If you are familiar with the Vocaloid named Hatsune Miku, you may know where this post is going.
If not, no worries! Vocaloids are computer-created voices that can be made to sing songs through a computer program. Recently, these Vocaloids have been extremely popular in Japan. Hatsune Miku, portrayed as a girl with blue pigtails, is the most well-known and liked Vocaloid.
While visiting my local convenience store, Family Mart, I found the Sakura Mikuman, a sweet red bean paste manju. This manju is colored pink and white, reminiscent of sakura blossoms. According to the Family Mart website, the Mikuman went on sale March 19, 2013.
Oh, and also, the manju happened to be shaped like Hatsune Miku’s head.
Sakura Mikuman
I felt pretty bad about biting into her head, but I really love red bean paste, so it couldn’t be helped.
Ah Japan, Japan is all I can really say! We don’t have many FamilyMarts in Hokkaido, so I have yet to see this. I wasn’t fan of red bean paste since my childhood, yet in the past few years living in Japan, I’ve come to like it so long as it’s in a manjuu or something. Still not keen on it by itself.
Oh no! Not many FamilyMarts in Hokkaido? Although I suppose convenience stores aren’t all that different, if you don’t take into account a few minor food item differences.
I’d never had red bean until I came to Japan, and I immediate loved it. But, I can see how some people might not like it, particularly by itself. If we were talking about bananas, however, I can’t understand how some people don’t like bananas. No relation, really, except that I really like bananas.