Krispy Kreme drawing huge crowds
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The first time we saw a long line in front of a Krispy Kreme store in Ginza's Itocia department store, we were surprised. The young Japanese we know were very conscious in keeping their body slim, so seeing young people lining up here seemed to contradict that image. Then we saw the line again in Shinjuku and we knew it's not a coincidence, Japanese were indeed having a craving for American doughnuts. We do hope it's a fad though, or just curiosity checking out new things (Krispy Kreme opened its Shinjuku store in December 2007), or even a good percentage of foreigners in the mix.
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Wagashi, or traditional sweets
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The traditional Japanese sweets are made from a limited number of ingredients: red bean, yam, powdered soy bean, sugar, sticky rice, and seaweed. This list looks unimpressive, but then you find so many different types of sweets while in Japan, and there are seasonal ones too. I think the diversity is based on the aesthetics, as Japanese tend to emphasize the art aspect of any food they make, so the way you wrap each individual sweet, the stamp on the paper wrapping, the cord tied delicately around, each is as important as what's inside.
Sweets are usually bought and sold as gift boxes. In the Taiiku no Hi holiday, when we were in Tokyo, that afternoon the stations were bustling with vacationing people returning home, and that's also when we observed people crowding in front of sweet shops buying that sweet box that they didn't get a chance to buy during the trip. In big stations like Shinjuku or Tokyo there are shops selling regional sweets as well, so if you forgot that uncle on your mother's side, here's your last chance to buy that box of sweets from that particular region that you just left from.
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Dango
We were in Japan at the start of autumn so we began to see cold weather sweets even though the weather was still hot. Dango is one of them, often seen on the streets in the form of skewers (kushi dango). Dango is a ball of dumpling with no filling, toasted on a charcoal fire. It tastes kind of bland, like eating a ball of cooked flour, slightly chewy and bouncy. That's why it's usually coated.
When we were visiting Nihonji, we ate mitarashi dango, which in the photo are the dark color ones in the foreground. Mitarashi is a sticky caramel sauce whose main ingredients are soy sauce and mirin and some flavoring such as vanilla or cherry blossom.
Another type of dango is kibidango which is coated in colored soybean powder (kinako), seen in the background, and also in this photo.
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| Mochikurabe (餅くらべ)
A collections of mochi (rice cakes): mochi skewers, white chestnut mochi, white sesame mochi, black sesame mochi, citron mochi.
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Ocha daifuku (お茶大福)
A popular Japanese rice cake with a filling inside. The filling is usually sweetened red bean paste (anko). Other, less traditional, fillings include strawberry, melon, orange, custard, and hazelnut. The filling for daifuku is diverse and only limited to one’s imagination and cooking ability.
The type we bought from Narita pictured here was tea-flavored.
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| Yōkan (羊羹)
Yōkan are rectangular blocks of gelatin sweet made of azuki bean paste, kanten and sugar. Just slice it up into small cubes and serve with tea. One of the most popular among Japanese sweets, evolved during the Edo period (1603 - 1867) as sugar became more available. It can be kept longer and is a recommended gift item.
The type we bought in Narita airport was from Nakamuraya (中村屋) with 6 different flavors, good for 1 year: two of 煉 (neri, bean), and one each of 小倉 (ogura, red bean), 黒光 (brown sugar), 柚子 (citron), 抹茶 (matcha with added brown sugar), and 栗 (chestnut).
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Hijiri (聖・ひじり)
A Kyoto special, sold every where in Kyoto. Hijiri is fresh (unbaked) yatsuhashi.
Yatsuhashi (八ッ橋) was named after Kengyo Yatsuhashi, a well-known koto player and composer of koto music. In 1689, four years after Yatsuhashi died at age 72, a sweet that was shaped like a koto was named after him, and began to be sold on the approach to Shogoin Shrine. Soon after, the sweets began to be called "Shogoin yatsuhashi". The main shop that made these confections was Genkaku-dō (black crane, whose cry is similar to the sound of a koto), which has been in business for over 300 years. Around 1905, yatsuhashi became a popular Kyoto souvenir among Japanese visitors to Kyoto.
Hijiri began to be sold around 1960. Since it is made fresh, it can last only up to a week. Rice flour is kneaded with hot water and steam, then mixed with sugar, cinnamon, and sometimes poppy seeds. The dough is then rolled out flat and cut into 8cm x 8cm squares. Soybean powder is sprinkled on both sides. Azuki red bean jam is placed inside, and then the hijiri is folded over to form a triangle (sometimes a rectangle).
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| Kakiho
垣穂－かきほ－a Kanazawa regional rice cake roll with bean paste in the middle and coated with black or white toasted sesame seeds. Murakami is the manufacturer of the type pictured here.
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