Local Own Sweets

Japanese sweets are quite popular with people from overseas, right? In Japan, there are many kinds of sweets, not only Japanese, but also Western or a blend of Japanese and Western styles. It will be a true reflection of the nature of Japanese food culture.

Well, the “Local Own Sweets” don’t mean candies provided in supermarkets or convenience stores across the country. Of course, those treats are still delicious. However, we want you to enjoy sweets that are unique to the place you are visiting that are only available in that area. As they are called “Local Own Sweets”, the ingredients or shapes of these sweets are derived from the local area. The shops that provide the products is based in the area, or they’re founded in that area… We hope you will realize the uniques and differences between the regions and the various ideas. However… These days, you’ll be even able to buy them on the web. What a wonderful world we live in…! Still, we dare you to try them on each local area. You should do so. We’re sure you’ll be able to enjoy them even more because they give you some kind of emotions or atmospheres of journey… (※Rest omitted…)

About the word “銘菓(Meika)”

There are so many many “Local Own Sweets” all over Japan. Some of them are known as “Meika (renowned confections)”. We would like to talk a bit about this word “Meika”. The word “Meika” is often translated into English as “Renowned confection” or “Famous confection”. “Well-known sweets” may be also. Well, that’s probably correct in terms of meaning. It’s never a wrong translation. Each of them mean a very well known and famous sweet that is obviously very tasty and well-liked. However, there is probably more to the word “Meika” than that, if we may be more precise in explaining its connotations. After all, the word “Meika” implies respect and admiration for the process of creating the sweets, the ingredients, and the method for them. That is why they are called “Meika”. It may be based on some episode, or on some scenery or events (occurrences), or on some motif… These kinds of “background” will be also a very important part of the “Meika”. This will be not limited to “Meika (renowned confections)” in Japan, is it? So, why did we bother to tell you such things? This is because there are many Japanese “Meika” that have very interesting backgrounds in terms of how they were created. There are also a lot of “Meika” brands that have a wonderful sense of naming and of embodying very abstract some and feelings in the form of “sweets”. We would like to know you about them and enjoy them with us. We hope you will pay attention to these things when your trying some of Japan’s “Meika” sweets.