Desserts

Although in Japan a meal traditionally concludes with the savory taste of pickled vegetables served with rice, the Japanese adore sweets, especially chocolate and elaborately decorated cakes. Oyatsu—an unofficial but staunchly observed “snack time” that roughly corresponds to three o’clock in the afternoon—is the occasion for indulging a sweet tooth in Japan. The ancient, but still practiced, tea ceremony provides another opportunity since the ritual includes partaking of exquisite candies and rice-flour and bean-jam pastries.