お菓子

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. お菓子を食べすぎました。▶ —
   I ate too many sweets.
2. 日本のお菓子はおいしいです。▶ —
   Japanese sweets are tasty.

Collocations

Mnemonic

お菓子 okashi — お (honorific) + 菓子 (sweets). Japanese sweet vocabulary is a universe: 和菓子 (wagashi, traditional Japanese) vs 洋菓子 (yougashi, Western style). Under wagashi: 餡 (an, bean paste), 餅 (mochi, rice cake), 羊羹 (yokan), 大福 (daifuku), どら焼き (dorayaki), たい焼き (taiyaki), dozens more. The lexicon compresses 1,400 years of confectionery history — Heian-period Chinese 唐菓子 imports, the tea ceremony driving wagashi refinement, 19th-century Western pastry adoption. お土産 (omiyage) culture turns regional specialty sweets into vocabulary-industry packages.

Quick check

1. Division between 和菓子 and 洋菓子?

   • Japanese tradition (rice/bean/green-tea base) vs Western imports (flour/butter/dairy)
   • High vs low price
   • Sweetness level
   • Time of day consumed