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Oseibo Japanese Year End Gift


Hello everyone! December is finally here, and before we know it, the year 2023 will be coming to an end. What kind of year has it been for you? The pandemic is over, and we are sure that this year has been a great year to see your family and friends again, and to make new friends as well. When you look back on this past year, can you picture the faces of those for whom you are thankful?

In Japan, there is a gift-giving culture called oseibo. It is a way of saying thank you very much for all your help and kindness this year, and I look forward to seeing you again next year. It is a gift given to those who have taken care of you this year as a token of gratitude for the past year and best wishes for the next year. Originally, the word seibo was used to express the end of the year, and in the world of haiku Japanese poetry, it is the seasonal word for the month of December.

At Maido, we have stocked oseibo gifts again this year. We have many items that are not usually available at our store. They are in very nice packaging, as they are made as gifts. You can enjoy them visually, then enjoy the flavors. You can get them not only for someone you appreciate, but also for yourself to be thankful for a great year! Today, we will introduce the oseibo products we offer. Read this and come to Maido to get gifts for people you appreciate!


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Oseibo Gifts Maido Currently Offers

Kawachi Surugaya, Yuzen-An Yokan

Yokan is a Japanese sweet bean paste jelly made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar. The elegant and cute individual wrappings decorated with Yuzen designs are appealing. This stylish design has changed the impression of the traditional yokan. You can enjoy four flavors in one box - tsubuan (chunky sweet red beans), green tea, plum, and chestnut.



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Kawachi Surugaya, Nagomi no Kaze

It is an assortment of yokan from Yuzen-An yokan (introduced above), handmade monaka - a Japanese sweet made of azuki bean paste sandwiched between two thin crisp wafers made from mochi, and both shiruko and kuzuyu from Otedama Shiruko. The elegant and refined sweetness spreads in your mouth. Each item is wrapped gently and beautifully. There are three different flavors - shiruko (a sweet porridge of azuki red beans boiled and crushed), kuzuyu (arrowroot tea made of Japanese arrowroot starch, water, and sugar), and matcha green tea flavored kuzuyu. They will warm your heart and body. Each product is made with richly flavored ingredients and craftsmen's skills, using traditional methods.


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Nakagami, Awase-aji (top left)

This set includes azuki red bean paste monaka with elegant sweetness, matcha green tea monaka with refreshing sweetness, and yokan with mochi rice cake in it. In Japan, elderly people especially love this kind of assortment.

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Tsuyamaya Seika, Kinoka Iroiro (right)

It is a box with ministry of seasonal agar Japanese confectionery. You can enjoy an assortment of yuzu-mochi, awayuki strawberry, umeshu (plum wine) jelly, kuzumochi matcha azuki (red beans), and kurikinton (sweetened chestnuts).

It comes in a cardboard box and is shrink-wrapped. It has a relatively heavy weight and is ideal as a fancy gift.

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Katsura Rikyu, Han-nama Gashi (bottom)

It is a very authentic Kyoto confectionery with the seasonal atmosphere of Kyoto laid out in a box. You can enjoy the masterpieces created by skilled craftsmen. Don't they all look beautiful? Each one looks like an art piece. You can enjoy them as decor first, then eat them!


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Kyosaga Horakuan, Kyoto Matcha Cookie

These cookies are crispy, soft, and flaky at the same time. The light and smooth texture and slight bitterness produce an elegant taste. They are made with Uji green tea produced in the Kyoto prefecture of Japan.


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Kyosaga Horakuan, Tsukitoto Yuzu Butter Cookie (left) These moist cookies are made with the perfect combination of refreshing yuzu citrus fruit from Kyoto and smooth butter. The rabbit shaped cookies are very cute and make a great gift.


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Wakao, Hesoten Neko no Totomakura

It is an assortment of soymilk sable cookies in the shape of cats sleeping in cute poses, and fish shaped crunchy milk chocolates. It is a perfect gift for cat lovers. The gift receiver must get very happy just by looking at them. Hesoten is a posture in which a cat lies on its back and shows its belly. Toto means fish and makura means pillow.


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Shinobi Ninja Cookies

Ninja cookies are the perfect gift for anyone who admires ninjas. The inside of the box describes about ninja and their tools. These cookies are shaped like shuriken ninja stars and the gift receiver will probably want to throw them instead of eating them.


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Hokka, Gudetama 10th Anniversary Tin

This product was made to celebrate Gutetama, a popular Sanrio character's 10th anniversary. Round custard-flavored biscuits with 81 different Gudetama designs printed on them are contained in a tin. (The designs you get are random.) The lid is shaped like a sunny side up with Gudetama. It makes the tin extra cute!


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Mr. Ito, Cookies Original Assort (left)

It is an assortment of three types of cookies: coconut cookies, sable cookies, and chocolate almond cookies. Coconut cookies have light and crispy texture with a coconut flavor. Sable cookies have a light texture and a gentle taste. Chocolate almond cookies have the fragrant taste with the texture of almonds.

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Bourbon, High Selection (right)

It offers seven kinds of cookies and two flavors of wafers, each with its own unique taste - cocoa lemmande, chocolate chip cookie, chocoliere, chocolate elise, white chocolate elise, choco-in cookie, butter cookie, choco-crepe, and butter roll. They are packaged individually so that you can eat as much as you want, whenever you want.


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Sanritsu Seika, Figaro (top)

It is an assortment with cookies and pies - Japanese pastries that are buttery and very crunchy with a lot of layers. It includes chocolate pie, raisin pie, white chocolate sandwich cookies, chocolate sandwich cookies, and coconut cookies.

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Sanritsu Seika, San Figaro (bottom)

It is a bigger assortment of six kinds of cookies and pies - chocolate sand cookie, white chocolate sand cookie, coconut cookie, leaf pie, palmier pie, and chocolate pie. This is a gift that allows you to enjoy a variety of sweets. This will be a perfect gift for a larger number of people such as family friends, coworkers at your office, relative or friend gatherings.


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Bourbon, Butter Cookies (left)

There is a tin inside the box. It has light and chewy cookies made with 4% butter and five different shapes of butter cookies, covered with sugar and glazed with honey. You can enjoy the rich variety of flavors.

Bourbon, Torte Cookies (right)

This one also has a tin inside the box. It has light and chewy cookies topped with chocolate, caramel, white cream, and coffee cream. You can enjoy five different flavors.


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Bourbon, Roanne Selection

This is a combination of gaufrettes - wafer sandwiches with cream in between that resemble Belgian waffles. Gaufrettes are a classic Japanese gift confectionery with a crispy and gentle texture and aroma. This assortment includes three classic gaufrette flavors - vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. The dark blue and gold packaging gives the gift receivers a luxurious feel, making this product suitable not only as a casual gift, but also for formal occasions that require a certain level of prestige.


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Aratama, Kinu-Komachi Golden Plum (left)

Aratama, Kinu-Komachi Walnut (right)

They are moist baked pastries made of habutae mochi rice cake kneaded with plenty of ume plum jam (left) /walnuts (right) and wrapped in sable dough. Habutae mochi is a Japanese confectionery from Fukui Prefecture, made from only glutinous rice flour, sugar, and starch syrup. It is derived from habutae, a silk fabric that is a specialty of the prefecture, and is characterized by its silky smooth texture that melts slightly in the mouth. You can enjoy the soft and gooey texture of these baked pastries. The plum jam is made of Golden Plums with aromatic fragrance, using only tree-ripened plums from Minamiechizen in Fukui prefecture. The walnuts version gives you a unique texture by being added in the soft sable cookies.


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Marutou, Coffee Langue de Chat (top)

It is a flavorful confection made of chocolate with a savory coffee aroma sandwiched between crispy langue de chat. Langue de chat means cat tongue in French. They are delicate buttery cookies.

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Marutou, Matcha Green Tea Langue de Chat (bottom left)

Chocolate is infused with the gentle and elegant sweetness of matcha green tea and sandwiched between crispy langue de chat, creating a flavorful confectionary.

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Marutou, Strawberry Langue de Chat (bottom right)

Hakata Amaou strawberry-flavored chocolate is sandwiched between crispy langue de chat for a flavorful treat. Hakata Amaou is Japan's most highly regarded strawberry from Fukuoka prefecture.


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Ichinohashi Tenpu, Wakayama Hakuto (White Peach) Jelly

These jellies are very juicy and fruity. You will feel like you are eating tha actual peach. The rich aroma and sweetness of white peach juice from Wakayama prefecture, which is famous for white peaches, are lavishly used in this product. You can enjoy the melt-in-your-mouth flavor and reach for another one soon after you finish it.


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Seki Seika Honpo, Kyo no Shikisai

This is a product full of Kyoto-like characteristics, with matcha rice crackers branded with four famous spots of Kyoto - Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Sanjo Ohashi Bridge, Arashiyama, and Kinkaku-ji Temple, and the four seasons of Kyoto expressed with surimitsu (honey) on top of the branding. You can enjoy the taste of Kyoto not only with the flavor of the rice cracker, but also with your eyes. Seki Seika Honpo is a confectionery company that has been dedicated to the production of Kyoto rice crackers since its establishment in 1922. They have been carrying on the tradition of quality for generations with the philosophy of creating products that bring smiles to their customers' faces in pursuit of delicious taste and safety and security, and contributing to a bright and peaceful society through the production of confectioneries.


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Honda Seika, Tekka Musashi Soka Senbei Rice Craker

This set contains an assortment of four flavors of traditional Soka senbei rice crackers - soy sauce, sesame, green tea, and nori (seaweed). Soka is a city in Saitama prefecture that is famous for rice crackers. Soka senbei first began appearing in the Edo period (1603 - 1868), and it has been one of the most well-known kinds of senbei. It is characterized by its hard-baked rice and soy sauce, and has a simple and nostalgic taste with a crunchy texture and the aroma of soy sauce.


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Nikko Okaki Kobo, Takumi no Kokoro Rice Cracker Nikko Okaki Kobo is committed to use rice only from Japan. Also, they use the water from Nikko in Tochigi prefecture which is melted snow from the Nikko Mountain Range. The cold melted water that flows from the mountains becomes subsoil water, which is refined under the earth over a long period of time, and is said to be the most delicious water in Japan. Their traditions are handed down from generation to generation. This assortment is a combination of four products - Noriko-san with seaweed, goma-zuki with roasted sesame seeds, komochi salad with garlic and chili pepper, and teriyaki senbei.


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There is a lot of food items, housewares, stationery, and gifts available at the store and our online store, Maido! Kairashi Shop, where you can place your order for shipping or store pickup! Happy shopping. :)


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