One of the funnest parts about a holiday where you are going to experience new things is the planning. It is kind of like the journey versus the destination being the main part of a trip. This is a discussion that could take place over a lot of beers, but I'm an advocate of enjoying the trip experience even after you have returned home. We're not talking personal growth (which is good), but the fact that you can still enjoy the tastes of the places you've travelled in food long after you have returned home. I always like to bring home food related souvenirs so the trip can keep on giving long after it is done.
Some of the food type souvenirs I've brought back are shown in the pics below.
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| Japanese Kit Kats are big thing these days. There are a large variety of Kit Kats in different regional and traditional flavours of Japan. Green tea, wasabi, roasted tea, strawberry shortcake and strawberry are some of the many different types of flavours. |
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| This is a sake flavoured kit kat and it is really good (must like the taste of sake though). |
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| Various types of more gourmet / deluxe Kit Kats that are unique to Japan. Some of these will require you to visit a Kit Kat Chocolatory specialty shop that can be found in the major cities. |
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| This is a type of red bean Kit Kat that was a limited edition in the fall of 2014. It was really good. |
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| Mmmm. Strawberry Kit Kit, Tochigi Edition. |
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| Melon Kit Kats |
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| Japanese whiskey. You can decide if the fuss over it is worth it after tasting. I find that they are very smooth and not as bold or "rough" as some of the scotches I also like. |
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| These are packages of single use, pour over coffee filters that fit on top of a mug. Coffee is included. They're pretty cool. |
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| Potato chips are always a good snack, especially with local flavours. |
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| Lawson and 7-11 both have awesome rice crackers and other snacks that you can stock up on. |
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| Chicken Ramen flavoured potato sticks. |
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| I like Chicken Ramen from Nissin. This is the original instant ramen by the way. |
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| Pretz which are flavoured breadsticks/skinny biscuites and the chocolate covered Pocky sticks are great souvenirs and you can always look limited / seasonal editions. |
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| Some giant-sized specialty Pockys in souvenir format. |
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| Office worker and even natural disaster survival biscuits. A small box can help you keep going. |
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| Muji (as in the dept. store) sells white chocolate and green tea chocolate covered freeze dried strawberries. These are great! I looked for the green tea at a small outlet store, but they only have the white chocolate. |
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| Cheezas are awesome cheeze tasting crackers that go great with beer. If you like cheese, try these. |
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| Freeze dried miso soup with eggplant. One of my faves. |
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| Freeze dried soup (egg drop). Quite good, light to carry, and keeps for a long time. |
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| This is a box of gift mochi (Japanese rice sweets with various types of fillings). You can find this type of confectionary in many gift shops and even the airport which is where I picked this up. They should be really fresh and boy was it good. |
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| This is just a sampling, but take a look at all of the different kinds of chocolate, hard candy, jelly beans, and chips you can pick up at a store these. |
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| This is artisanal candy, hand-sculpted out of sugar. I bought a pretty fancy lollipop that I'll never eat, but display only. A shop in the Skytree Mall sells these. |
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| Some very awesome Japanese mints. They really do a good strawberry, grape, and yogurt drink flavours like Calpis. |
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| You can also bring back some cup noodles of various types to snack on or to have a lunch on one day and think back about your trip. They're definitely not the cup noodle you'll get at home. |
That's all for now about food, but other types of souvenirs are like arts, crafts, stationary, clothes, and toys. These are all pretty darn cool in Japan.
More Japanese Pop Culture.
