All images were captured from Kameda Seika's Happy Turn web site.
When I was in Japan, I noticed that the same holiday creep occurred there as does here. Halloween, despite not really being a Japanese holiday, is no exception as evidenced by the options for snacks. Of course, no one is going to be dropping packets of sembei (rice crackers) into the plastic pumpkins of Japanese children since they do not yet trick-or-treat, but packages with a Halloween motif are out there.
For those who don't remember my review of Happy Turn rice crackers, they are a very popular brand of vinegar, salt, and slightly sweet sembei. I had them quite a few times while in Japan, both in the 200% version that I reviewed and the regular version. In the U.S., I can buy them at the Daiso Japan or Nijiya supermarkets or take your chances on eBay.
The Halloween version of Happy Turn is essentially the same as the regular version. It simply comes in some pretty adorable packaging with a unique Japanese style. Fortunately, you can get your cute mascot on without buying the rice crackers if you are so inclined. You can download two wallpapers in each of two sizes and even some "letter sets" (stationary) templates. The latter is an indication of the fact that Japan is still a culture which embraces a good hand-written letter. You can download them at the following links: orange letter and envelope, purple letter and envelope, orange wallpaper 1024 x 768, orange wallpaper 1280 x 1024, purple wallpaper 1024 x 768, purple wallpaper 1280 x 1024. You can also access them directly through the Happy Turn site, but you'd have to be able to follow the links in Japanese. I'm offering them here for those who can't read it. I don't believe these links will work forever though, so if you want them, I'd suggest downloading them now. I wouldn't be surprised if Kameda Seika removed them after Halloween.
Even if you can't get your hands on the adorable Japanese packaging version, I would recommend sampling Happy Turn if you have a chance (and if you like vinegar flavor). I wouldn't, however, recommend giving it out to trick or treaters. I'm pretty sure they'd egg your house into oblivion.
5 comments:
Not sure if the same applied to Japan. But here you will witness the premature holiday offerings. You will see stuff for Thanksgiving and sometimes even Christmas before Halloween has even passed. It makes the holidays less special to me. Was it that way in Japan too?
It was absolutely the case in Japan, though there did seem to be certain "rules". You tended not to see much New Year's stuff until the debris of Christmas vanished by closing time on December 25.
There's plenty of holiday creep everywhere!
Thanks for your comment!
Thank you so much for the downloadable links, the stationary is so adorable :)
I thought that it was just too cute for words as well. It made me wish that I was still in the day when I wrote letters by hand!
I did pass them out to trick-or-treaters. No eggs yet! Although a few kids asked "what is that"? And I said "candy, try it"!
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