Omiyage gallery

Omiyage are gifts given when invited to dinner or a party or, in the case of everything I've shot, food stuffs brought back for your co-workers after going on a trip. The teachers will usually bring back a box of small packaged sweets that can easily be shared amongst the others. Omiyage was overflowing my first couple weeks of school due to summer vacations and long school sports trips.

Most of what I tried was mediocre. The Japanese seem to love sweet bean desserts, but I can't say that I'm a big fan. What I didn't try involved seafood, including cookies made with "delicious clams," as my co-worker said. Cookies and seafood never occurred to me as a good combination, but I guess I have been proven wrong.

Below are some of the things I sampled (and some I didn't).



Above is banana cake that wasn't bad. It was one of the better cakey things I've had here.





Above is something that reminded me of a dry English muffin filled with sweet bean paste. It was OK, but not a favorite.





The cracker above is something I didn't try as it contained the previously mentioned delicious clam.





The leaf shaped cakes above contained sweet bean paste like the "English muffin," but the outside was more like cake and was therefore better, in my opinion.




The gelatinous bean thing above was packaged really beautifully, but wasn't a love.





The orange gelatinous ball (above right) was amazingly good. It tasted like pumpkin and was therefore great. Anything that tastes like pumpkin is good in my book. The green rectangle tasted like sweet potato and was not as good, but still enjoyable.




The best sweet I've had here by far is the ginger cookie pictured above. It beats ginger snaps and gingerbread by miles.




The cupcake above did not compare to cupcakes from home. I was slightly disappointed. And the cookie to its right was just OK as well.





The sweet rolls above were really good. They were filled with some sort of cream and packaged really nicely. (As all omiyage sweets are.)





I didn't try the cookies above, but thought they were really cute.




Last, but not least, is the mandarin flavored sweet. This was really very good. It's sitting on top of my Japanese text book, which has not been getting very much mileage since school started. Also pictured is a fan, which is a necessity in the summer.