One of Japan’s oldest castles now lets travelers spend night on the grounds, drink in its keep

Marugane Castle’s Castle Experience is a package fit, and priced, for a samurai lord.

Located in Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku, Marugame is a little off the standard path for tourists in Japan. As such, it doesn’t have quite the range of upscale hotels that you’ll find in Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka.

However, visitors to Marugame have a new luxurious accommodation package that Japan’s major metropolises can’t match, with the opportunity to stay on the grounds of a castle.

Marugame Castle was built in 1660. Like many fortresses in Japan, sections of the structure were destroyed over the years, but it still has its original keep, one of only twelve castles built in the samurai era that can boast that status.

As part of the Castle Experience accommodation package, you and your traveling companions will be met at the train station and transported to the castle by rickshaw.

After passing through the castle gates, you’ll go through check-in procedures…

…which include a taiko drum performance.

As alluded to by the “Castle Experience” name, the package includes a number of cultural activities, starting with a private guided tour of the grounds and keep.

Instead of the keep itself, you’ll be sleeping in more luxuriously appointed Enjukaku. This was originally the villa that Kyogoku Takaaki, the sixth lord of the Kyogoku samurai clan who ruled the domain around Marugame, retired to in the 1800s. A portion of Enjukaku was then relocated to the Marugame Castle grounds in 1933.

Enjukaku is also where dinner will be served…

…after which you’ll return to the castle keep for after-dinner drinks and a live flute performance.

The next morning, you’ll enjoy breakfast at Nakazubanshoen, the castle’s garden which was once exclusively for members of the Kyogoku clan…

…followed by a lesson in how to make an uchiwa (a traditional non-folding Japanese fan)…

…and a tea ceremony in the Kanchoro, the garden’s tea room.

As you can probably guess, all of this luxury doesn’t come cheap. The price for a one-night stary for two guests comes to 1,265,000 yen, which works out a little over US$8,000 yen at the current very-favorable-to-inbound-overseas rate. If you’ve got more than two people in your party, there’s a supplementary charge of 132,000 yen for each additional person, discounted to 66,000 for elementary school-age children.

Reservations can be made starting March 1 through the Castle Experience website here for dates from July 1.

Source, images: PR Times
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Two things to do, and two things not to do, when leaving a traditional Japanese inn

Ryokan workers share the little things they appreciate travelers doing before check-out, and the things they’d rather you skip.

When traveling in Japan, a big part of the appeal of staying in a ryokan, or traditional inn, is that spending the night in one gives you a taste of classical Japanese culture. With an elegant minimalism to their interior design and sumptuous multi-course dining, ryokan allow you to experience old-school Japanese hospitality and the tranquil relaxation it aims to provide.

With Japan’s cultural emphasis on mutual consideration, and the underlying atmosphere at many ryokan being that you’re a guest, not just a “customer,” before checking out many travelers feel like they should do something to make things easier for the inn’s workers to get the room ready for the next group that’s coming in. However, it can sometimes be tricky to figure out what sort of guest behaviors are and aren’t appreciated by the staff. So to help clear up some of those quandaries, Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi spoke with a number of ryokan managers and cleaning staff in which four common pre-checkout guest gestures came up, and they found out whether you really should or shouldn’t do them.

1. Should you put all your yukata robes in one spot?

When you check into a ryokan, you’ll always find yukata (lightweight cotton kimono) in your room. Less cumbersome and more comfortable than a formal kimono, and with a simple-to-tie sash, the yukata are provided for you to wear while lounging in your room, and also when using ryokan facilities elsewhere in the building.

So if everyone was wearing a yukata during their stay, should you gather the robes and sashes and set them all in one spot in your room when checking out? Yes, say ryokan operators. If they were used, they’re all going to need to be washed, so assembling them all in the same spot makes it easy for the cleaning staff to bundle them all up and drop them in the laundry cart.

2. Should you fold up your futon?

Ryokan have traditional Japanese interiors. That means tatami reed flooring instead of carpet, and futon sleeping mats instead of beds. When you check in, though, the futons will still be folded up and stored in the closet. At some point in the evening, the ryokan staff will come in and lay out a futon for each member of your party.

When morning comes and it’s time to leave, many guests then fold their futon back up. They don’t put them all the way back in the closet, but they’ll fold them in half, and usually push them over to the edge of the room against the wall. This creates more floor space, and there’s probably a sort of unconscious urge to do this since, in traditional Japanese homes where people still use futons on a daily basis, it’s considered sloppy to leave your futon unfurled all day long.

However, when you’re staying in a ryokan, the cleaning staff would greatly appreciate it if you do not fold up your futon. The mat is covered by a top sheet, and there’s also a blanket cover and pillowcase, and all of those linens are going to need to be washed. That means the cleaning staff is going to need to strip the sheets, and they can’t do that if the futons are still folded up, so it’s better to just leave them unfolded when you leave the room to save the staff the hassle of opening them all back up.

3. Should you put the table back where it originally was?

As alluded to above, the layout of a ryokan room is going to change over the course of your stay. When you first arrive, and the futons are all still in the closet, you can expect there to be a table in the center of the room, but it’s not going to stay there the whole time, since eventually you’re going to need that floor space for sleeping. Unlike the bedsheets, the table doesn’t need to be taken to another room for cleaning, so should you put it back in its original position to help tidy up the room before you go home?

The answer is no. Well, technically the answer is that putting the table back doesn’t help, so there’s no need to do it, but effectively that means that you’re probably best off leaving it alone. That’s because regardless of where the table is, the room’s floor needs to be cleaned after you check out, and doing so is going to require moving the table at least once, so that the staff can clean the section of the floor underneath it. So if you put the table back where it originally was, the staff is actually going to have to move it twice (once to clean underneath it, and once more to put it back in its designated starting spot). In addition, since the table was likely moved out of the way to make floorspace for the futons, putting the table back where it started will probably require you to fold up the futons, which, as we discussed above, is something the staff would rather you not do.

4. Should you leave your room’s door unlocked?

And finally, we come to the very last room-related decision you’ll have to make: Should you lock the door as you head to the front desk to check out, or not?

The ryokan that TV Asahi spoke to say they’d be happiest if their guests left the door unlocked. Since you won’t be coming back to the room before heading home, it’s safe to assume that you’ve already removed all your personal belongings, and while you could supposedly say that locking the room helps protect the hotel’s property, with crime rates being as low as they are in Japan, someone sneaking in to steal the TV or bathroom soaps while the door is unlocked isn’t much of a concern. On the other hand, leaving the door unlocked allows cleaning staff to waltz right in and get to work. This is an especially welcome time-saver in older ryokan that still have physical keys, as opposed to pass cards, since it saves workers a trip to the front desk to pick up the key so that they can get into the room and get to cleaning.

Now, with those four points covered, there’s one other thing to remember. With Japanese culture, and particularly with its more traditional elements, there’s often a preconception that social interactions are rife with opportunities to offend and have your behavior silently judged as shamefully unseemly. In the case of these ryokan pre-checkout scenarios, though, none of them are going to have the staff grinding their teeth and hoping you never come back again, and the fact that even a lot of Japanese people aren’t sure what the best course of action is shows that these aren’t ironclad etiquette rules. They’re simply the ideal, from the ryokan’s point of view, so if you enjoyed your stay they’re a nice, subtle way to indirectly say thank-you to the staff.

Source: TV Asahi via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin
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Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2, 3, 4)
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Bad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screens

City erects black screens to block Mt Fuji view in dramatic push against overtourism.

There are a few things that scream “Japan” for tourists, and two of them are convenience stores and Mt Fuji. This has led one scenic spot to become a nightmare for the town in which it’s located, because tourists make the trip here to capture a photo of a Lawson convenience store, which stands in front of Mt Fuji in such a way that you can fit them both in the frame with stunning results.

▼ The spot has become so famous it’s known by tourists as the “Mt Fuji Lawson”

However, this Lawson sits in a residential location in Fujikawaguchiko Town, Yamanashi Prefecture, with narrow roads and footpaths that were never designed to accommodate large groups of people. This has led to the problem of overcrowding by tourists, the majority of whom hail from overseas, and many of them have been behaving badly, with little concern for the locals and businesses around them.

The main business at the brunt of it all is the dental clinic across the road from the Lawson, where visitors congregate for the best vantage point of the Japanese convenience store and famous mountain. However, this site is private property, and with scaffolding now surrounding the building for repairs, there are fears that visitors who come into contact with the scaffolding may cause injury to themselves.

▼ The narrow, 70-centimetre (2.3-foot) wide footpath where the woman is walking on the left of this 2023 image is the designated public walkway, but people gather all the way up to the shutters of the clinic, which is private property.

A two-foot wide footpath beside a busy road is no place for a tourist site, and officials are particularly concerned about safety, especially as visitors have proven time and again that their own safety and the safety of others is of secondary importance to capturing the perfect photo. With many crossing the road illegally in front of the Lawson, without checking or stopping for cars at a point where there’s no pedestrian crossing, the town resorted to hiring security guards in an attempt to get visitors to obey the local traffic rules, but violations continued.

This report outlines some of the issues faced by the dental clinic, including mini vans that stop in its carpark to load and offload tourists, and some people conducting business on the site, selling photos for 300 yen (US$1.89) a pop.

Problems such as littering, smoking (smoking outside of designated areas is prohibited in Japan), and unauthorised parking in the clinic’s parking lot have been continuing for the past two years, propagated by the area’s increasing popularity as a photo spot on social media apps like Instagram. With no stop to the bad behaviour, and in response to complaints from local businesses and residents who felt they couldn’t use the footpath or drive safely, the local municipality was forced to act, announcing that they will install a black screen outside the clinic to block the view from photographers. This vinyl blackout sheet will be 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) high and 20 metres long, and will be installed as early as 1 May, with construction set to begin on 30 April.

▼ The location and look of the screen can be seen at this cued-up point in the report below.

The act of using screens to block views of famous sites in overcrowded areas isn’t unprecedented, with the Austrian city of Hallstatt erecting a wooden fence last year to deter photographers in an area that’s gaining popularity as the rumoured inspiration behind Disney’s Frozen movie.

Overtourism is a problem Japan has long been dealing with, and it’s on the increase nationwide, with Japan receiving the most foreign tourists in history in March 2024 alone. As other Japanese areas implement their own countermeasures against overtourism, such as Kyoto’s Gion banning tourists on private streets, it’s yet to be seen whether the blackout screen in Fujikawaguchiko will be able to curb visitors and stop them from congregating in the area. The town says that blocking the view was a last resort they didn’t want to implement, but they are hoping it will be effective and it will remain up until the situation improves.

Sources: Sankei, Asahi
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Yakuza lieutenant arrested in Tokyo for stealing Pokémon cards

Organized crime syndicate’s M.O. is looking a lot like Team Rocket’s.

In movies and video games, there’s often a romanticized, or at least dramatic, view of where yakuza get their money from. Whether its pulling bank heists, stealing diamonds, gathering protection money from swanky bars staffed by sexy hostesses, relieving corrupt businessmen or politicians of their ill-gotten gains, or just shaking down dudes on the street, the yakuza are generally shown making money through their tough-guy attitudes and street smarts, going beyond the boundaries of the law but also beyond the capabilities of timid civilians content to walk the straight and narrow path laid out by civilized society.

But here in the real world, a yakuza lieutenant has just been arrested for a crime that doesn’t have much in terms of panache: stealing Pokémon cards.

The Tachikawa Precinct of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police have announced the arrest of Keita Saito, a 39-year-old kanbu, or officer, within the Takinogawa Family of Japan’s second-largest organized crime syndicate, the Sumiyoshi-kai. The arrest stems from a break-in that occurred sometime between sundown on December 29, 2022, and sunrise the next day in which Kuboshita broke into an office in the town of Ogano in Saitama, the prefecture bordering Tokyo to the north. During the break-in, 29 pieces of property with a total value of roughly 252,000 yen (US$1,625) were stolen, with the haul including 25 Pokémon cards.

Also arrested in connection to the robbery was 56-year-old Hidefumi Kuboshita, who has no specified employment and has not been publicly disclosed as having a connection to any organized yakuza syndicate, for what the police say was a planning/direction role in the robbery. Kuboshita is currently denying the charges, but Saito has admitted that he did break into the office and steal the items. Two other men are also being sought in connection to the robbery, who the police say were recruited for the job through online messaging.

▼ Kuboshita can be seen wearing a surprisingly cute T-shirt to get arrested in, while Saito, with his unassuming demeanor, does sort of look like someone you might expect to see entering a Pokémon card game tournament.

Though Japan has been experiencing a startling increase in collectible card thefts recently, it’s still unusual to see a full-fledged yakuza member, and one who’s above the lowest rung of the organization, no less, busted for this sort of crime, prompting online reactions such as:

“So even the yakuza are into Pokémon.”
“Instead of catching ‘em all, he got caught.”
“That guy really doesn’t look like a yakuza.”
“Are they sure he’s a member of the yakuza, and not Team Rocket?”
“Yakuza going after Pokémon cards is so lame.”
“Pathetic.”
“So does that mean there’s someone in the yakuza whose job is to appraise Pokémon cards?”
“This feels like a school bully going around and stealing other kids’ Tamagotchis.”
“If you’re surprised to see that the yakuza will do things like this, you’ve been playing too much Like a Dragon.”
“If you take into account that the yakuza have connections to game stalls at festivals where they scam kids out of their allowance money, it’s not so surprising to see them doing this too.”

Cool-factor questionability aside, Pokémon cards are lightweight, liquid (in the “easily convertible to cash” sense), and difficult to trace, all of which are going to be seen as pluses by potential thieves. Considering that yakuza have shown little hesitation to trying to make money through sexy Photoshopping and late-night sea cucumber harvesting (and no, the latter is not a euphemism related to the former), they’re unlikely to see swiping Pokémon cards as a revenue stream that’s beneath their dignity, so card shops and individual collectors may want to start rethinking and tightening their security protocols.

Source: TBS News Dig via via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin, Sankei News via Hachima Kiko, YouTube/日テレNEWS, Twitter
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Mister Donut’s new Kyoto roasted green tea donut is a mess…in the best possible way

So we meet again, Mister Donut Meets Tsujirii.

Look, it’s not like we ever really need an excuse to eat donuts. Those little rings of joy justify their purchase simply by existing, and thanks to the Mister Donut chain, we’re never very far from a supply in Japan.

Still, some extra enticement is always nice, and so we marked March 24 on our calendar, because that’s when the second round of Mister Donut’s new Kyoto hojicha donuts went on sale.

These donuts are the second round of the new Mister Donut Meets Tsujirii collaboration between the chain and Kyoto-based tea merchant/confectioner Tsujiri. Hojicha is the Japanese term for roasted green tea, and what makes these donuts special is that they use Tsujiri hojicha, grown in Uji, the Kyoto Prefecture town famous for producing some of the finest-quality green tea in all of Japan.

The two new donuts making their debut are the Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha (220 yen [US$1.45]) and Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha Kinako (242 yen), which means we’ve got a little more terminology to unwrap as we unbox. Pon de Ring is Mister Donut’s super-popular series of donuts where connected spheres of dough form a ring, and nama, where baked goods are concerned, refers to an extra-soft and chewy consistency.

▼ Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha

Roasting green tea to make hojicha turns the leaves a deep brown, which is also the color of the tea once it’s brewed. Since the Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha has hojicha leaves kneaded into its dough prior to baking, it’s got an earthy hue too. That’s not all the hojicha action going on here, either, as Mister Donut and Tsujiri have also produced a special hojicha glaze that’s exclusive to this donut.

Compared to regular green tea, hojicha has a slightly nutty, toasted flavor, and still retains noticeable bitter notes. The hojicha flavor is definitely noticeable here, but there’s also enough sweetness to the glaze that the overall flavor profile is pretty balanced on the sweet/bitter scale. Special mention has to go to the Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha’s aroma too, which, like the flavor, gives a stronger sensation of hojicha than a lot of other sweets that use roasted green tea.

Now let’s move on to the Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha Kinako.

Here we’ve got another vocabulary word with kinako, or roasted soybean powder, which has a flavor that’s something like a more delicate sweet cinnamon. There’s one more term we’re going to need to be familiar with too, though, and it’s the one written on the packet attached to the box: hojicha mitsu.

Mitsu originally means “honey,” but it also shows up in kuromitsu, a kind of molasses-like brown sugar sauce used in traditional Japanese desserts. This hojicha mitsu is a hojicha-infused version.

As-served, though, the Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha Kinako has no sauce on it. Like the Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha, there’s Uji hojicha mixed into the dough, but this time there’s a dusting of kinako instead of a baked-on hocjicha glaze.

So for the full flavor, you have to open up the hojicha mitsu packet and pour some on before you start eating.

We suppose this might seem like kind of a hassle, but there’s a good reason for it. The hojicha mitsu is pretty messy, but because of how flavorful it is, once the sauce mixes with the kinako, the donut would get soggy if left in a display case until someone came along to purchase it, so to let customers enjoy the maximum flavor without aversely affecting the texture, Mister Donut gives you the ability to add it just before you take a bite. This also, ostensibly, allows you to tailor the taste to your precise preferences by using as much or as little of the hojicha mitsu as you like.

▼ As you could probably guess, we used all of it.

In addition to the Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha and Nama Pon de Ring Uji Hojicha Kinako, three other members of the Mister Donut Meets Tsujirii lineup, the Pon de Double Uji Matcha, Pon de Uji Matcha Crispy Arare, and Pon de Uji Matcha Wasanbon Warabimochi, are still on sale, with a combo pack of all five for 1,100 yen. Just make sure you’ve got a napkin handy if you’re snacking on the Hojicha Kinako.

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Japanese-style accommodation at the new Premium Dormy Inn hotel in Asakusa will blow your mind

Free perks and beautiful design features make this more like a ryokan than a business hotel.

If you’re looking for a reasonably priced hotel chain in Japan, you really can’t go wrong with a Dormy Inn. These hotels offer free food, great breakfasts, hot springs, and a number of other perks for guests, but at Premium branches of the chain they take things to new levels.

One Premium branch that’s particularly impressive is located in Tokyo’s historic Asakusa district, and it’s called Onyado Nono Asakusa Bettei. Opened in January this year, the inn has an expensive air to it, but surprisingly, it costs around the same to stay here as it does at other Dormy Inn Premium hotels.

Onyado Nono Asakusa Bettei is located right next to Asakusa Hanayashiki, and is a four-minute walk away from Asakusa Station on the Tsukuba Express. Although the hotel is close to Sensoji Temple in an area popular with tourists, the hotel entrance is located a little further back, giving it a surprisingly calm atmosphere.

The first thing that surprises you when you walk through the entrance is that the entire area is covered in tatami mat flooring. You don’t usually expect to see tatami at a business hotel in Tokyo — Dormy Inns are generally classed as business hotels — so this is a nice surprise, even for locals like our reporter Maro, who decided to stay here the night. When she arrived, it was pouring with rain outside, but as soon as she entered the hotel, a staff member greeted her and wiped down her carry-on case, which was an impressive gesture of polite hospitality befitting a luxury ryokan inn rather than a business hotel.

▼ Another kind gesture of hospitality is the free “welcome coffee” guests can help themselves to in the lobby.

After checking in and pouring herself a coffee, Maro made proceeded along a beautifully designed hallway to get to her room.

Opening the door to her triple room, Maro smiled in delight. It was beautifully laid out, and because this is a new hotel, every corner of the room was spotless, so she had absolutely nothing to complain about.

Checking out the amenities, she found towels in baskets, which were designed to be used when heading to the public bath. This is where she also found some socks, which she slipped on before grabbing one of the baskets and making her way to the public bath for a relaxing soak.

The Japanese-style design features throughout the hotel were incredibly impressive, even extending to the area outside the bath, which made Maro feel as if she was visiting a hot spring town.

Onyado Nono’s special feature is its hot springs, which are said to be more luxurious than other Dormy Inns, and Maro can attest to that, as she was able to enjoy a wide variety of hot spring experiences, including saunas, jet baths, and tub-style baths.

The hotel provides free ice cream and lactic acid bacteria drinks for post-bath enjoyment, and from 9:30 p.m. it serves up “Yonaki Soba“, a free service you’ll find at all Dormy Inns.

Once you’re bathed and fed, you can slip into the inn’s comfy room wear — another nice perk you’d expect to find at a ryokan rather than a Dormy Inn.

▼ Checking the fridge revealed free bottles of water and apple jelly, which was incredibly delicious.

The bed was super comfy, giving Maro a fantastic night’s sleep, and when she awoke the next morning, she had even more to look forward to, in the form of breakfast.

▼ One of the best features of the hotel is said to be the breakfast venue and the food it serves.

“Hagoromo Saryo” (“Heavenly Robe Cafe”) was the beautiful name given to this breakfast venue, and when Maro stepped inside, she was curious to see if the dishes served here were better than a regular Dormy Inn.

▼ The first thing to catch her eye was the display of golden boxes, which gave her a sense of déjà vu because…

▼…these boxes were the same as the ones served at the Premium Dormy Inn at Ginza, where she’d stayed previously.

Known as “Seafood Tamatebako“, these boxes contain a high-quality selection of delicious dishes, which are a level above what you’d get at a regular Dormy Inn.

▼ Another highlight is the beef hotpot, made with Harima beef from Hyogo Prefecture.

There were so many great options to choose from that Maro filled up on as many as she could, trying delights such as chawanmushi (steamed savoury egg custard), firefly squid, and fresh tofu.

▼ Breakfast of kings, or should we say shogun.

Maro decided to add some of the ingredients from the tamatebako to her beef pot to create a hybrid meat-and-seafood dish, and it turned out to be incredibly delicious.

Because the food is served buffet-style, you can get unlimited refills of everything, and though Maro wanted to grab another tamatebako, her stomach wouldn’t stretch that far, so she settled for two bowls of rice instead.

▼ Yet again, quality this good is something you’d usually find at a ryokan inn rather than a Dormy Inn.

Those who aren’t staying on a breakfast-inclusive plan can add on a breakfast for 2,300 yen (US$14.53), which is standard at Dormy Inn Premiums, and a very good deal for what you get.

▼ And did she mention that the hallway leading to the breakfast venue is also like something you’d see in a ryokan?

Thinking about it, Maro realised that the tatami flooring played a big part in making this feel like a luxury ryokan rather than a business hotel, as it allowed the Japanese-style features to blend seamlessly together .

▼ Even the shoe lockers are beautiful.

Before her stay, Maro had a preconceived notion that this would be a hotel aimed at foreign visitors, but rather than finding a garish display of “cool Japan” iconography throughout the building, it had the authentic feel of a Japanese inn, which was pleasantly surprising. In fact, when she was there, she saw that a lot of the guests were Japanese people, and they seemed to be just as impressed with the setup as she was.

▼ While this photo spot at the front of the hotel does have a lot of Japanese icons, it’s done in a way that’s reminiscent of a retro arcade in a Japanese hot spring town.

As of this writing, Onyado Nono Asakusa Bettei is Dormy Inn’s newest hotel so it’s been attracting attention both domestically and internationally. After staying there, Maro would highly recommend it to anyone looking for traditional Japanese accommodation at reasonable prices — a triple room for three people works out to be 17,672 yen ($111.60) per person per night — and if you’re looking for a Japanese-styled capsule hotel, she recommends Resol Poshtel nearby.

Hotel information
Onyado Nono Asakusa Bettei / 御宿 野乃浅草 別邸
Address: Tokyo-to, Taito-ku, Asakusa 2-7-26
東京都台東区浅草2-7-26
Website

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Mikado Coffee is a 76-year-old coffee chain with a major celebrity connection

We stop by the cafe’s original branch in Tokyo for a cup of coffee and a unique dessert.

Our Japanese-language reporter Masanuki Sunakoma recently got a reminder of how Tokyo is one of the best cities to be feeling hungry in, as you’ve got a pretty good chance of randomly stumbling across a great meal. And it turns out that even if you’re not looking for a full meal, but just craving a snack and a drink, Tokyo is still ready to reward your taste buds with near-random deliciousness.

After a business appointment the other day in downtown Tokyo’s Nihonbashi neighborhood, Masanuki came across Mikado Coffee.

Two things in particular caught his eye: the sign saying that they’d been in business since 1948, and the sign touting their “Mocha Soft” ice cream. It’s sort of unusual for a coffee place to have such a large, dedicated sign for ice cream, especially in a neighborhood with the sort of old-school vibe that Nihonbashi does, so it seemed like they’re really confident in the flavor of their frozen treat.

Stepping inside, Masanuki was surprised to see that there are no seats on the first floor – it’s standing service only. There are seats and tables up on the second floor, but the two floors also have separate order and pricing.

This is an unusual setup in Japan, but there’s a reason for this split. When Mikado Coffee opened 76 years ago, coffee was still a luxury beverage in Japan, and not something the average person could regularly drink. So to try to help make the beverage even a little more accessible, Mikado Coffee dedicated its first floor to standing service and charged lower prices than they did for customers who took up a seat while they sipped, similar to the system in coffee houses in Italy.

Mikado Coffee boasts that acidic notes are an important part of the cafe’s coffee-drinking experience, and while they’re noticeable, they’re not harsh or overpowering. Masanuki found the coffee to be rich but refreshing, with a clean finish and elegant character.

Then it was time for the Mocha Soft, which you can get in either a cone or a cup. Opting for the cup gets you a special addition of a dollop of prune sauce, so that’s what Masanuki went with.

“Coffee prune ice cream” might sound like something specifically designed to break the hearts of children, but to Masanuki’s grown-man palate, it was exquisite. Both the bitter and sweet flavors are gentle enough to mix together nicely, forming a creamy, satisfying combination with the taste of prune leading to a clean finish that had him ready for another bite almost immediately. It’s a very mature dessert, and Masanuki loves it for that.

Speaking of people who love Mikado Coffee, it turns out the cafe has a major celebrity connection. Though founded in Tokyo, with one other location in the Nihonbashi area, Mikado Coffee also has a few locations in the town of Karuizawa, in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture. Karuizawa is also where John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent a number of summers in the 1970s, with the pair becoming regulars at their local Mikado Coffee branch.

All in all, Masanuki’s quick coffee/sweets stop ended up having a lot more history than he’d thought it was going to, but he’s glad that Mikado Coffee is still here for all of us to enjoy in the present.

Cafe information
Mikado Coffee (Nihonbashi branch) / ミカド珈琲店（日本橋本店）
Address: Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku, Nihonbashi Muromachi 1-6-7
東京都中央区日本橋室町1-6-7
Open 7 a.m.-5 p.m. (weekdays), 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (weekends, holidays)
Website

Interior image: Mikado Coffee
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Do Hi-Chew-flavor Hi-Chews have a reason to exist?【Taste test】

After decades and dozens of great fruit flavors, the latest version of the candy is Hi-Chew Just As It Is Flavor.

If someone asked you to describe Japanese confectioner Morinaga’s Hi-Chews and you said, “They’re chewy fruit-flavored candies,” up until a month ago you’d have been absolutely right. But while that’s still a mostly excellent description, it wouldn’t be correct in the newest version, Hi-Chew Sono Manma-aji.

Sono manma translates to “just as it is,” and in creating the Hi-Chew Sono Manma-aji/Just As It Is Flavor, Morinaga skipped grape, strawberry, lemon, and all the other fruit flavors that have been applied so deliciously to Hi-Chews over the year. But since Hi-Chews up to now have been defined by their added fruit flavor, what does a Hi-Chew, “just as it is,” taste like, and does it have any reason to exist?

These were questions we needed to find the answers to, so after Hi-Chew Just As It Is Flavor went on sale in the latter half of March, we grabbed a few packs for taste-testing.

▼ Hi-Chew Just As It Is Flavor

The packaging provided no hints as to what we were in for. “A texture that makes you feel happy the more you chew,” promised the wrapper. “That’s what we want you to enjoy, so we’ve made it as simple as possible.”

Unwrapping a piece gave us no clues either. In addition to no fruit flavoring, Hi-Chew Just As It Is Flavor has no added colors or aromas. It’s a plain white block, although when we went in for a sniff, we could sense a slight sweet scent, but not one that resembled any particular kind of produce.

So there was nothing left to do but pop a piece in our mouth and start chewing, and the more we chewed, the more aware we became of a softly sweet flavor. It was simple and straightforward, and once we stopped chewing it quickly faded down to an echo of sweetness, mild enough that even calling it an “aftertaste” feels too strong.

The lack of sharp citrus, tangy berry, or other strong flavors really did make the texture more noticeable and compelling, so Morinaga definitely succeeded on that goal. And yet, low-key as the flavor of Hi-Chew Just As It Is Flavor is, it’s still an enjoyable taste. But just what is it? Chewing on a piece again, we thought we could detect some milk-like notes, so we went to the wrapper again to check the list of ingredients, which turned out to be extremely short, with just four:

● Mizuame (starch syrup)
● Sugar
● Plant-based oil
● Gelatin

After reading the ingredient list, we could now recognize some similarities between the Hi-Chew Just As It Is Flavor and the mizuame coating of candied apples and fruit skewers sold at Japanese festival food stalls, but with the intensity dialed way down. But milk? There’s not a drop of it in these Hi-Chews. That had all been in our head, maybe because of the white color of the candies. So not only is Hi-Chew Just As It Is Flavor subtly satisfying, it’s also an intriguing exercise in how preconception can shape your mental impressions of flavor, so we’re happy to still have a few pieces to chew on.

Unfortunately for anyone interested in trying them for themselves, Hi-Chew Just As It Is Flavor was a limited-quantity Amazon Japan exclusive, and it looks like all the packs have been snapped up. That said, a 100-percent sales rate is something Morinaga will definitely take note of, so maybe we’ll see them come back again in a wider release.

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Seaside scenery, history, and so many desserts on Yokohama’s Akai Kutsu【Japan Loop Buses】

Mr. Sato heads south from Tokyo for some bayside bus exploration.

Welcome back to another installment of Japan Loop Buses, the series in which our ace reporter Mr. Sato checks out the sights to see and things to eat along the bus lines that both start and finish at Japanese train stations. Today, Mr. Sato is getting out of Tokyo and heading south to Yokohama, the capital city of Tokyo’s neighbor to the south, Kanagawa Prefecture.

It’s about a 30-minute train ride south from Tokyo to get to Yokohama, and while there’s a Yokohama Station, Mr. Sato got off instead at Sakuragicho Station, which puts you right in the Minato Mirai harbor district.

Between its seaside location and history as one of the first cities in Japan to open up to residents from abroad, Yokohama has a breezy, fashionable vibe to it, and Mr. Sato could feel it as soon as he stepped out of the station. Heading out the exits on the north/east side of the station, you’re immediately in a wide-open plaza with skyscrapers on one side and the sort of open expanse of sky that’s hard to find in Tokyo on the other.

This plaza is actually where you’ll find the terminal for the Yokohama Air Cabin ropeway…

…but since it only runs for a couple of blocks, Mr. Sato instead made his way to the side of the plaza opposite Sakursgicho Station, where the buses come in, and to bus stop #3, where the Akai Kutsu (あかいくつ) loop bus starts.

As shown in the timetable above, the Akai Kutsu runs three times an hour during peak times on weekdays, and four times an hour on weekends and holidays. After leaving Sakuragicho, it stops at just about all of Minato Mirai’s major attractions as it makes its circuit.

▼ Sakuragicho Station can be seen at the bottom left of the map, marked as stops A1 and A18 on the Akai Kutsu route.

For adults, a single ride on the Akai Kutsu costs 220 yen (US$1.45). If you’re going to be getting off to see more than one place along the way, though, the better deal is to purchase a one-day ticket (ichinichi joshaken in Japanese) for 600 yen, which gives you unlimited rides for one day and can be purchased onboard the bus if you’re paying by Suica or Pasmo e-money card.

After a short wait, the Akai Kutsu pulled up, sporting a cute retro design and looking quite photogenic with Minato Mirai’s giant Cosmo Clock Ferris wheel behind it.

Mr. Sato hopped on, took his seat, and was underway!

The bus quickly heads towards the World Porters shopping center and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) museum, which has some fascinating exhibits about the history of Japanese emigration to other parts of the world. Mr. Sato’s first foray off the bus, though, came at Hammerhead, part of the Shinko Pier Cruise Terminal.

Hammerhead gets its name not from the shark, but from a type of crane located out back, originally used for unloading containers from shipping vessels. Nowadays, this terminal is used for cruise ships, some of which come from other countries, and the Hammerhead center has a collection of restaurants and cafes, plus a ramen food court on the first floor.

When Mr. Sato arrived at about 11 a.m., there was a long line of people waiting for the second-floor cafes to open, and this is what had brought him here too.

As they finally moved upstairs, Mr. Sato could see that about 80 percent of the people were here to visit the same place as he was: Kurumicco Factory, a cafe and gift shop run by Kamakura Beniya, a confectioner based in the town of Kamakura, further down the Kanagawa coast from Yokohama.

Kamakura Beniya is famous for its nut-based sweets, as you might have deduced from the squirrel in their logo. Their flagship treat is the Kurumicco, a mixture of walnuts (kurumi in Japanese) and caramel sandwiched between slices of cake.

Kamakura Beniya doesn’t have a ton of locations, and this one is extra special, since they cook the Kurumicco up right there in a big open kitchen area where you can watch it being made.

In addition to take-home boxes of the stuff, you can enjoy Kurumicco at the attached cafe, which also has drinks and ice cream.

▼ All the best exploring sessions in Japan include some kind of dessert, so Mr. Sato felt no guilt at all about starting this excursion with some.

With the delicious flavors of walnut and caramel still lounging on his taste buds, Mr. Sato strolled out to the backside of Hammerhead to take a look at the view. There’s a row of trees and benches where you can relax and take a look out at the sea, but even from the building outdoor walkway you can get some pretty good views of the bay and passing ships, plus the Yokohama Bay Bridge.

▼ Hammerhead is also one of the stops on Yokohama’s sea bus route, highlighting how many transportation options the city has.

Then it was back on the bus for a ride to Mr. Sato’s next destination, Aka Renga, also known as the Red Brick Warehouse.

Aka Renga is a reconstruction of the customs warehouse that was built back in the 1800s when Yokohama became one of the first ports in Japan to allow active trade with overseas merchants. Built to handle this surge in commerce that had outgrown the preexisting facilities, Aka Renga’s red brick construction was dramatically different from the wood and paper structures that were still the standard style in Japan at the time.

The rebuilt Aka Renga serves as an entertainment and event venue, with restaurants, shops, indoor live music and art spaces, and a large plaza between its two building for outdoor functions. On the weekends, it can get pretty crowded, but if you go on a weekday fairly early in the day like Mr. Sato did, you can get some nice unobscured shots of the place. The backside, like at Hammerhead, offers great views of the bay and has a sea bus stop.

Aka Renga isn’t the only old-school architecture you’ll see on the Akai Kutsu route, either. Pictured above is the Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall, also known as Jack Tower, and below is Yokohama Customs Building, a.k.a. Queen Tower, both of which were built in the 1910s and survived the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

It was now time for Mr. Sato’s next stop, Chinatown.

Yokohama has the largest Chinatown in Japan, bigger than even the ones in Kobe and Nagasaki. Cultural events are held regularly on its streets and in its plazas, but no matter when you go, you’ll find a ton of great things to eat.

The first question you’ll have to answer for yourself, though, is whether you want to eat in a restaurant or grab street food from one of the many sidewalk stalls. Mr. Sato decided he was in the mood for a sit-down meal on this day, and after a bit of wandering around and soaking up the ambiance, he decided on this restaurant, called Dohatsu (or Tung Fat, depending on how you choose to render their name), based on the retro-chic vibe he got from looking at it.

Dohatsu, it turns out, has been in business since the Meiji period (1868-1912). They offer lunch sets for around 1,300 yen that give you your choice of main dish, soup, greens, rice, and dessert.

Mr. Sato picked the roasted pork belly, which was cooked to perfection with just a touch crispiness, and honey-like sweetness that paired magnificently with white rice.

He also couldn’t resist adding a side order of shumai, steamed pork dumplings. Though they’re a mainstay in Chinese restaurants across Japan, Yokohama is especially famous for shumai, and these were juicy and delicious.

Once again full, Mr. Sato got back on the bus and rode to his next sightseeing spot, Marine Tower.

At 106 meters (348 feet), when Marine Tower was built in 1961, it was the tallest structure in the area. It’s since lost that status to Landmark Tower (a 296-meter skyscraper located a block away from Sakuragicho Station), but it remains a symbol of the city.

Marine Tower has restaurants and an observation floor up at the top, but instead of going up, Mr. Sato went across the street to Yamashita Park.

Yamashita Park runs for several hundred meters along the harbor. Aside from views of the bay, attractions include the Hikawamaru, a preserved and permanently docked international ocean liner that functions as a floating museum and restaurant, and a large fountain sculpture that’s a gift from Yokohama’s American sister city of San Diego.

▼ Hikawamaru

But if Mr. Sato’s being totally honest, the thing that really got him excited is that Yamashita Park is a recurring setting in Sega’s Yakuza/Like a Dragon video game series, where it appears renamed as Hamakita Park.

▼ Alternatively, if you’re a cultured anime fan of vintage tastes, you’ll remember Yamashita Park from the original Macross TV series.

Refreshed by the sea breeze, Mr. Sato reboarded the Akai Kutsu. This time he got off at the Bashamichi Station bus stop, from where it’s just a short walk to Bashamichi Jyubankan.

This classy looking place houses a bakery, bar, restaurant, and, drawing in Mr. Sato on this day, a tea room/cafe.

Now, if you’ve been keeping track, you’ll remember that Mr. Sato had already indulged his sweet tooth multiple times, with the Kurumicco in the morning and a dessert-including lunch set in Chinatown. And you know what? That in no way dissuaded him from treating himself to Bashamichi Jyuban’s Pudding Royale (1,100 yen) and a cup of English Royal Milk Tea (780 yen).

Caramel sauce is the norm for cream puddings in Japan, but Bashamichi Jyuban instead uses anglaise sauce, which is made with vanilla and orange brandy liqueur.

The pudding is firm, with a subdued sweetness to it, but the anglaise sauce is powerfully sweet, making for a great combination when you get both in the same bite. In hindsight, Mr. Sato thinks he should have gone with a straight black tea to draw out even more of the pudding’s sweetness by comparison, but the milk tea was still of high quality, and this was a great last stop on his Akai Kutsu bus loop.

Before leaving, Mr. Sato also stopped by Bashamichi Jyuban’s bakery to pick up some cookies, which we’re kind of hoping he’ll bring to the office one of these days to pass around.

Then it was back on the bus for the last leg of the circuit, which brought him back to Sakuragicho Station.

In total, Mr. Sato spent four hours on his Akai Kutsu excursion, and that’s even with skipping. With great food, beautiful scenery, and touches of history, there’s a lot to like about this route, and that’s even before factoring in how the bus will drop you right by a number of Yokohama’s Pokémon manhole covers.

Related: Akai Kutsu official website, Hammerhead, Aka Renga, Dohatsu, Bashamichi Jyuban
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