolate -by GATEAU FESTA HARADA. The packaging was quite different from traditional Japanese sweets packaging. It looks like the wet tissue packaging. Hahaha!

GOUTER de ROI White chocolate - GATEAU FESTA HARADA

Other items were like the local specialities. Like the below item, Okaki おかき. I think it came from a place that produces oyster. 

Okaki おかき

Madeleine マドレーヌ, to me, it looks and tastes like normal sponge cake. I never knew that it has such beautiful feminine name. Hahaha! This is non-halal though, it listed alcohol as one of the ingredients. Each piece came with one desiccant. I guessed the desiccant kept it from become soggy.

madeleine マドレーヌ

Next in line was this Hakata Maron 博多まろん from Akaifusen 赤い風船. They even have their own website, one could buy the 4 piece per pack one from 308 yen. It's not bad actually. I like the taste. According to the company website, the fillings are made from Japanese chestnut 和栗. I think it tasted like red bean paste. Hahaha! Anyway, on the packaging itself, the pattern is quite special, it is the pattern of the famous Hakata woven pattern 博多献上柄. I think it is a bit like songket. Interesting!

博多まろん赤い風船

Next, the Shiroi Koibito. It's very famous. I visited the factory when I went to Hokkaido. I have eaten this quite many times. A lot of people brought this as souvenir from Japan. 

shiroi koibito 白い恋人

Then, I personally prefer the souvenir like below, snacks. It's easy to get from supermarket, not so expensive and most of the time, more delicious than the standard souvenir. Plus, it's from Japan too.

takenokonosato たけのこ里

Next, initially I really had trouble to figure out what is the meaning of サンダー (pronounced as sanda). It's katakana, so it's an foreign word, normally English, however, it couldn't be sandal. Sounds so not right. So I turned to Google, it's the katakana for thunder. That is so unexpected. Black thunder could be found in normal convenience shop in Japan. For the one I got, it's marketed as "only in Tokyo", which means "tourists, please come and buy buy buy!". 

Tokyo thunder from Yuraku (Tokyo only) 東京サンダー

For the below Toraya Yokan 虎屋羊羹, it's considered a higher end souvenir compared to the other normal cookies or chocolate. The packaging was very meticulous, very solid. It's made of red beans, sugar and agar-agar, not suitable for diabetics, I think. I felt it tasted like hardened red bean jelly, I kind of like the texture of it.

Toraya Omokage Yokan おもかげ羊羹

For this Yokan, I have to compliment the packaging. I know a lot of Japanese food items were packed thoughtfully. But after a few years back to Malaysia, I have got used to not so convenient packaging, especially the 3 in 1 coffee sachet that wouldn't open properly (normally scissors were involved). To eat this Yokan, one have to remove the wrapper according to the arrow printed on the packaging, then remove the top cover, one can start to eat this, after finish the top portion, just push the remains from the bottom. Easy and not messy and the hands are all clean after eating this. Good!

good design. first, just tear off the part according to the arrow, then remove the cover. Easy to eat and will not mess up the hands.