In this video, I go over the names and the readings of some of the most common rice balls you’ll find in your average convenience store in Japan. Although, English is being used more and more on things such as station names and menus, convenience store rice balls seem to still exclusively use hiragana and kanji on the packaging.
So this video helps you to read the kanji on rice ball packaging so you don’t have to play onigiri roulette when buying a snack in Japan.
| Japanese | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| おにぎり | onigiri | Rice ball |
| 梅 | ume | Salted Japanese plum |
| 紅鮭 | beni shake | Salmon |
| おかか | okaka | Dried bonito flakes and soy sauce |
| たらこ | tarako | Cod roe |
| 明太子 | mentaiko | Seasoned cod roe |
| 筋子 | sujiko | Salted salmon roe |
| ツナマヨネーズ | tsuna mayoneezu | Tuna mayonnaise |
| 焼豚 | yaki buta | Grilled / BBQ’ed pork |
| 五目ご飯 | gomokugohan | (5 ingredients) Rice |
| 焼きおにぎり | yaki onigiri | Grilled rice ball |
Extra flavours
Here are a few other flavours not mentioned in the video that you might find in Japan
| 昆布 | konbu | Seaweed |
| いくら | ikura | Salmon caviar marinated in soy sauce |