Japanese Parents Are Squishing Their Cute Babies' Faces To Make Them Look Like Rice Balls

Onigiri, or rice balls, are a Japanese way of serving rice where the food is formed into a triangular shape. I presume you know what babies' faces are. Well, the two have met in a strange but funny Japanese meme, which involves squishing a baby's face into a triangular shape with your hands.

#RiceBallBabies is the hashtag to follow (or #赤ちゃんおにぎり if you happen to be Japanese) if you want to get involved or see what it's all about. According to Buzzfeed it seems it all started with Japanese comedian Masahiro Ehara, who posted a series of tweets squishing his kids' heads into rice ball shapes.

People loved it so much, they copied him. And now it's become a thing.

It's certainly a weird trend (maybe not so in Japan?), but the results are undeniably adorable, the perfect thing to do to a baby's cute chubby cheeks.

So next time you see a cute chubby baby, any baby, go up to it and give it a try, i'm sure the parents will be delighted and won't mind you doing this a bit(?).

Here's a picture of some rice balls so you have a reference.

And here's Masahiro's tweets.

And here's some more rice-baby fun, which has now extended to include animals too—and adults. Because, why not?