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Daifuku is a traditional Japanese sweet — a soft, pillowy mochi rice cake filled with sweet red bean paste. It's beloved, it's delicate, and it does not keep. Leave one at room temperature over a weekend and the results are nothing short of tragic.
Someone shared a story about receiving a phone call from a junior coworker who had clocked out early that morning. The caller's voice was grave. Braced for a major workplace catastrophe, the poster was instead asked one thing: please eat the daifuku left on the desk. "I can't bear the thought of it going to waste," the junior said. The call ended with a final, solemn request — "I leave my daifuku in your care." The whole office pitched in. The daifuku did not die in vain.
The thread quickly became a confessional booth for everyone who had ever made the same desperate call — entrusting a forgotten pudding, a cream cake, or a tray of mochi to the mercy of whoever was still at their desk.
Comments
A junior coworker who’d clocked out early called me in this completely devastated voice going “I have a request…” — I braced myself for some major disaster. Turns out she’d left her daifuku (a soft mochi rice cake filled with sweet red bean paste) on her desk and couldn’t go back for it. “Please eat it… I can’t stand the thought of it going to waste…” And right as she hung up: “I leave my daifuku in your care.” First time in my life I’ve been entrusted with something like that.
午前退勤した後輩から電話かかってきて「お願いが…」と悲壮な声で言うのでこれは重大ミスかと身構えたら「私机に大福忘れて行っちゃって…もう取りに行けないので食べて下さい…大福がダメになるのだけは耐えられなくて…」と言われ切る時も重ねて「私の大福を頼みます」と人生で初めての託され方した
Daifuku is life… this is genuinely one of the most important handoffs in the world.
大福は命だからね…この世で最も大事な引き継ぎのひとつ
“My pleasure! And thank you for the food!” — the only possible response.
お安いご用だ！いただきます！でしかない
※ The daifuku was subsequently enjoyed by all staff ☆
※この後スタッフが美味しくいただきました☆
If someone said that to me, my opinion of them and my blood sugar would both shoot through the roof.
こんなん言われたら、後輩の好感度と私の血糖値が爆上がりだよ。
omg what a cute junior 🤣
やだかわいい後輩ちゃん🤣
lol what an adorable exchange www nice workplace vibes ✨️
かわいいやりとりwww よい雰囲気の職場だなぁ✨️
Happy daifuku 😅 Just imagine it quietly rotting away alone in an empty weekend office… her kindness in wanting that daifuku to fulfill its destiny by making someone happy rather than decomposing unnoticed 😆
幸せな大福😅 誰もいない土日のオフィス…机の中で人知れずひっそり腐敗するよりは誰かのお腹を幸せにして大福としての人生を全うして欲しいと願う後輩さんの優しさ😆
Now the daifuku can rest in peace.
これで大福も成仏できまスね
I laughed out loud www so cute — but I’m absolutely the type to make this exact call, so I understand the pain on a cellular level.
声出して笑ったwww かわいいかよ でも私頼む側の人間だから、痛い程気持ちが分かる
I completely get both sides of this~
どっちの気持ちも分かる〜
Replace daifuku with akafuku (Akafuku is a famous, expensive regional mochi sweet from Ise — it famously does not keep, and you can’t just pop out and buy another one) and suddenly I feel this in my soul.
大福を赤福に置き換えたら気持ちがすっごくわかった。
Ever since I let a kintsuba (kintsuba is a Japanese confection — smooth sweet bean paste enclosed in thin griddle-cooked dough) I received at work go moldy from neglect, I have been hearing its vengeful ghost. This is not someone else’s problem.
会社でもらったきんつばを放置してカビさせてしまって以来、きんつばの怨念の幻聴が聞こえるので他人事ではない
I literally just did this. Entrusted my an-shiratama (sweet red bean paste served with soft rice dumplings) that I’d forgotten to eat yesterday to a coworker.
これさっきやった。昨日食べるの忘れてたあん白玉を会社の人に託した。
I once forgot a pudding I bought at Belk (a supermarket chain in Japan) and had to call a junior to please deal with it.
私もベルクで買ったプリンを忘れて、後輩に電話して、処分お願いした事ある。
I did the exact same thing and had to formally petition the principal to eat a pudding. “I really can’t stand wasting it — if you don’t have any allergies, please, I’m begging you, eat it.” He ate it.
同じことやってプリンを校長にお頼み申したことがあります・・「プリンをダメにするのが本当に嫌なんです、アレルギーとかなかったら、お願いだから食べてください。」食べてくれました。
I’ve been on the receiving end of this exact scenario — someone entrusted a Marugoto Banana (a beloved Japanese convenience store snack: a whole banana wrapped in whipped cream and sponge cake) to me. It healed my battered late-night overtime heart just a little 🍌
私も同じシチュエーションでまるごとバナナを託されたことかあります〜。一人残業の荒んだ心が少し癒されました🍌
I once had a cheesecake left in the office fridge entrusted to me in this exact way. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
わたしこの流れで冷蔵庫に取り残されたチーズケーキ託されたことある 美味しくいただいた
I’ve done this with a fresh cream cake I left in the fridge…
これを冷蔵庫に忘れた生ケーキでやったことある…
I’ve done this with bread 😭 I bought a roll to eat for breakfast the next morning, left it in my drawer, realized when I was already at the station — it was a Friday. I cried as I called the office.
私これパンでやったことある😭 お昼休みに明日の朝食べるパンを買ったんだけど引き出しに忘れてきてしまって（しかも金曜）、もう駅まで来ちゃったから泣く泣く職場に電話したことある…
Last month my section chief entrusted mitarashi dango (skewered rice dumplings glazed in sweet soy sauce) and donuts to me in this exact situation. RT
これと似たようなパターンで先月課長からみたらし団子とドーナツを託された。RT
I once asked my boss to please use the milk in the fridge for coffee or something. Just… take care of it.
私は「コーヒーにでも入れて飲んでおいてください」って、上司に冷蔵庫の中にある牛乳を託したことがある。
I did this with gifted warabi mochi (a jiggly, delicate Japanese sweet made from bracken starch). Friday arrived before I could properly share it with the team, so I stopped a coworker who was coming in Saturday: “The warabi mochi… please… I beg you…” “Understood. 🫡”
同じ流れで、頂き物の「わらび餅」の行く末を託したわ。上手くメンバーに分けられないまま金曜になってしまい、通りすがりの土曜出社の人に「わらび餅、わらび餅を…なにとぞ…」「了解です🫡」
I once got a message from a coworker at the Osaka branch (on a solo work transfer from Fukuoka) who’d left their mentaiko (spicy seasoned cod roe, a specialty of Fukuoka) on the bullet train. “It ended up at Tokyo lost-and-found. I’ve already called ahead — go pick it up and eat it.”
新幹線内に明太子を忘れた大阪支店（福岡から単身赴任中）の人から「新幹線の中に明太子を忘れた。東京で回収されたため、落とし物センターには話をつけてあるから引き取りに行って食べてくれ」と言われたことがあります。
The other day I forgot my salad and had to do this. “Please eat it… it’s a kind you can’t really find near where I live… the expiry should still be fine… I leave the salad in your care…”
この前、サラダ忘れて「食べてください……うちの周りじゃあんまり売ってないサラダなんです……賞味期限は大丈夫なはずなので……」「サラダをよろしくお願いします……」サラダを託した
I realized I’d left potato salad in the office fridge when I was already too far to turn back, so I called the overnight duty person: “Um… if you haven’t left yet, would you maybe take the potato salad home…? It might not be enough for a whole family, but I’d rather that than throwing it out…” They laughed at me a lot.
私はポテサラを職場の冷蔵庫に忘れたのを戻るには面倒な距離で気付き、夜間当番の人に「あの…まだ事務所出てないならポテサラ持って帰ってくれませんか…ご家族で食べるには少ないかもしれませんが捨てるぐらいなら…」と電話してめっちゃ笑われた。
So many people entrusting so many different things. it’s so cute
結構色んな人が色んなものを託しててかわいい
Can we just have this kind of content forever. pure happiness
こういうのばっかりでいいんだよ幸せ
My take
Letting a daifuku die in vain is something you'd never stop regretting. Even if it means sacrificing your senior's blood sugar.
Source & translation note
Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.
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