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musubi

Musings on Okinawa’s canned enthusiasm for all things Spam

Net users reflect on the island prefecture’s status as a top world consumer of Spam.

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Top Japanese instant noodle maker steps up its rice ball game 【Taste test】

Apparently, instant noodles are clearly not instant enough for Nissin.

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Are Family Mart’s new “exquisite” rice balls worth the high price tag?

Japanese convenience store chain teams up with esteemed restaurants for a new type of onigiri.

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Japanese convenience store issues rice ball recall, foodies would’ve loved to eat them anyway

Family Mart makes a mistake that still sounds so right (and delicious).

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Hey, Japanese taxi driver! Take us to a good non-Hiroshima-y restaurant in Hiroshima

Skipping Hiroshima’s most famous food brought us to a place that both is and isn’t representative of the city.

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Which Japanese convenience store has the best salted onigiri rice balls?

A surprising new-and-improved contender from Lawson might just steal your heart this year.

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The surprising semi-secret ingredient in many Japanese convenience store rice balls: oil

A lot of the rice balls on convenience store shelves include oil, but it’s not to make them taste better.

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Less than half of Japanese people OK with bare hand-pressed rice balls, survey says, but why?

We call them “rice balls” in English, but the real-meaning of “onigiri” is something a lot of Japanese people don’t find appetizing.

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The difference between onigiri rice balls in Tokyo and Osaka

There’s a reason why this convenience store staple tastes different in these regions. 

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Is anime making otaku eat less rice? Government launches Girl Running Late with Rice Ball Project

Japan’s top rice-growing prefecture designs character, releases two videos in hope of changing anime breakfast trope.

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Which Japanese convenience store has the best plain onigiri rice balls?

Lawson, 7-Eleven and Family Mart go head-to-head in this konbini battle but there can only be one winner.

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The best-selling rice ball at Family Mart is…SPAM onigiri?

What makes the Tuna Mayonnaise Spam Musubi so popular with Japanese convenience store customers?

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Who makes Japan’s best Spam-style onigiri convenience store rice ball? Let’s find out【Taste test】

We take a taste test trip in Okinawa and get acquainted with the local specialty.

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We make salt from our reporter’s sweat, then taste the world’s first Mr. Sato Salt rice balls

In Japan, rice balls can be flavored with almost anything, so we decided to make some from the most exclusive seasoning of all: salt made from Mr. Sato’s sweat!

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Around Japan in 47 rice balls: Mr. Sato buys each prefecture’s musubi all from one Tokyo shop

Although Japan lacks ethnic diversity, it seems to more than make up for it in diversity of cuisine. Although the overarching recipes of Japanese foods can be found everywhere, you’d be surprised and how diverse the differences can be from region to region. Having your New Year’s soup in Okayama Prefecture may be quite different from Akita Prefecture’s offering. Even purchasing oden from a chain like 7-Eleven will produce different results if it’s from Osaka or Tokyo.

This is also true of another of Japan’s standard foods: rice balls also known as onigiri or musubi. To taste all the unique variations Japan has to offer, one must be a seasoned traveler, or they could just go to Momochi, a shop which offers a taste of all 47 prefectures straight from the counter. Our own Mr. Sato, eager to taste of these deliciously distinct snacks, visited Momochi to sample one of each.

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