A great way to celebrate World Karinto Day, but netizens immediately mistook it for something else.

So, do you know what karinto is?

If you’re here on a dedicated Japanese news website, you probably have some idea. Just in case, though: karinto are typically short, cylindrical yeasted sweets that are deep-fried and coated in brown sugar.

You can get all kinds of variations on karinto nowadays, with some eschewing the brown sugar for sesame seeds, nuts, or even miso. With rich molasses notes and a satisfying snap when you bite into them, karinto are the favorite foods of many a pop culture character. If you’ve played the Ace Attorney games, you may have met Ema Skye who routinely munches on a handful of “Snackoos” at any given opportunity. In the Japanese original, those were karinto!

A staple Japanese snack with origins surrounded in mystery, karinto are still enjoyed to a wide extent nowadays by all kinds of people, young and old. There are even multiple companies solely dedicated to producing the sweet snack, like the aptly named Tokyo Karinto company who produce karinto for every conceivable audience—Anpanman karinto for little kids, Uji Matcha karinto for tea ceremonies, peanut karinto, karinto made from vegetables…

▼ Here they are advertising their classic brown sugar karinto as a side to a classy drink.

This year, Tokyo Karinto truly took its karinto capabilities to the next level by officially baking the biggest karinto ever. The confirmation of this fact, provided alongside an official certificate awarded by a representative from Guinness World Records, was announced at a press release on November 10…which just so happens to be World Karinto Day.

▼ Was no one going to tell me there was a World Karinto Day, or did Tokyo Karinto have to bake the world’s largest karinto for me to hear about it?

The above photograph isn’t the sweet in question, which was baked on October 15 at a Tokyo Karinto facility in Kawagoe City, Saitama, in the presence of official Guinness World Records staff. Instead, the item above is a perfect model replica of that black-bee honey karinto. Measuring 1,052 millimeters (41.41 feet) in length and weighing in at 6.38 kilograms (18.5 pounds), the karinto really represents the 70 dedicated years Tokyo Karinto has spent perfecting the art of baked treats…and we imagine that the official world record recognition makes for a super sweet anniversary gift.

Still, not everyone’s palate was sweetened when they saw the celebratory photo.

▼ “World’s biggest karinto? That’s just a big old piece of crap. Nighty-night!”

Another comment described a conversation:

“As soon as I saw that article about the world’s biggest karinto, I just announced ‘It looks exactly like a huge 💩!’
Husband: It’s so mean to say that, c’mon!
(I showed him the article)
Husband: That’s one huge 💩!”

And comments continued in this fashion.

“To be honest, rather than crap, I saw Mothra’s maggot form. I must be really tired.”
“Regarding the world’s largest karinto, I apologise deeply, but I couldn’t unsee…you know. I’m so sorry.”
“All I can see when I look at the world’s biggest karinto is crap… My soul must be dirty…”
“I’m not gonna retweet it, but c’mon. Knock it off with that ‘world’s largest karinto’ thing. We all know what that is.”

If you still have your appetite for world records after all those comparisons, we have a crapload—sorry—of other articles where Japan set a new standard, from the most crane games in one place to mind-boggling amounts of anime merchandise. See you for World Karinto Day next year!

Source, images: PR Times
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!