Japan’s Cat Day comes to Family Mart convenience stores with huge line of feline-fun sweets, drinks

Family Mart becomes “Family Nya-rt.”

On February 22, Japan celebrates Cat Day (since ni, the Japanese word for “two,” sounds similar to nya, the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat meowing). Like Meat Day and Twintail Day, Cat Day is an unofficial holiday, but it’s one that fans look forward as a time to share and indulge their fondness for felines, and that includes Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart.

Family Mart started gearing up for Cat Day early this year, gradually rolling out a slew of new cat-themed food and drink from mid-February, with the latest additions having just arrived in stores this week. Among the cutest are the Paw Pad Manju, soft sweet dumplings with touch of milky richness to their dough and a tart strawberry-flavor filling.

▼ As if the 155-yen (US$1.10) dumplings themselves weren’t cute enough already, they get some additional adorableness from package illustrations courtesy of Family Mart’s collaboration with illustration/character goods series Mofusand.

For even chubbier cuteness, there’s the Bread that Looks Like a Paw Pad (160 yen) bun filled with milk cream.

If you’re not familiar with Baumkuchen, you might think there’s something missing from these cat-themed caramel cake slices (218 yen). Rest assured, though, that the traditional ay to make this German dessert does leave a hole in the center, which here has been giving a few cosmetic cuts to look like a cat.

If you simply can’t embrace the void of a hollow dessert, though, don’t worry, because the Cat Caramel and Vanilla Cream Sandwich (158 yen) is solidly sweet the whole way through.

Caramel is actually a running theme with Family Mart’s Cat Day offerings this year, as it’s also a marque flavor for the Ca-nya-mel and Vanilla Melty Chocolate Cookie (128 yen).

Heading back to the Japanese sweets genre, the Mofusand Manmaruyaki (230 yen) put a decorated spin on imagawayaki, pancake-like disc-shaped cakes with sweet fillings, in this case milk cream.

Mofusand characters are also showing up on Maca-nyans (mararons) (298 yen) in strawberry and banana flavors…

…Kuromitsu Ki-nyako Latte (235 yen) dessert drinks, made with kuromitsu brown sugar molasses, kinako (sweet roasted soybean powder), and milk, which also feature cat caps…

…on Family Mart’s store-brand Famima Cafe coffee cups…

…and on Family Mart-exclusive bottles of beverage maker Kirin’s Gogo no Kocha black tea.

▼ Yes, sometimes one of the Mofusand cats dresses up like a shark.

And while the Mofusand kitties have the lion’s share of Family Mart’s Cat Day offerings, there’s also space for some other feline guest stars on these baked cheesecakes (248 yen)…

…and even a partnership with home delivery service Kuroneko/Black Cat Yamato’s mascot in this Kuroneko Chocolate Cake (450 yen).

It’s all enough for Family Mart to soft rebrand itself as “Family Nya-rt” in some ads while it’s offering the lineup. All of the limited-time items are on sale now and, similar to actual capricious cats, will be around until they’re not.

Source, images: PR Times
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Credit: