Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog » Tomy Car makes fishcakes fun

Tomy Car makes fishcakes fun

Written by: Rebecca Milner on October 11, 2008 at 10:25 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE |

It’s been a while since we’ve covered novelty food on these pages, but this was too good to go unmentioned. Traditional fish cake manufacturer Odawara Kanko and toy maker Takara Tomy have teamed up to create Tomy Car Kamaboko, in the shape of the iconic model toy cars.

Taking into account recent food scares, the manufacturers stress that all the colors are created from natural food products like spinach (car windows) and squid ink (tires). The set, which includes both patrol car and bus varieties, will be available from this month in Odawara area souvenir stores and online for ¥680 ($6.40).

Odawara is a city south west of Tokyo that is famous for kamaboko and the city’s processed seafood loaves are a popular souvenir or gift from business or travel in the region. This new style certainly adds spice to what is considered a painfully traditional food product. It also fits in nicely with the cute and fun lunch box trend we wrote about earlier this year.