Shiritori ( しりとり ) is a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which

begins with the final kana of the previous word. No distinction is made between hiragana, katakana or
kanji. "Shiritori" literally means "taking the end" or "taking the rear".[1]
O-nigiri (お握り or 御握り; おにぎり), also known as o-musubi (お結び; おむすび), nigirimeshi (握り
飯; にぎりめし), rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or cylindrical
shapes and often wrapped in nori (seaweed). Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume
(umeboshi), salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, mentaiko or any other salty or sour ingredient
as a natural preservative. Most Japanese convenience stores stock their onigiri with various fillings and
flavors. There are even specialized shops which only sell onigiri to take out. Due to the popularity of this
trend in Japan, onigiri has become a popular staple in Japanese restaurants worldwide.

Despite common misconceptions, onigiri is not a form of sushi and should not be confused with the type
of sushi called nigirizushi or simply nigiri. Onigiri is made with plain rice (sometimes lightly salted), while
sushi is made of rice with vinegar, sugar and salt.[1] Onigiri makes rice portable and easy to eat as well
as preserving it, while sushi originated as a way of preserving fish.
In Murasaki Shikibu's 11th-century diary Murasaki Shikibu Nikki, she writes of people eating rice balls.[2]
[3] At that time, onigiri were called tonjiki and often consumed at outdoor picnic lunches.[4] Other
writings, dating back as far as the seventeenth century, state that many samurai stored rice balls
wrapped in bamboo sheath as a quick lunchtime meal during war, but the origins of onigiri are much
earlier even than Lady Murasaki. Before the use of chopsticks became widespread, in the Nara period,
rice was often rolled into a small ball so that it could be easily picked up. In the Heian period, rice was
also made into small rectangular shapes known as tonjiki so that they could be piled onto a plate and
easily eaten.

From the Kamakura period to the early Edo period, onigiri was used as a quick meal. This made sense as
cooks simply had to think about making enough onigiri and did not have to concern themselves with
serving. These onigiri were simply balls of rice flavored with salt. Nori did not become widely available
until the Genroku era in the mid-Edo period, when the farming of nori and fashioning it into sheets
became widespread.