There are usually reasons for traditional Japanese customs. But, I do not know the reason or origin about this.

Do Filipinos eat more rice than Japanese people, do you have a culture of making rice cake and eating it?

In fact, rice cake is a dangerous food, more than 10 elderly people die each year, by clogging rice cakes in their throats. It is cautionful when a person who weakens chewing power eats rice cake.

In past Japan, there was a tradition that three days of New Year did not cook. For that reason, Japanese prepare side dish to be kept at the end of the previous year and packed it in a stackable box called “Jubako（重箱）”. In the New Year, we ate it with the whole family. Incidentally, rice is not packed in the box. We will prepare rice separately.

However, that custom is getting ruined. In the past, every shops were closed on New Year’s days, but now the New Year’s business has become commonplace and it is no longer necessary to prepare food.

Also, it takes time and effort to make traditional Osechi-ryouri. It was possible when many women were full-time housewives, but now it got harder.

However, we can buy Osechi-ryouri on the market.

This is a remnant of an old practice praying for longevity to welcome the New Year. In the past when Japanese average life expectancy was short,
There was a trial carrying out that “If we eat long soba we will have a longer life expectancy”.

In a convenience store in Japan, when you order at the cash register, the clerk picks it and hands it in wrapping paper and bags.

By the way, at a convenience store sell Nikuman for about 120 yen. Depending on the shops, they sell more higher grade and expensive items.

The skin is also becoming yellow purposely.

When you heat it, the sweetness of the anko becomes strong. Therefore I recommend it to those who like sweet things. But for people who do not like sweet things, it is hard to eat.

The characteristic of Nikuman has thin skin part. The amount of skin and contents are adjusted to an appropriate balance, not to fill the stomach with monotonous taste of skin part. The general contents are minced pork and onion. Sweet sauce is not attached.

There are various variations for Nikuman. The classic is as follows.

• Anman
• Curryman
• Pizzaman

We call “Tsubuan（粒あん）” what the grain left type, and We call “Koshian（漉しあん）” what the no grain through the filter.

Anko can not be eaten by itself, it is used as ingredients for other sweets and bread. For example, the head of this character is bread with Anko.

Also, Doraemon’s great favorite dorayaki also has Anko.