Japan's Wackiest Snack Foods

We’ve all heard about Japan’s obsession with unusual KitKats (soy sauce flavor, anyone?), but the list of unconventional snack food doesn’t end there.

Not by a long shot.

Pop into any 7-11, supermarket or department store in Japan and you’ll be confronted with an overwhelming variety of zany (to us) snacks, all packaged in colorful wrappers with Japanese characters splashed across the front.

Here are some of the wackiest snacks you can devour in Japan—just be sure to bring a strong stomach with you.

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Takoyaki (Octopus Ball) Caramel

Takoyaki is a popular street food in Japan that combines battered octopus, tempura, ginger and onion. (Think of them as sort of like an octopus beignet.)

Some people love it so much that one manufacturer has infused square caramel candy with the prevailing flavors of this fishy morsel. Sources say the sweets only taste of ginger, steak sauce and onion, but I'll just take their word for it.

Candied Baby Crabs

Don’t be fooled into thinking that these baby crabs will be as delicious as the soft shell variety you just had at brunch. These bad boys are hard and crunchy, coated in a salty-yet-sweet glaze that does little to distract the eater from the fact that the eyes of the rest of the bag are looking at you as you devour their companions.

Baby crabs are apparently the perfect drinking snack to accompany beer or sake, but I might just stick with peanuts.

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Every Flavor of Ice Cream, Like Ever

So, we may have been a little provocative with the headline of this one, but deservedly so when you realize that people across Japan could be scooping out a bowlful of chicken wing ice cream at this very minute.

And chicken wing is actually one of the least unique flavors out there. Horse meat, curry, shark fin, snake, cherry blossom, miso ramen, scallop and caviar are also up there with some of Japan’s wackiest ice cream flavors.

Time to re-think that sundae?

Toilet Candy

As if the thought of eating candy out of a “toilet bowl” wasn’t weird enough, the manufacturers of this sweet treat make you “work for your dessert” by constructing the plastic toilet yourself.

The box comes with several toilet parts that can be easily assembled before you decorate them with cartoon eyes and hearts. (Because if there’s anything stranger than a toilet-based snack, it’s a toilet-based snack with human characteristics.)

Children—or big kids—then pour the candy powder into the toilet, add water and drink the sweet foaming liquid. Yum?

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Wasp Crackers

If you’ve ever seen a wasp in the summer and wondered what it would taste like cooked into a rice cracker, then this one’s for you. Our friends in Japan have already beaten you to it, boiling wasps and then adding them to a rice cracker batter, before cooking them on a hot griddle.

Wasp crackers are only available in specialty stores and smaller markets due to the limited number of wasps that are caught each year, so bagging yourself a pack makes them taste even sweeter. Or not.