Japanese Konbinis offer an incredible variety of sweets and snacks for you to buy and eat while watching anime with friends or stroll around. They are usually wrapped in plastic and produced in gigantic numbers so they can be distributed all over the country. But there are another kinds of sweets in Japan, traditionally handmade and tasty, which have been there for a lot longer than Pocky and Chips: Let’s talk about Manjū (饅頭).
There are many varieties of Manjū, but most have an outside made from flour, rice powder and wheat and a filling of sweet red bean paste, made from boiled beans and sugar. They are boiled together again and kneaded. There are several varieties of bean pastes which are used for Manjū so you can choose your favorite when ordering.

Manjū was derived from a type of rice cake, that has existed in China for a long time. It was originally called Mantou in Chinese, but became known as Manjū when it came to Japan. In 1341, a Japanese envoy that came back from China brought back Mantou with him and started to sell it as Manjū. It is said that this was the origin of Japanese Manjū. Since then, it has been eaten for nearly 700 years by Japanese people. Now it can be found in many Japanese sweet shops. Its low price is a reason that it is popular.

There are thousands of difference variations of Manjū for example Matcha flavored ones and much more. Every region you will travel probably has its own variation of Manjū so try to eat as much as possible!