#aapi ama

2/2 (an authentic-as-I-can-achieve) atmosphere and avoid jilting any Japanese readers out of parts of the story. Even if you don’t get round to answering, thank you for taking the time to answer to answer so many people and spread awareness. Happy AAPI month!

Some Japanese cooking tricks / traditions that I got from my parents, grandmother and also a very popular Japanese app that has a ton of recipes

Both of my parents work in Japanese restaurants, actually!

When you are about to deep fry something, you can tell if the oil is hot enough by sticking a single chopstick into the oil. If little bubbles start popping up from the chopstick, it's hot enough to fry. [Advice from father]

Alternatively, drop some panko (breadcrumbs) into the oil to see if they begin to sizzle and fry. If they do, the oil is hot enough. [Addition from mother]

When deep-frying foods that are coated in panko (such as tonkatsu or croquettes), you want to fry them until they are fox-colored. [just something I've heard somewhere]

Apparently a ton of Japanese food use the same combination of ingredients to create flavor: Soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and cooking sake. [Observation from using the cooking app]

Aesthetics and plating is extremely important to Japanese cuisine. It's not enough to just throw food on a plate, you should arrange it and plate it in a way that makes the food look aesthetically pleasing. For example, just the simple act of placing the food on the plate so it has more height makes a massive difference. [Lectured by mother several times]

Having a variety of color is important for Japanese cuisine. Not only for aesthetics, but also health and nutrition! There are five food colors that should be a part of every meal: White, black, red, yellow, green. [Wisdom from my mother as she chastises me on not having enough colors in my meals]

Japanese food uses a ton of dashi, which is Japanese soup stock. It's real hard to make Japanese food without dashi. There are several different types! [Complaints from mother, struggling to figure out what kind of food she can make my vegetarian boyfriend who doesn't eat fish.] (Vegetarian dashi made from seaweed also exist! Just not on hand at my home)

Umeboshi is picked plum. If you put it in a rice ball or inside the rice of a bento, not only is it a delicious way to add some flavor, it helps keep the rice fresh for longer, and prevents it from spoiling. This is important and common knowledge because when people bring bentos to school and work, refrigeration isn't always an option. A single umeboshi in the center of rice in a bento box is called a hinomaru bento, which translates to 'circle of the sun' because it looks similar to the Japanese flag. [Wisdom from mother]

If you can't peel an entire apple in one continuous peel with a knife, you're not Japanese. [Said to me by my parents when they found out I couldn't do it. For the record: I can do it now. I'm finally Japanese.]

Aesthetics are also very important to bento (and that's also why just throwing food into a bento box doesn't make it an authentic bento necessarily). My mother had a collection of cute little picks, dividers, and cups for decoration. She would also decorate my bentos with bento art made out of food. [Back in school everyone would come over to look at my lunch because it was super cute.]

When you bring apple slices to school for your lunch, putting them in a ziploc with salt water will keep the apples from changing color and getting mealy. [This is what my mother used to do for my lunches, and my classmates thought that it was weird.]

Japanese sick food

Japanese rice porridge is a very common sick food. It's very plain and neutral, which makes it easy on the stomach. It can be flavored with salt, umeboshi, or eggs. (And other things too, I'm sure).

Plain udon in dashi

Grated apple

Apples cut up like little rabbits.

Once, when I was sick, my grandma made me drink a mixture of: Hot water, honey, lemon, ginger and Japanese horseradish. It was absolutely disgusting, but it also cleared up my sinuses really quickly, soothed my throat and made me feel better afterwards.

You know how when Americans are sick we drink Gatorade? In Japan, people drink Japanese sports drinks like Pocari Sweat and Aquarius.

An incomplete list of Japanese spices, seasonings and sauces that we always keep on hand

Please look them up for more details on your own! This is just to provide a basic place to start your research. If you're having trouble finding them, adding Japan or Japanese should yield you more specific and appropriate results.

Weipa seasoning; white pepper seasoning (as opposed to black pepper); hondashi; tonkatsu sauce; tubes of grated garlic and ginger; shichimi togarashi; ichimi togarashi; sake (cooking sake); mirin; soy sauce; katsuobushi; ponzu; rayu; Japanese mayo; nori and aonori; karashi; sansho; miso; rice vinegar; mentsuyu; curry powder; furikake; gomashio; wasabi; karashi;

Bedtime stories

There are obviously a ton of different bedtime stories other than these, but I'm going to talk primarily about Japanese folk tales. I'll list a few of the most famous ones, and some of my personal favorites so you can have a place to start researching. These are just barebones synopses, so I'll definitely recommend actually reading through them because there's obviously a lot more detail!

Momotarō — A story about a boy born from a giant peach. He eventually goes on a quest to defeat oni on Onigashima with three talking animals that he befriended: A dog, a monkey and a bird.

Issun-bōshi — A story about a boy who is a little over an inch tall. When a princess gets kidnapped by an oni, he goes to rescue her and defeat the oni. (Which he does by stabbing the oni in the stomach when he gets swallowed). The oni drops a magical hammer which he uses to become full-sized and marries the princess.

Urashima Tarō — A story about Tarō who saves a turtle from being tortured by a bunch of kids. Turns out, the turtle was a child of a sea god, and so Tarō is brought to Ryūgū-jō, the Palace of the Dragon God to be thanked. He meets the princess, Otohime down there. Tarō stays for three days, but decides to go back to his village to see his mother. The princess gives him a box called a tamatebako as a parting gift, saying that it will protect him but that he should never open it. When Tarō returns to his village, he discovers that 300 years have passed and everything that he has known is gone. Grieving, he opens the box and it causes him to age and become an old man.

Taketori Monogatari, or, the story of Princess Kaguya — One day, an old bamboo cutter cuts open a mysterious, glowing bamboo. In it, he finds a baby girl. He brings her back to his wife and they name her Kaguya and raise her as their own. She grows up to be incredibly beautiful and has many suitors hoping to marry her. There are five princes in particular who are persistent, so Kaguya gives them each an impossible task to complete to be able to marry her and she doesn't marry anyone. Eventually, it's revealed that Kaguya is actually from the moon, and she returns there to be with her true people.

Jugemu — This one isn't a folktale, it's actually part of rakugo, which is a form of Japanese oral, comedic storytelling. It's about two parents who don't know what name to give their son, so they ask a priest for some names that will bring good fortunes. The priest gives several suggestions, and because the parents can't choose one, they give him all the names resulting in an incredibly long name. (Seriously, it's longer than you think. Check it out.) A ton of Japanese children memorize this name.

Music

Honestly, my family wasn't really a listen-to-music type of family, so I don't have a whole lot for this. (I didn't develop a taste in music preferences until college since it just wasn't a thing we did a lot).

My dad listens to a lot of enka, which is a Japanese music genre that resembles traditional Japanese music. It's popular among older folk.

If you're curious about popular Japanese songs, I'd recommend that you check out Kouhaku Utagassen. It's a huge Japanese New Years tradition. Every year on New Years Eve, there's this massive TV special program where all of the most popular singers and artists of the year gather for a competition. They're divided into two teams, red and white (Kouhaku is literally written as red and white!), to perform the most popular songs of the year and compete against each other. Looking up the songs that were performed is usually a great snapshot of the year.

Alternatively, karaoke is huge in Japan; looking at the most popular karaoke songs by year is also another good way to see what was going on musically in that year.

AAPI AMA Event, May 2022

How do you deal with cultural stereotypes?

With a lot of teeth gnashing and furious rants to my friends and family, mostly.

I have absolutely struggled with Asian and Japanese stereotypes through my life! I think I struggle with it a lot less now since I am more secure in my intersecting identity as an Asian American and Japanese American, but it takes a lot of work to get here and America doesn't make it easy. And I don't think that struggle will necessarily ever fade. People can be ignorant and racist, even if they don't realize it.

It is so easy to think this is a personal problem. People think it's a compliment, or they think that you're overreacting when you get upset about it because it's not a big deal, so you either get shamed into feeling bad about speaking up, or you learn to internalize it and not say anything. That is really distressing.

So I'm here to say: It's not your fault. It's not you. It is never your fault that you feel terrible when someone says "wow you're different from other Asians", or "I thought Asians were supposed to be good at math". Those are called microaggressions, and those are racist acts. You are not crazy or wrong for feeling hurt or upset by microaggressions. You are right to feel that way; it's racist and unacceptable, even if other people refuse to believe it.

I think for me, one of the biggest things that have helped is reframing the issue and contextualizing it. I felt an enormous amount of relief when I learned that systemic oppression and institutionalized racism was a thing. For my entire life, I thought that I was too sensitive, or that I couldn't take a joke, or that there was something wrong with me for being so hurt and upset by microaggressions, but no. It's a societal problem that has deep, deep roots and impacts almost every single person livinig in Western society. Your feelings are valid. Your hurt, your anger, it is all valid and important. This is a societal problem, not a you problem. These things are real, and you are right to be upset.

Asian Stereotypes and Me

I fit into a lot of Asian/Japanese stereotypes. I was known for being super smart in school, I'm pretty quiet and introverted, I was really good at math. I'm a fantastic student who never needed help and always got excellent grades. My parents also had high expectations for me and were disappointed when I got a B, even though they don't otherwise fit into the stereotype of strict Asian parents and were actually quite leniant with me. I even fit into a Japanese stereotype visually: I look like your average Japanese character in the background of a school anime — the plain extras that don't have a name, they're just there to fill space.

I definitely got told "you're so Asian/Japanese" because of that. It really hurt that none of my accomplishments were really mine, you know? Like if I'm good at math it was automatically because I was Asian/Japanese, and not because I attended two schools and put in twice the amount of work into math because I had already learned it. Everything that I did, and all of my accomplishments and efforts were invalidated because it's something that I'm supposed to be automatically good at as an Asian/Japanese person.

Because I was the smart Asian in school, a lot of people compared their test scores to mine to gauge whether they did well or not. One moment that I remember from middle school very clearly is someone saying "Oh, I did better than Undine!!! That means that I did really well!" and boy howdy that put an unbelievable amount of pressure on me — on top of all of the pressure I was feeling that I had to be smart. I had to be capable, I had to be smart without asking for help.

I'm also a former gifted kid. I never had to study in elementary or middle school because everything came naturally to me and it was so easy. I experienced all of those gifted kid issues where I didn't know how to study because I never needed to, I panicked and froze when I wasn't doing well for the first time in life, couldn't handle failure because I'd never failed before, but all of that was also compounded by the experiencing Asian stereotypes. I wasn't just a gifted kid, I was also a Japanese gifted kid who had all of the Asian stereotype expectations to deal with on top of gifted kid syndrome.

And I internalized that so much! Not only did it ruin my self-esteem and sense of self-worth, it also impacted how the people around me treated me and it was awful.

I also think that one of the most painful things for me about being Asian was that I'm never an individual. When people look at me, they don't see me, they just see an Asian. I think that this is a part of white privilege that doesn't get discussed as often, but it's really important. When you're visibly a minority, you're never an individual. When you're white in America, you have the luxury of being seen as an individual. Everything I do reflects on my entire race and ethnicity, because people just see an Asian.

(And then you get white people who get super defensive when you talk about racism, and common responses are "not all white people are like that! You're just seeing me as a white person, you're not seeing me as an individual", and it's like... Cool? You just got a taste of how I feel all the time. It's institutional and systemic baybee~)

I remember a time when I was taking part in a program and I only knew two people there. So naturally I hung out with them, they were my friends! They also happened to both be Asian. We weren't hanging out because we were Asian, we just all happened to share some classes and got friendly because we didn't know anyone else in this program. Then, I heard someone refer to us as "the Asians", and I was so shook. I had a mental breakdown after I got home that day because it was so jarring and invalidating and shocking. Because I'm an individual! I have my own personality, my own identity, I have worth and so many things going on outside of my Asian American identity. I was hanging out with my friends because of a lot of other reasons, not because we were all Asian. But none of that mattered to those people. They didn't see me as an individual, they just saw me as an Asian. And that was the first time I really realized that and it was so painful.

This experience contributed to my own internalized racism, and the desire to be #not like other Asians. I had a huge fear of making Asian friends, and participating in Asian things with Asian people because it meant that people would only see me as an Asian, and not myself. And this is something that I'm still working through; I have a lot of unlearning to do still.

It's also hard because if people don't get to know you as a person, no matter what you do, you are only reinforcing stereotypes. If you do well on an exam, it's because you're Asian. If you don't do well on an exam, you're an exception, not the norm. When people look at you as nothing but an Asian, it doesn't matter who you are. All you are is a stereotype, or the rare exception and a weirdo because you don't fit the stereotype. And then people try to force you to fit into the stereotype anyway so again, it doesn't matter who you are.

And there are several other microaggression and stereotypes about being Japanese specifically that really bother me and happen quite often, but since this is already getting really long, I think that's a post for another time. Send me an ask if you're interested in hearing about those.

As a quick peek into the Japanese-specific stereotypes: the stereotype song was a thing back when I was in high school, and there's a line in it that says "I think that I love you more than a Japanese girl loves tentacle porn", so I got asked about tentacle porn a lot.

AAPI AMA 2022: Ask me anything about being Japanese!

In response to this ask.

I am so glad that you asked this question, because I think it's a really important one!!

This situation is less about unusual Japanese names, and much more about respecting the naming customs of a culture that you are not a part of.

To answer your question: unusual names absolutely do exist in Japan. (Look up kira kira names if you're interested in this topic!) If unusual names exist, why did I recommend them to choose a different name?

The answer is simple: The writer is not Japanese.

Japanese people are allowed to give their children and characters whatever outlandish Japanese name they want should they choose to. This is because they have the necessary cultural background, cultural knowledge, and cultural experience to make that informed decision.

Non-Japanese people don't have that.

When a non-Japanese person names a character something that's not a real Japanese name, it can perpetuate harm.

It's akin to naming an Asian character 'Ching Chong' because it 'sounds Asian enough'. That's a more extreme, blatant version of the same thing.

This is true for all cultures, but I feel like it's especially important for Japanese names because of the popularization of anime. Not only are some names used for anime characters rather unusual, unique and not something that would be a real person's name, it has also given many people a false sense of ownership and skewed knowledge of Japanese culture. This has resulted in a lot of cultural appropriation, fetishization and exotification that is quite frankly, stressful, infuriating and extremely, very racist.

I cannot tell the the number of times I have seen absolutely atrocious, often racist names for Japanese OCs.

Let me flip this around for a minute.

In Western naming, people give kids and characters random names all the time and we usually just think “huh, that strange, but unique. cool”.

This is actually exactly my point! Westerners can give their kids whatever random name that they like, and we will usually just think "huh, that's strange but unique. Cool!" This is because Westerners understand their language and culture enough to give their children a unique, unusual name that still acceptably works as a name. And if it doesn't, it's a purposeful choice on the parts of the parents/writer. They know what they're doing! They have all the knowledge they need to make an informed decision because it's part of their culture.

I'm not saying that you can't ever use a more unusual, nontraditional name for Japanese characters. What I am saying is that a lot of names that people give to their Japanese OCs don't respect naming conventions or the Japanese culture. More often than one would hope, it's blatantly appropriative, disrespectful and ignores the culture.

When you are naming a Japanese character, please not only do your research, but also consult with a Japanese person if possible. There are so many resources and lists out there that are terrible, and the ones that aren't can be woefully incomplete and oversimplified. (See my review of Behind The Name here and my post on summarizing the naming process here.) If you're looking for an unusual name and not a traditional one, it's best to go directly to someone who is Japanese to get their opinion and help on finding a name that is not only appropriate for your character, but also sensitive and respectful.

If there is a part of a name (or I suppose a food or other Japanese word that westerners might reasonably be using) that a person cannot pronounce well, do you find it more awkward/offputting/disrespectful for them to put obvious effort and emphasis into trying to get that sound right, or to use the closest sound they can speak to use the name/word smoothly but with an accent? The latter obviously is saying the word wrong, but I feel like the former puts such a spotlight on the effort of saying it that it feels rude in its own way.

Honestly, I don't find either of them offputting or disrespectful whatsoever. I think that you might be overthinking it a bit, I don't think that most people would care? I know that I certainly don't.

I mentioned it a bit in this post, but after the age of around seven-ish, people's critical periods for language acquisition ends, and our brains become much more specialized in the language and culture that we are a part of. Once we're past this critical period, it becomes exponentially more difficult to learn languages and when we do learn another language, we're going to have an accent. More likely than not, people aren't going to be able to pronounce things with native fluency because it's just not possible! We can't make those sounds because it's not a part of the language that we grew up speaking. And that's okay!

The most important part in my opinion, is the trying. It's okay if you can't get it perfectly — I really doubt that people are expecting you to. We know that you can't, and it's okay. What matters is that you are trying to say it as correctly as you can, whether it be due to really making an effort to get the pronounciation right or saying it in an accented way.

And with globalization, words are used cross-culturally! The word 'tsunami' is Japanese, but it's commonly used in English now and people pronounce it in a super American way. People say man-ga instead of mahn-ga all the time and I really don't care either way. (I actually say manga and tsunami the American way when I'm speaking in English for ease! One time a white person corrected me like "um actually, it's pronounced mahn-ga. And I was like 😑 bro I'm Japanese. You are literally correcting a Japanese person on how to say a Japanese word, go check yourself).

So do whatever makes sense for you when it comes to Japanese loan words! I can't speak for all Japanese people, but I'm going to guess that most of us don't have a problem with whether you attempt a more Japanese pronounciation, or if you say an accented version.

The only time I think it's really rude, racist and hurtful is when people don't even try when it comes to someone's name. Saying names as correctly as you can is important, but even more important is the fact that you respect my name enough to try, even if you don't get it perfectly! My name is not the most intuitive for a lot of Americans, and a lot of people get it wrong the first time and it's okay! Do your best when you're corrected, and that's all that really matters. It's only offensive when people don't try or don't care to learn or purposefully mess it up.

AAPI AMA 2022: Ask me anything about being Japanese!

I personally don't have a certain kind, archetype, trope, or anything specific type of Asian characters I want to see.

I just want to see more of them. In every possible iteration and archetype possible. As long as they're well-rounded, have a lot of depth, are treated with the same love and care that white characters are given, and aren't just caricatures or stereotypes, I'm here for it.

Seriously, any sort of Asian character will do. It doesn't matter what they are, as long as they're well-developed!

I had a bit of a shock and a minor identity crisis a few years ago when I looked back on some of the characters I really loved in American media and realized... Oh man, they were really my favorites just because they were Asian. In Harry Potter, I've always cited Cho Chang as my favorite character even though objectively, she's not written to be that great of a character. I didn't even realize that Numbuh Three in Codename: Kids Next Door was Japanese until I was doing a deep dive into the lore of the show when I was an adult, but she was my favorite character anyway because I related to her; she looked like me.

Every single Asian character (especially if they were a female character) that I grew up watching in American shows and reading in American books, I gravitated towards as a child. It didn't matter if they were well written or badly written; they were my favorite.

My point is: Representation matters. Even if I didn't realize it at the time, it apparently meant a lot to me; It's not a coincidence that I gravitated towards Asian and Asian-coded characters, what few that I had. Think of how much powerful that could've been for me if they'd been written really well? If there were a lot for me to choose from? But instead, I was left with a startling realization that wow, I really wanted that representation as a child, and I clung to the few that I was allowed to have — even if they weren't even that good.

And I also personally never found the question of "what kind of Asian character do you want to see more of" very helpful or enlightening. To me, it seems like there's no real answer and risks further stereotyping or swinging too hard the other way. (For me! Personally! It's a valid question, just one that never really worked for me). I want to see every kind of Asian character, just as many as white characters. I want every single background, heroes and villains, love interests and main characters, best friends and enemies... Everything. Absolutely everything.

I don't want to be drawn to an Asian character just because they're an Asian anymore, just because they're the only ones I had in American media, just because they're the only ones that look like me. I want to have so many Asian characters to be drawn to so that I can pick and choose which ones are my favorites and which ones that I identify the most with. I want to have the chance to be choosey and picky about which ones are my favorites.

As long as they're well-written and developed and have depth, that's valuable representation. And it matters so much. It definitely mattered to me when I was a young child.

AAPI AMA 2022: Ask me anything about being Japanese!

I'm seeing a lot of likes on those posts right now, but very few reblogs. If you think this is a good reference, please don't just bookmark it, please spread it.

It takes an incredible amount of time, energy and mental labor to answer all of these questions. I'm doing this AMA to help people at my expense because I know there are a lot of questions about Japan, Japanese culture, and the experience of being Japanese but not many places to ask.

And while you are absolutely not obligated to reblog anything, I'm also not obligated to continue doing this AMA if engagement is low and people don't care.

For the AMA ask, was it difficult for you to learn Japanese? 👀

I'm a Chinese diaspora and learning my mother tongue was very painful for me growing up. Was it worse for you since you're a minority in America?

Not at all!

So the critical period for language acquisition is from birth to around age 7-ish. Children can naturally pick up languages just by being immersed on a daily basis around this time. After this critical period ends, your brain locks onto the language that you use most often, and it makes it much more difficult to learn other languages because you're now specialized in the languages that you've learned. Fun fact: I believe this is why children who grew up with the language don't have foreign accents, whereas if you learned Spanish in high school, you will have an accent.

I learned both Japanese and English before age 7, so I was raised as fully bilingual in both languages. And then after that, my parents made sure that I would never forget it. My parents were very deliberate in making sure that I could speak both. They spoke both Japanese and English to me when I was a baby, but after I started attending preschool in America, I was constantly immersed in the English language and picked it up naturally there. So my parents switched it around and made it a household rule that we were only going to speak Japanese at home. I have been immersed in Japanese almost every single day from birth until now.

I also attended a Japanese school every Saturday from Kindergarten all the way through high school graduation. This is a school to keep up with the Japanese curriculum and not necessarily a Japanese language class. So that's where I learned to read and write in Japanese, through formalized education. My Japanese reading ability is pretty good, enough to be fluent and read most things. My writing ability is not as strong, but I can communicate just fine (especially with typing and not having to handwrite all that kanji!). I think this is also a key part in my fluency; I don't think that I would've been able to read/write if it had just been my parents teaching me at home.

The fact that I was able to learn how to speak Japanese so effortlessly and naturally is definitely a testament to my parents. They made sure I had access to Japanese books, TV and movies, they scrimped, saved and made sacrifices to bring me to Japan every year, and taught me the language. They have made concentrated efforts to immerse me, keep me connected to the language, show me the value of it, and encouraged me to practice and engage in it more, even when I didn't particularly want to. They made sure that I would never, ever forget the language and I am so thankful for that — I wasn't always, growing up.

I also think the fact that I have two Japanese parents is a huge contributor to my ease in learning the language. In Japanese school, most of my classmates had a Japanese mother and an American father who didn't speak much Japanese. Because they spoke English at home quite often and only had one parent who could help them with the language, they had a much harder time with Japanese than I did.

So while I was raised as a true bilingual, I think that I was incredibly fortunate and privileged to have learned and retain my Japanese language proficiency so easily. I'm very fluent in Japanese — indistinguishable from a native Japanese person who lived their entire life in Japan — but also I want to emphasize that it's not necessarily everyone's experience and I don't want to invalidate people who had a much more difficult time learning the language.

I know a ton of people that have forgotten the language after being able to speak it as a child. I know people that can understand it but can no longer speak/read/write it. I know people that have a limited understanding of Japanese. I know people that are taking classes to regain their Japanese language ability as adults. I know a lot of people who regret that they haven't retained the language.

All of that is valid and true as well.

I also have so much love and respect for people who actually learn a language! It is so incredibly difficult and it takes a lot of learning and work to get to a place where you can actually use it. I took Spanish for 6 years and I haven't retained much of it because I didn't take it in college, so I know how hard it is. It wasn't something that I was able to do. And I imagine there's a lot of feelings and emotions that come up if it's a language that you "should" know due to your cultural background.

I hope that this post didn't come across as invalidating to your experiences! Thank you so much for sharing.

AAPI AMA 2022: Ask me anything about being Japanese!

oh boy do i ever

So American snacks are actually pretty easy to find in Japan, and have been for a few years now. It's actually quite difficult trying to find snacks to bring to my Japanese friends and counsins now when I visit because they can get most of the things in Japan. I've seen cheetos, pringles, doritos, most of the major chip-brands, oreos, cereals, etc. (I don't have much of a sweet tooth and I'm a huge potato chip fan, so that's mostly what I pay attention to. I feel like there are several candies that haven't made their way to Japan yet, but honestly I don't even look for them so I can't say for certain).

I have also been convinced for years that Bugles and Tongari Corn are the exact same snack. Next time I go to Japan, I'm bringing Bugles with me so I can do a taste-test. Yes I know that I could probably look it up on the internet. No, I'm not going to do that, because this is a test that I have to personally do. Please don't tell me if you know the answer; I need to discover it on my own.

On the other hand, Japanese snacks are really difficult to find in America! There are several that have gone more American mainstream like pocky and hi-chew that you can get at basically any American grocery store now. Asian grocery stores also have a small selection of Japanese snacks, but they are pretty pricy and have smaller packaging. I've also found that Asian grocery stores tend to carry more Korean and Chinese snacks over Japanese.

There is this snack called Umai Bou that I love in Japan. When I first discovered it at a local Asian grocery store near me a couple of years ago, it was groundbreaking. I haven't had it in years, and it was the first time I've ever seen it in America and I was so happy. They only have 2 flavors compared to the dozens that are in Japan, but it was such a huge thing for me and my family because oh my god this is finally here???

One of my favorite Japanese snacks is Jagarico that I've never been able to have in America, so after a trip to Japan, I brought back so much and kept it safe and sound for over a year to eat on my birthday. It was valuable. But recently, I've actually started seeing some in my local Asian grocery store and I was actually crying. For two reasons, really: One, I finally had access to it! Two, it was in a much smaller packaging that didn't have nearly as much as the standard packaging, and was also like 5 times more expensive.

Point is: There's not a lot of Japanese snacks I can get where I live. And on the rare occasion that something does make it over, it's really notable and makes me want to cry but also is really really expensive.

Some common Japanese snacks that I find at my local Asian grocery stores include but are not limited to: Kaki no tane, Pero Pero Choco, Nori and salt flavored potato chips, Hot and spicy potato chips, and different kinds of rice crackers.

But! It really depends on where you live. I live in a place with a decent but not too sizable Japanese population. In places with a much larger Japanese community, there are usually Japanese grocery stores like Mitsuwa Marketplace and other ones where they have a much more diverse selection of Japanese goods, food and snacks (and bookstores and bakeries and food courts within the marketplace). You can't get everything there, but they have a lot more than I have in my local Asian grocery stores.

I recently took a trip with my parents to a Mitsuwa market and a couple of other Japanese grocery stores in the area because we needed to stock up on Japanese food. I shamelessly spent a couple hundred on Japanese snacks that I couldn't get back at my place.

I also think you might be able to get some online now, but I haven't looked into that too much.

Below the cut is an incomplete list of Japanese snacks that I love! There are SO many, and this is just off the top of my head. They're pretty unique in that there aren't really America-equivalents that I know of. So while you can find sour cream and onion chips in Japan, you really can't find super similar things in America. I did not include beverages or ice creams or candy because man. That's just an entirely different conversation in it of itself.

AAPI AMA 2022: Ask me anything about being Japanese!

Remember that these are just my personal experiences and opinions! My thoughts and experiences are not necessarily representative of every Japanese person, and should not be taken as such.