Hello again from “the land of kawaii and sugoi,” Japan! We’re in full Christmas mode around here, with the hardworking J-List staff packing and shipping hundreds of packages per day, which are picked up in three large trucks by the Japanese post office every morning. What awesome products can J-List send you today?There are many things to like about winter in Japan. The nostalgic smell of kerosene when you light your space heater for the first time. Drinking hot canned coffee on the train platform. It’s also the season to eat one of my favorite foods, nikuman, Chinese steamed buns with seasoned meat inside, also known as pork buns or baozi. Like many things in Japan, nikuman has a rather long history, dating back 1800 years to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms period in China, which for some reason gets parodied by everything from the Ikki Tousen anime to the Koihime Musou “H” game series. One problem with Japan is that people are used to prices never rising, thanks to two decades of deflation after the bursting of the Japan Asset Bubble in 1989. As a result, the only way shops can increase their revenue is by being creative and inventing “deluxe” new products you’ll pay a higher price for. You can buy normal nikuman steamed buns for around $1.10, but there are other variations too, like beef curry-man, pizza-man or the gyoza-man I saw the other day, a giant steamed bun with gyoza dumplings inside. While you can get nikuman at any convenience store during the colder months of the year, the best place to eat really good steamed meat buns is Yokohama. Try some next time you’re there!
Kyoko offers you half of her steamed meat bun.
