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Ghibli Park now selling “Grilled Frogs” from food cart in Valley of Witches

Casey Baseel Apr 26, 2024
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But don’t worry, these Kaeruyaki are a sweet treat that’s less intimidating than they sound.

In March, Ghibli Park, the Nagoya-area theme park dedicated to the anime films of Studio Ghibli, opened its final area, called Valley of Witches and with attractions inspired by Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Earwig and the Witch. Except, with the involvement of a group as imaginative as Ghibli, the creative process is never really over, and there’ll always be new things to make a visit to the park special.

The latest of those? “Grilled Frogs.”

たい焼きならぬ「カエル焼き」登場。アンコをぎっしり詰めて、一匹ずつ丁寧に焼いています。「魔女の谷」のレストラン「空飛ぶオーブン」横の屋台で、本日から販売しています。あいにくの天気ですが、晴れていれば屋上庭園で頬張るのもよいですね。営業は10時30分から15時。（なくなり次第終了） pic.twitter.com/ar1SpFEvyp

— ジブリパーク GHIBLI PARK (@ghibliparkjp) April 24, 2024

These unique-looking morsels are being cooked up at a cart located next to the Flying Oven restaurant in the Valley of Witches section of the park. They’re certainly photogenic little critters, as shown in the announcement tweet from Ghibli Park’s official account.

Now, if you’re thinking you can’t recall seeing frog on the menu at any of the Japanese restaurants you’ve eaten at, your hunch is correct – frogs aren’t commonly eaten in Japan. And while the treats in Ghibli Park’s tweet may look like frogs, they contain no amphibian meat, but are actually stuffed with anko, sweet red bean paste.

Ghibli Park calls them Kaeruyaki (kaeru meaning “frog” and yaki meaning “grill” or “roast”), a play on words with taiyaki, the traditional Japanese dessert of grilled cakes of pancake-like batter made in the shape of a tai, or sea bream.

Ghibli Park hasn’t said why they decided to make frog-shaped taiyaki, but selling them in the Valley of Witches feels like a nod to fairytales and folklore about frogs being used as ingredients in witches’ brews and other magical ingestibles.

▼ We suppose there’s an off-chance that it’s based on the frog character from Spirited Away, but since his name is Aogaeru, it seems like they’d call the sweets Aogaeruyaki if he was the direct inspiration.

It’s possible that there’s a little wordplay at work in the Kaeruyaki’s name too, since depending on the kanji characters used to write it, kaeru can mean either “frog” or “come home/return.” Because of that, frogs are sometimes seen as symbols of good luck in Japan, ensuring a safe return journey, and with Ghibli Park regularly welcoming guests from around the world, it’s a kindhearted sentiment, and delivering that message in the form of something sweet to eat is a combo that’s hard to beat.

Source: Twitter/@ghibliparkjp
Images: Studio Ghibli
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he continues to hope someone will open up a taiyaki shop in San Dimas and sell Dimas-yaki in the shape of the San Dimas High School emblem.