Just a little 'Japanesey'

‘Japanesey’ is from this Hikaru Utada song. For a second, I almost wrote her name the Japanese way, last name first. She’s also called Hiki/Hikki 😉

It’s probably no real surprise with the Japanese name of the blog that my kids and I are fairly big into things from Japan. The kids and I enjoy Japanese food, language, culture, music, dance, cartoons, movies and history as well.

Every night, I say “Oyasuminasai!” to the children as I’m walking up the stairs from their rooms. Oyasuminasi is basically “Get some rest” and is used as good night when someone is heading for sleep.

Here are greetings in Japanese!

Ohayo Gozaimasu (the ending u is often silent) or just Ohayo is “Good Morning”. The Gozaimasu makes the term more polite than just saying Ohayo, but Ohayo still works just fine.

Konnichiwa is probably one that may be somewhat common knowledge greeting, and it means “Good Afternoon”.

Konbanwa is the greeting for “Good Evening,” but you do not say it when you are telling someone goodnight. Because as mentioned above you would say “Oyasumi nasai”

If anyone is confused on how to say these, let me know in the comments and I can attach sound files demonstrating how to say them.

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Anyway! It’s always something special, or a treat when I can actually get some of our favorite snacks and food products that we love. Often I pack them in their lunches when we do bento’s for lunch instead of having the kids eat hot lunch at school.

The above is obviously an example of Bento’s I’ve made for the kids. This is Tonkatsu, which is panko breaded and fried thin pork cutlet. In this picture it’s without the sauce, which is BullDog Tonkatsu Sauce I’ve tried other brands of Tonkatsu sauce, but the kids and I agree that BullDog tastes the best.

Anyway, I got our recent round of goodies which included various flavors of Hi-chew, which is great for throwing a couple of pieces in a lunch bag for a little special treat. Hi-chew is similar to Starburst, but the flavors are milder, the chews are softer, and the texture is a little different as you’re eating them. Still, these are something the kids and I are rather fond of and they tend to go quickly at our house! Our favorite flavors are Green Apple, Strawberry, Mango, Orange, Grape, Melon and Peach! A fair bit of the flavors, and we’ve yet to find one we don’t particularly like. Probably because we haven’t tried Lychee yet, though I’ve had Lychee soda, and didn’t really love the taste all too much.

On top of the Hi-chew and some flavors of Pocky which I’ll talk about in a later post, I also got some of my absolute favorite imported Japanese Breads! If you haven’t tried Japanese bread before, I recommend you do so! They have so many unique and delicious flavors, and I love them so much that I have trouble wanting to share them when I DO get some!

Yesterday, I actually had the above pictured Tennenkoubo Chocolate Bread for breakfast this morning. Yes, chocolate bread for breakfast, along with my coffee. Now in order to enjoy the bread the most; I tend to take it out of the fridge, out of the package to warm up a little, as well as removing the small moisture resisting piece of cardboard that they place on the bottom of the bread. As it is said to give a certain taste and the back of the package recommends doing this before enjoying.

The bread is the perfect size and calories for a snack or breakfast, and isn’t too horrific to me at least nutritionally, even if I do generally try and avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup in what I eat. The chocolate is swirled throughout the bread, and is present enough to taste, but doesn’t overpower the general taste and texture of the bread in a way that is unpleasant to us.

There are other flavors of bread from Tennenkoubo as well, but that is the one I had for breakfast the other morning and thus the one right on my mind. If you’ve been wanting to try something uniquely different but not to ‘out there’ in the realms of taste, I highly suggest imported Japanese breads as a place to start! They’re different than what most people are used to, and come in flavors that aren’t too strange or scary by name! 😉

This post contains affiliate links to Asian Food Grocer’s website. One of my favorite online sources for Asian treats and foods! The products that are mentioned and high-lighted as links will take you to where you can buy them and I make a small percent of the order through the pepperjam network. You may also notice the small button in the upper left corner for Asian Food Grocer as well, if you make an order through any of the links or the banner, I want to thank you so very much for supporting Ohayo Okasan in doing so!