この間、家族で川越の小江戸へ行きました。その町に駄菓子屋の通りがあった。妻はやはり、「懐かしい！」と喜んでいました。私には、日本の駄菓子の文化が分かっていないので、ただ、駄菓子はこんなになるのだと、私がびっくりしました。
そして、ハロウィーンの為にキャンディーを準備したら、知り合いがアメリカから沢山持って来てくれました。Milky Way, Snickers, Kit Kat, Almond Joy, Mounds, M&M's等など。私はこういうチョコとかで育ってきている者なので、やはり「懐かしい！」と思いました。考えてみれば、こういうのはアメリカなりの駄菓子だろうね。子供のころに良く食べた！特に、ハロウィーンの時にいっぱいゲットして、大喜びだった。
A few weeks ago, our family went for a drive to 'Koedo' in Kawagoe City, outside of Tokyo. In that neighborhood was a side street lined with 'dagashi' shops. Upon seeing the array of crackers and lollipops and cinnamon candy, etc., etc., my wife had flashbacks of enjoying those inexpensive sweets when she was a kid. I, on the other hand, didn't grow up with dagashi and hence don't have any concept of this phenomenon. I was, however, surprised by the wide variety of sweets.
Then when I was preparing the candy for Halloween, I opened up a bag of chocolates that a friend had brought from the States. As the candy came spilling out, so did the memories from when I was a kid: Milky Way, Snickers, Kik Kat, Almond Joy's got nuts, Mounds don't, M&M's, Twix, etc., etc. These probably are the American equivalent of 'dagashi' -- cheap, five-and-dime type candy. Certainly not good for one's health, but these are they types of candy that I grew up with. And, oh, that mountain of candy I used to get from Halloween trick-or-treating!
America's 'dagashi'
