Category: Japan
Konbini sweets for sweet tooth men
There are products that boost Konbini stores' sales recently in Japan.
It's “Men's sweets”.
Until a little while ago, sweets were considered for kids and women, and it was a shameful thing that a man has a sweet tooth. Japanese samurai don't like sweets.
But this is changing.
According to a statistics, 70% of sweets buyers are men and most of them buy at Konbini store. The reason behind is simple, men want to buy sweets but still it's a little embarrassing for a man to sit in a pretty cafe and eat a cake surrounded by women or to be seen him choosing some cakes for himself in front of the show case of a patisserie. This statistics shows the place where people buy sweets. The blue is men and the pink is women. Needless to say, there are more men buyer than women and the most common place for buying sweets is Konbini (the fourth from the top), then supermarkets (the third) and cake shops (the top) come third. |
Otoko no Tiramisu Shuu(Man's tiramisu chou á la créme) |
Konbini solves all these problems. Last June “Men's Sweets” series released from one of the Kobini store, FamilyMart in Japan. The targets are sweet tooth men. For not to embarrass them, the packages are simple but at the same time they focus on the ingredients and the texture of the products. Most of the sweets are less sweet than normal products by using for example bitter chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Also the packaging is important. Men's Sweets series has manly, chic based on black simple packaging. FamilyMart is growing its sales especially with chilled sweets such as cream puffs and almond pudding. Kobini store is the saviour of Japanese sweet tooth men. Some makes a comment “there are many men sweets lover but they are either embarrassed to go to a cake shop or too busy at work going to a shop during the day. So being able to buy good quality sweets at Konbini store is really a good news for sweet lovers” |
Otoko no Annin Dofu (Man's almond pudding) |
For those who love sweets, there are some clubs such as “Danshi Sweets Club” (Men's Sweets Club) which is founded in one of the Japanese trend magazines called DIME. They talk about new sweets products, new trend in sweets, search for new cake shops or evaluate famous patisseries. They even have forums and puts recipe for Konbini sweets. This is a respectable club for sweet tooth men. |
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Here is one of their recipe by using a Risou no purin (Ideal Pudding). So easy that anyone can make it! Ingredients are Risou no purin and a slice of bread. |
1. Score the surface of the sliced bread 2. Pour over the pudding 3. Sprinkle some dry fruits and put it in the toaster 4. It's done, so easy 5. Sprinkle some powder sugar to finish up |
Japanese food is highly recommended in the Western world because of its healthiness but on the contrary, Japan is now following the Western style nutrition.
Then I wonder what gives Japanese men a craving for sweets. Because of the stress Japanese businessmen have from their workload and the pressure from their wives? Or simply this is a backlash against eating super healthy food?
In any cases, Japanese men are craving for “sweets time”. “Sweet approach” this may be a key for Western girls who want to have Japanese boyfriend.
Nijuushi Sekki
Nijuushi Sekki (24節気) is 24 phases in traditional East Asian Lunisolar calendar which matches a particular astronomical event or signifies some natural phenomenon.
It separates 1 solar year into 24 by the number of the date (Heikei method- 平気法) or the position of the sun in the ecliptic (Teiki method-定気法) then names on the each parting date.
This method was introduced to adjust the difference between the lunisolar calendar months and actual cycle of the season.
Originated in China then had extended to other East Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
Japanese lunar Calendar, Kei-Chitsu
Keichitsu (啓蟄) is the third of 24 solar terms in the traditional East Asian calendars and is called Jingzhé (驚蟄) in chinese, 경칩 in Korean and Kinh trập in Vietnamese. In the Gregorian calendar, it is between around the 5th of March and the 20th of March. The literal meaning of Keichitsu is awakening of hibernated insects. All the insects and animals started coming out of the underground. Plants are also shooting up baby leaves. Apart from now, the weather is becoming mild and warm. It is the beginning of the spring. |
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Saisen Bako
Ema
"Please make me win at horse race and get enough fund from it." Hmmm. |
After writing your wish, there is a place to hang it. |
Ema (絵馬/ picture hourse) is used in Shintoism, is small wooden plaques on which people write their prayers or wishes. After writing your wish, you leave it hanging up at the shrine. On one side there are various pictures, often they are animals or other shrine imagery.
Meyami Jizo
Meyami Jizo (めやみ地蔵) is a Budhisattvas for eyes and people who have problems with their eyes come here to pray. Me-yami means sicken eyes in Japanese and Jizo is one of the Budhisattvas commonly known as a guardian god in Japan.
Sushi
Sushi is now worldwise known Japanese food, yet it's not so commonly known Sushi has just a general name and there are many kinds of Sushi in Japan.
Sushi is written in Japanese as 寿司 but this is actually a substitute character and is also written as 鮨 or 鮓. The first character 鮨 means vinegared rice or fish and the latter 鮓 means fermented fish or rice, both came from the original style of Sushi. Sushi was a preserved food which dates back to the 4B.C in the Southeast Asia. It was around the 8th century when the idea of Sushi was introduced to Japan and it changed its style a little, which people started eating half raw fish with the rice.
Here are the types of Sushi.
So now, which Sushi you feel like eating for lunch?
Momo no Sekku in Japan
Momo no Sekku is the Girls’ Day in Japan on the 3rd of March and is one of the Japanese traditional events which wishes the healthy growth of girls.
Konbini Stores in Japan
A courius thing about japan is kobini stores, with one kobini store by 2500 japanese becames one of the country with more convinience stores per person.
Hiragana
Hiragana (ひらがな) is one of the Japanese wrting system along with Katakana and Kanji. As well as Katakana, Hiragana is phonetical and is a simplified form of Kanji.
Hiragana was inventied in the 9th century, in Heian period and is used for Japanese origen words, prepositions or as ruby characters.
When Japanese children start learning reading and writing, start with Hiragana.
Hiragana Chart
More about Japanese language