The Japanese Costco Item That's Confusing Redditors

Given all the varied cultures and societies around the world, it's of little surprise that people in different countries enjoy eating different things. Perhaps this is no more noticeable than in Japan, where shirako (fish sperm), curry pan (doughnuts stuffed with curry), and basashi (uncooked horse meat) feature on menus, according to the Independent.

All surely delicious (nobody would eat them if they weren't, would they?), but these culinary originals pale into insignificance when faced with an unexpected Japanese dish discovered by someone on Reddit: sausages with bones in them.

We're not talking about gristle; we mean fully fledged sausages with giant bones running through the middle of them. The Redditor, Archawn, describes the unusual hotdog as being sold in Japanese Costco outlets. Labeled as Frankfurt with Bone, the unusual product has triggered plenty of confusion on Reddit, but some users are trying to explain why the item might be seen as a good idea in Japan.

Redditors are trying to explain sausages with bones

The most popular reply to the Reddit post, with 1,700 upvotes, is simply "why?!" That basically sums up the feeling of most viewers. Others are more intrigued however, wondering if the bone is simply a convenient way of eating sausages. One Redditor explains it as "mess-free, portable sausage eating," but another opts for "meat lollipops." "The only dog endorsed by Boney M" is how a different user puts it. "My inner German feels disgusted," one replier despairs.

Redditor HyperApples argues that retailers in Japan will often try to sell any idea they come up with, so strangeness is expected. They also suggest that a "dinosaur dog" sold at Universal Studios' Jurassic Park area in Japan could have been the inspiration for taking sausage-on-the-bone mainstream. One Redditor merely claims that sausages naturally grow with bones on trees, and its boneless sausages that are the crazy products.

To avoid any doubt, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms that sausages should be completely free of bones, unless they are manufactured with mechanically separated meat, in which case the law allows the presence of small amounts of bone (via USDA).