Family Mart releases new rice balls with Bongo, Japan’s most famous onigiri restaurant

Shohei Ohtani is the ambassador for this new collaboration, and we’ve got the scoop on whether it’s worth spending money on.

Bongo in Otsuka, Tokyo, is often referred to as Japan’s most famous rice ball restaurant, and now it’s set to become even more well known, thanks to a new tie-up with Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart.

▼ Bongo is so popular it has lines outside every day and fills up within minutes of opening.

Even world-famous baseball player Shohei Ohtani is a fan, acting as ambassador for the new collaboration and eating his way through 19 rice balls while filming the tie-up commercial, which he stars in.

The new rice balls are set to hit Family Mart shelves from 4 March, but we were invited to a press event for an early tasting, with our reporter P.K. Sanjun attending.

▼ The president of Family Mart, giving an entertaining speech on the upcoming campaign.

When Ohtani’s involvement was revealed, it created a flurry of excitement amongst the attending media, and that excitement peaked again when they got to try the rice balls.

▼ Priced at 198 yen (US$1.32) each, there are two varieties coming our way — the Ground Meat & Egg Yolk and the Greens, Spicy Roe Mayonnaise.

When P.K. put his mouth to them, he thought they were delicious, but he couldn’t quite work out which specific part Bongo had lent its hand to in their creation.

▼ Was it the seaweed, the rice or the filling?

Admittedly, P.K. is something of an amateur when it comes to convenience store rice balls as he only eats them occasionally. One person who’s much more of an expert, but who was off on another assignment and couldn’t attend the press event, is P.K.’s friend and colleague Seiji Nakazawa. So P.K. tucked one of the Greens, Spicy Roe Mayonnaise rice balls into his pocket and took it back to the office to get an expert opinion on the new Family Mart rice ball.

▼ Seiji took a bite and immediately grinned from ear-to-ear, giving it his full approval.

“Wait, what?!” Seiji exclaimed in between mouthfuls. “This is really delicious. It’s rare to find a convenience store rice ball with such a generous filling. I once had a rice ball with a lot of fillings at 7-Eleven before, but this one is even more packed.”

Seiji went on to praise the fluffiness of the rice, saying it was hard to believe that this was a convenience store rice ball, and when he found out the recommended retail price was 198 yen, he did another double-take, telling us he thought it would be in the 250-yen range.

His enthusiasm for the rice ball gave P.K. even more appreciation for them, and he and Seiji made a pact to go and try them again when they’re released. They might even find the time to pull up a stool at Bongo to share tasting notes on the freshly made rice balls that draw all the crowds.

Related: Family Mart
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