Funny CultureParenting

My 8-Year-Old Spotted a Tree Full of Octopus Wieners

A child's lunchbox vocabulary turns out to be botanical genius.

· 3 min · Togetter

What's going on

In Japan, "tako-san wiener" *(tako = octopus)* refers to a classic bento staple: a small sausage with its base cut into four or six slits, then pan-fried so the legs curl outward like octopus tentacles. It's the kind of thing every Japanese child grows up eating, and the shape is immediately recognizable to anyone who has ever opened a Japanese lunchbox.

During a neighborhood walk, a mother's 8-year-old son spotted something in a tree and yelled "Tako-san wiener!!" She assumed he was imagining things — until she looked up. The tree was a pomegranate in bloom, and its bright red flowers, with their frilled, splayed petals, look almost surgically identical to the beloved lunchbox sausage. The photos she posted went quietly viral, and the replies quickly turned into a support group for people who can never unsee it.

Comments

My 8-year-old goes “Tako-san wiener!!” on our walk, so I look over thinking yeah right, no way— 👦🏻
The graveyard of fallen tako-san wieners… and the next victims waiting their turn.
They look just like pomegranate flowers. I never knew. I never knew that tako-san wieners were pomegranate flowers all along.
IT’S A TAKO-SAN WIENER!!!
It’s literally a perfect tako-san wiener, right!? 🤣 I was so shocked lol
There’s no way there’s a tako-sa— THERE’S A TAKO-SAN WIENER!! And that second photo looks like an alien convention, it’s adorable!!
Right?? Did a full double-take 🐙👀⁉︎👀))) There were SO many of them 🤣
The octopuses… they’re growing wild…!?
Most of them have just collapsed on the ground 🥹
There’s no way you’re NOT playing bento shop after seeing this
The tako-san wiener likeness is TOO real lol
They’re there all right!
It’s real!! So octopus!! If you ever get stuck on a “write a poem” assignment in Japanese class, just think back to this. I think it’d make a beautiful poem.
That is a tako-san wiener.
Perfectly octopus!
Whoa! They’re there! Wait… are those… flowers?
They were flowers! 😳 I’d never noticed them before so I was genuinely surprised~! Kids just see things differently, don’t they ☺️
Pomegranate 🐙
Pomegranate, huh… No. That is a tako-san wiener.
It’s pomegranate flower season 🐰💕
Here’s what a tako-san wiener looks like from underneath!
It’s a flowering pomegranate ☺️ The small ornamental kind you can’t eat, but it’s so cute… It starts as a tiny bud that looks like a baby wiener, evolves into a tako-san wiener, and then evolves into a mini pomegranate ☺️
Written “pomegranate blossom,” pronounced “tako-san wiener”‼️ 🐙
It’s a pomegranate! What a free-spirited imagination, so cute 🐙
Japan has a “tako-san wiener tree,” you know.
I want to combine them with pinecones that squirrels have nibbled on and use them for playing house.

My take

Now that I've seen it, I genuinely cannot unsee it. And yes, I'm a little hungry.

Comments loosely translated for tone.

Source https://togetter.com/li/2703361