The Mainichi Elementary School Student Newspaper asks “What is this snack called?”

To me, it looks like Hōraku Manjū, a cloyingly sweet glob of sweet bean jam covered by pancake batter. One bite is usually enough to make me not want to eat, or smell, it for a year or more. My sons, however, can’t get enough of these sugar bombs.

Similar confections can be found all over Japan, but what are they called? Imagawa-yaki? Ōgata-yaki? Kaiten-yaki? According to a specialist of Japanese confectionary, there are 100 different names for the snack.

In most of Kyūshū, the are known as kaiten-yaki. In Kagoshima and Ōita, they are known by the same name I know them: Hōraku Manjū. In the Kantō area, they are called Imagawa-yaki. In Kansai, people refer to them as gozasōrō or kaiten-yaki.