7-11 Celebrates the Seasons

Last week I walked into one of the 7-11's on my route, and was greeted by signs advertising their Halloween goods.

Today I walked in and was greeted not only by the signs advertising their newest seasonal good, but also by the smell of that seasonal good. That's right. It's oden season!

Oden is a

Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth.

While your local convenience store may have a perpetually rotating display of hotdogs, mine has a simmering pot of oden, which I am sure causes people all over Japan to be happy and nostalgic and eager to eat their first oden of the season. I, on the other hand, am considering patronizing other convenience stores until the season is over.