I work in an office and whenever someone has a day off to go somewhere, they bring in treats for everyone the next day.
Don’t get me wrong, they taste fine and it’s a nice of them to do it, but I’ve noticed in Japan it’s just the same two types every single time.
The contenders:
1. That one that’s just a layer of sweet cream between two thin white cookies. Again, it’s good but that’s one of them.
2. The other is that stupid little cake about the size of a lighter that’s like it’s been dipped in maple syrup before they package it. Super oily and sticky but again not bad.
Also of course Ike most things here everything is individually wrapped in plastic because it’s amazing for the environment.
I see these little demons in my nightmares and just wondered if anyone else is invaded by them every other day? Silly question though because if you live and work in japan chances are they haunt you too.
Don’t pretend to not understand me, you know EXACTLY what I mean.
Have a nice weekend!
16 comments
Sounds like your coworkers have the same 2 tastes. We’ve had the cookies. We also have had senbei, mochi, candy, cream cakes and ube cake. I dunno what to tell you about your coworkers
Because they are cheap per piece.
Don’t know what you are talking about, had so many different ones throughout the years.
I know the first one you mean, but not the second. But honestly, I prefer the sweet ones to the senbei or prawn crackers that are popular in my department.
Whilst I do know of the sweets you describe, I find in my workplace we get a variety of sweets and snacks based on where someone visits. Tokyo banana, Yokan, chocolates, manju, senbei and so on. Maybe your coworkers are all going to the same places, or forgetting to buy something and grabbing it locally.
Dunno what the second one is, but people buy the cheapest piece per yen and call it a day without much thought.
There’s tonnes more souvenir foods. Common ones at my office are rice crackers, regional flavour of name brand snack (KitKat/Jagarico/etc), tokyo banana, cookies, eel pie, rusk, mini-baumkuchen, butter sand…. That’s just off the top of my head.
It sounds like someone in your office likes those specific ones.
people usually just get whatever is regional to where they went, won’t go bad if left out, and has enough pieces in the box for everyone. if everyone is going to Hokkaido, yeah, you’re gonna get a lot of shiroi koibito cookies. Or, they might just be grabbing whatever is cheap in bulk from the grocery store to mark an occasion in their life.
(or sometimes just bc you wanna eat snacks with people!)
Your experiences in your office/city are not representative of experiences of everyone in Japan. I receive things like oranges or vegetables, for instance. If you’re not a fan of a gift, just don’t eat it? Or maybe you should try being the one to bring in something different to change things up a bit.
I know you have a lot of feelings but if I brought in snacks and learned someone was so bothered they had to go online to talk about how “stupid” the snacks are, I’d probably feel kind of bad.
Folks here don’t always cope well with surprises.
It’s safer to go with the safe option, rather than risk someone going into sensory shock because the secret ingredient was too sweet/spicy/etc.
Not familiar with either, perhaps the cream between cookies. No idea about the other.
As others have said, while many do get a bit samey, there’s perhaps 10 – 15 different categories. As with many “regional variations” here, the tweak to the standard recipe is what people seem to like.
Anyway, a good reminder that, despite what this sub may lead you to believe, your experience does not define an entire country!
My workplace buys a variety of souvenirs, but the ones you described are probably the “safest”. I’m just as guilty of buying the cream sandwichy biscuit one ahahah.
Usually people think it’s better to buy what others would generally like than buy something your coworkers may not like. They’re also relatively cheaper and/or have later expiration dates.
You’re kind of limited in your choices of omiyage if you’re on a budget and don’t want to haul 5 boxes of sweets back with you. A box of 10 high quality sweets will normally cost the same as 45-50 lower quality ones, so if you need to buy something for everyone at work, you’ll probably get the latter. The cheaper ones are often more generic. I’ve seen so many that are basically strawberry cornflake cakes. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the cheap omiyage are being made by one manufacturer and rebranded for different regions.
Buying omiyage can be a nightmare at times. I remember one year when I counted the number people on the seating chart at one of the junior high schools I worked at. I didn’t write it down, but it was around 55. Most of the omiyage had 48 pieces at most, and I knew if I got a second box of something else, it would look like I’m playing favorites, because some people would get more expensive gifts than the others. I got the biggest box I could find, and I was still 3 pieces short. Thankfully I had given them out at the end of the day when there were few people in the teacher’s room, and since it was a Friday I just left and hoped no one brought it up next time I was there. I had planned to go to an Onsen the next day, so I bought another big box so that I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. I’m really not surprised people buy the cheapest ones possible.
If you’re talking shit on Butter Butler with number two, we’re going to fight.
Perhaps the third one for international travel – the chocolate covered macadamias?
Your team doesn’t bring you mochi or crackers? My team brings us mochi and crackers.
I’d love the little chocolate filled cookies, we don’t get those very often.
Although one of the guys went to the US and brought back a like 2lb bag of Ghirardelli’s squares which was insanely popular and a box of full sized Hershey’s bars which was not as popular (and after eating one – either my tastes have changed or the Hershey’s recipe has because they just tasted wrong).
Kakinohasushi is my favorite omiyage, but I reserve that for the people I really like, like the old man at the small shop that explained the garbage to me and says hi, nice weather in English as a greeting, rain or shine.