Japan 2014: Snacks to Buy From Japan

I'm not sure about you guys, but when I go on vacations, I often fret about what to buy back home for my friends/colleagues. Most often, I find myself grabbing food items, cos seriously, who doesn't love food (and I in turn, am spoilt whenever my friends/colleagues head overseas and lug back goodies for me too...).

One thing about my trip to Japan in 2014, I lugged home a duffel bag worth of goodies. It's Japan! Land of everything oh-so-cute-and-dainty-and-elaborately-packed! Land of all-kinds-of-yummy-food! Land of I-must-buy-everything-I-see-in-sight. True story.

I'm just gonna share with you some items that I bought back from my vacation in Japan, just to give you guys a better sense of what kinda goodies you can look out for during your own trips.

Sixteen different-flavoured Kit Kats. Yes, ONE-SIX. Only in Japan.

So, starting with the easiest - Kit Kats. And no, it's not just any boring ol' Kit Kat. There are TONS of quirky and yummy Kit Kat flavours that can be found in Japan which I don't see back home.  They can be obtained easily from convenience stores, train stations, the airport and so on. Different stores have a different range of flavours, and I find that the Tokyo airport had a pretty good variety.

As pictured above, from the top row (L to R), the flavours are, Matcha; Sakura Matcha; Uji Matcha (Kyoto); Strawberry; Houjicha; Wasabi; Red Bean Sandwich; Beni Imo (Purple Sweet Potato); Shinsu Apple; Kankitsu (Citrus Mix); Strawberry Cheesecake; Kobe Pudding; Rum & Raisin; Vanilla Bean; Dark Chocolate; Cinnamon Cookie. My favourites were the Wasabi (surprisingly), Houjicha, Matcha (doh) and Rum & Raisin. 

So ya, I'd definitely recommend buying Kit Kats, just so you can taste those unique flavours. There are several other more interesting flavours too, just that most of them are seasonal or regional, so I didn't spot them - Soy Sauce, Kinako, Pumpkin,  Raspberry, Passionfruit, Yubari Melon, Mango, Chestnut, just to name a few. 

Just to add - most of these Kit Kat chocolates are white chocolate based (eg the rum & raisin, matcha, wasabi, pudding etc), so they can be quite sweet. I like that these fun-sized Kit Kats are perfect in the sense that one mini Kit Kat is enough to curb any sweets craving.  

Matcha goodies

I'm a huge fan of matcha (if you didn't already know). And Japan is land of all-things-matcha. Here's a shot of all things matcha we bought. My fave is the Meiji biscuits. They taste just like Oreos, but much better, cos it's sandwiched with a darn good matcha cream filling (like seriously, I'm the girl that throws away regular Oreos cream filling and just eat the cookies; but for these cookies, I actually eat and savour the cream filling).

Matcha roll cake I bought from the food floor in Isetan Shinjuku

Just to show you how the Japanese does wrapping. It takes four layers to get to the food. The Japanese pays a lot of attention to details, and maybe that's why Japanese goods are so expensive, cos it's not only the quality of the goods, but all these lil details that add up to the total price. I got this matcha castella cake from the Tokyo airport, and I liked the tightly crumbed texture and the slightly sweet honey tones.

Tokyo Banana Caramel Custard Cream

Another popular souvenir snack - the Tokyo Banana. Everyone goes gaga over this, and I'm not sure why. I'm not a big fan of this myself, but a lot of kids (and adults) love this. It's essentially a sweet creamy banana filling encased within a soft sponge cake. There are several variations to this snack. The above is the banana caramel variation, which is quite pretty, with its leopard prints design. And the below is the regular flavoured Tokyo Banana.

Tokyo Banana Original

Tokyo Banana Ginza Strawberry Custard Cream

There's also Tokyo Banana kurobe cookies, which I prefer to the cake. These are very thin and crisp cookies, and they come in a mixed box of white chocolate and dark chocolate cookie versions.

I spotted these in the Osaka (or was it Tokyo) train station, and was attracted to it because the flavours of the egg rolls were really interesting - yuzu, matcha, kinako, strawberry and bamboo charcoal. I've searched intensively on the Internet, but just can't seem to find the brand name or anything, so the only thing I can say is that these are quite tasty.

I know you can get Royce easily in Singapore, but these are the best. Like yums.

Fresh strawberries!

Okay, technically, strawberries are not categorised as snacks, but I just couldn't resist sharing how pretty and big and red the strawberries were! We got some from the department store and they were just so juicy and fragrant. With Japanese produce, you know that what you pay is definitely justified with the quality of what you get in return.

And these round of matcha goodies were bought by my Dad on another separate trip. Ho!

We got most of these snacks either at the major train stations or the Tokyo airport. Hope you have fun shopping for snacks in Japan!