In Japan, hot dogs in bento boxes are often sliced to resemble an octopus.
The playful preparation is commonly seen in children’s lunches and is sometimes called an octopus sausage or “tako wiener,” using tako, the Japanese word for octopus. A cook cuts one end of a small sausage into several strips, leaving the other end intact as the head. Heating makes the cut strips curl outward, creating tentacles.
Four legs are easy to make, while additional cuts can produce the more recognizable eight-legged shape. Sesame seeds or small pieces of food may be added as eyes, turning the sausage into a tiny character. This kind of decorative presentation fits the broader kyaraben tradition, in which bento foods are arranged to resemble animals, characters, or other playful figures.
The result is not seafood and does not contain octopus: it is still a sausage or hot dog. Shrimp, crab, and squid are plausible guesses because they are sea animals, but the curled “legs” and rounded head conventionally represent an octopus. The effect comes from the sausage changing shape as it cooks.