Japanese Snacks You Can Buy Online

Senbei (also spelled sembei) are Japanese rice crackers that come in various shapes, sizes, and flavors. They are usually savory but there are some that are sweet. I like to pair senbei with green tea and below are my favorite varieties.

Arare (which means "hailstones") is a type of Japanese cracker made from glutinous rice and seasoned with soy sauce. The size and shapes are what distinguish arare from senbei and they often come wrapped in nori (seaweed) or mixed with nuts and dried fish. The kakino tane (spicy rice crackers) with peanuts is my favorite.

Wagashi is a traditional Japanese confection often served with tea. Some popular types of wagashi are mochi (glutinous rice cakes), daifuku (a kind of mochi), yokan (a jellied dessert made of red bean paste and agar), and manju (small buns with a sweet filling).

Ajitsuke nori is a seasoned seaweed snack (usually teriyaki-flavored) that's eaten plain like seasoned potato chips, wrapped around rice balls or shredded as a topping for noodles, soup, salad, tofu, fish or dishes like okonomiyaki.

Traditional okashi also come in the form of dried snacks which are lightweight and filling by themselves. Visit the link to find shredded dried squid, soya fluff, conjac slices and many more Japanese dried snacks.

If wasabi peas, beans and nuts are your kind of snack, visit the link.

Pocky by Japanese food company Glico is perhaps the most popular Japanese konbini snack around. These chocolate-covered pretzel sticks are addicting and they come in different variants too. You may also visit the link for lots of delicious Pocky flavors.

I never leave a Japanese konbini without buying Meltykiss which are individually-packed chocolate truffles that melt in your mouth. They melt easily so stores only stock them up during cold weather season.

Japanese company Meiji has produced a variety of popular chocolate cracker snacks and they come in different combinations: there are pretzels that you dip in chocolate, animal-shaped pretzels or crackers filled with chocolate, or biscuits coated in chocolate. My absolute fave? Hello Panda.

Fun chocolate snacks by Meiji. These are available at the grocery near our house so I always make sure to stock up on Choco Baby and Apollo Strawberry Chocolate Candy for those times I need a quick sugar fix.

Potato chips aren't a Japanese invention but you gotta love Calbee Potato Chips' interesting and unusual flavors: Plum, Consomme Punch (yes, what Light Yagami eats in Death Note), Shoyu and Mayonnaise, Pizza, Bonito Flakes, and so much more. Try the Jagariko potato stick snacks too - they're tasty, crunchy and delicious.

Some of Calbee's lesser known snacks. Everything is good but if you are to try one right now, I would suggest you start with the Snow Pea Saya Crisp, tasty and crispy rice based snacks that look like green peas. i guarantee that you won't be able to stop with just one pack!

Lotte is another major food company in Japan that is known for their chocolate snacks, one of which is Crunky, a thick, chunky and crunchy chocolate bar with almond bits and rice crispies. Definitely a must-try!

Like most anything in Japan, their hard candy comes in a variety of unusual flavors too. My favorite is the Kasugai Milk hard Candy, hard candy flavored with smooth, fresh milk. Yum!

Here are some more popular snacks that I can't seem to fit in any of the categories above but are must-tries anyway. Among the bunch, Tohato Caramel Corn stands out for me. They are fluffy corn puffs lightly coated with caramel and when you eat them, they melt in your mouth. Oishi!

*Find more delicious Japanese chips and cookies including Shrimp Chips, Lentil Pea Chips, the famous Bourbon Chocolate Every Burger, and Tohato Caramel Corn in Almond and Butter Toast Cracker variants by visiting the link.