J-List sells a lot of fun Japanese snacks, from Pocky to Meltykiss to the amazing Japan Kit Kat. We also go out of our way to carry many types of traditional candy from the Showa Period, called dagashi in Japanese. These traditional Japanese sweets are loads of fun for Japanophiles, since everything is so mysterious and old-fashioned, yet delicious. The most popular of all these mysterious Japanese candies has to be Kompeito, the star-shaped candies seen in the animated film Spirited Away, or perhaps the fun Bubble Ball fizzing ramune candies. I love the sweet Mochi Candy which is very chewy and comes in several flavors, as well as Bontan Ame, candy that comes in a wrapper made of rice, so you can eat it wrapper and all. Morinaga’s Black Sugar caramels are a solid hit with J-List customers, as are the legendary Sakuma Drops, seen in Ghibli film Grave of the Fireflies, which have spawned an interesting line of other “drops” candies. Finally, Felix the Cat bubblegum is one of the most popular products we’ve ever carried. Best of all, these traditional candies from Japan are often very inexpensive, so you can try a bunch of different ones and see which you like.
