All About Japan

Bring in the New Year with Cute Kit Kat Boxes

Sweets New Year's

Nestlé Japan is known for its wide range of unusual Kit Kats, which come in a variety of unusual flavors and special local releases, but sometimes, at the end of the year, it’s the original chocolate wafer that becomes one of their most sought-after products.

http://www.nestle.co.jp/media/pressreleases/allpressreleases/documents/20161025_kitkat.pdf

The boxed packages come in three designs, including a rooster cosplaying as an eggplant, one dressed up as Mount Fuji...

http://www.nestle.co.jp/media/pressreleases/allpressreleases/documents/20161025_kitkat.pdf

and a rooster dressed up as hawk.

Why the bizarre choice of rooster outfits? These images—Mount Fuji, hawk and eggplant—are the top three auspicious symbols Japanese people hope to see in “hatsuyume“, their first dream of the New Year.

Kit Kats have become popular as lucky gifts during times of celebration and exam periods, due to the fact that the brand holds connotations of luck in its name, given that its sounds similar to the Japanese phrase “Kitto katsu,“ which means “You’ll surely win.”

http://www.nestle.co.jp/media/pressreleases/allpressreleases/documents/20161025_kitkat.pdf

The three individually wrapped chocolates inside the New Year’s boxes add even more luck to the mix with the words daikichi or “excellent luck” written across them, along with a rooster dressed as a Shinto priest holding an onusa paper shaker, used during purification rituals.

The wrappers also include wishes for things like “surely a prosperous New Year” and a “New Year that’s surely special.”

The Kit Kats are even more exclusive due to the fact that they’re released in conjunction with Japan Post, meaning they can only be bought from local post offices for a limited time. The 2017 Kit Kat Otoshidama retail for ¥140 (US$1.35) each and will be available from November 1, 2016 to January 6, 2017, so be sure to step inside a post office to pick up one of the boxes if you’re in Japan during that time!

Read full story: en.rocketnews24.com

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