Kara-Kara Senbei

Traditional Yamagata rice crackers that look like fortune cookies

“Karakara senbei,” is a historic rice cracker in Yamagata Prefecture. The original was made in Edo era(1603~1868) and it has been loved since then . Its hard and crunchy rice cracker contains a toy. This can be an originator of snack giving a surprise from the inside. It reminds me furtune cookies but they do not give us toys.

The package says, “Please break the cracker carefully with your hands and remove a toy before eat.”

It is folded and wrapped three-dimensionally, and seems to be empty inside.

It is folded very nicely. Moreover, the it is quite hard and guards the cavity. What comes out?

It is quite sturdy and a little hard to break it by hands, so I weighed myself on it.

It broke in to small pieces and a paper – wrapped toy came out!  It was like “finding a treasure”.

The apprerance of the rice cracker after removed a toy looks like this.

Now, let’s see what kind of toys come out  and let’s open the package!

This is a Japanese decoration in the shape of a butterfly. It is a very elegant toy.

We can enjoy such a package of Japaes traditional sweets, rice cracker itself, Japanese-style decorative toy, and its wrapping with Japanese paper, full of fun. What a heartwarming sweets! I wish I had bought more to see variety of the toys.