Morning Talk Omiyage

Good morning everyone, it’s Friday, January 15th and it’s time for amber’s morning English talk. This week’s theme is Gunma prefecture, and so today I’d like to talk about good souvenirs or Omiyage from Gunma!

On Wednesday, I gave a good hint as to what exactly I would be talking about… but before I get too specific I want to talk about Japan’s omiyage culture, vs the west’s souvenir culture. Omiyage are a kind of souvenir you pick up as a gift from your travels for family, friends, coworkers, etc. In Japan, it’s very easy to find souvenirs that are wrapped individually and easily split up between people you wish to give these gifts to.

Whenever I go back to the united states, I always have such a tough time trying to find omiyage for friends and coworkers because many times, snacks and sweets are not always individually wrapped, and if they are, the package is often in a bag, rather than a box, unlike Japanese omiyage. So, I often have a hard time bringing some things back home without having them get squished or broken in my luggage.

In Japan, I don’t have this problem so much… However, I often do not know what omiyage I should buy during my trips. When I was an exchange student in university, I went to Osaka the first time and bought some funky omiyage snack boxes for my dormmates… but to be quite honest, they were not very tasty. So from that experience, I have learned to ask people from the area about famous local products, and also recommended omiyage when I go on trips.

But because I lived in Gunma in high school, I had one place on my mind on our way back to Tokyo… and that was Gateau Festa Harada. I think this is one of the best omiyage from Gunma, and while they have shop locations outside of Gunma, it’s very fun to see their main shop and factory. The rusks are such a good omiyage, but also a great souvenir for yourself as well. The chocolate covered rusks are always individually wrapped and there is a huge variety of rusk types, from white chocolate, to milk chocolate, to cacao, and even seasonal flavors. This month from the 11th, they started selling their valentine limited flavors which seemed to be a dark chocolate and raspberry or strawberry rusk. Unfortunately, we were in Gunma on the 10th, so we didn't get a chance to buy the limited flavors.