Twentythree

Who’d have guessed there was a centuries-old snack shop too just a quick stroll away from one of downtown’s busiest rail hubs?

Ikebukuro might not be as world-famous as Shibuya or Shinjuku, but it is, without a doubt, one of the busiest, most developed parts of downtown Tokyo. As you can see in the picture above, massive department stores, multi-level shopping complexes, and office towers surround Ikebukuro Station.

But believe it or not, just a 10-minute-walk away from Ikebukuro is a place that makes it feel like you’ve somehow warped to another part of Japan, and maybe even another period in Japan’s history.

We stumbled across this surprising spot while on an ambling, initially destination-less stroll in the neighborhood. After exiting the east side of Ikebukuro, we were in the most congested part of the district, so we kept walking until we came to an intersection, a little beyond the Junkudo bookstore, where this narrow little side street caught our eye.

The sense of mystery only intensified as the surface turned from asphalt to cobblestone, with scarcely enough space for two people to walk past each other without brushing shoulders.

Now way too captivated by curiosity to turn back, we kept going and crossed over into Zoshigaya, one of Tokyo’s temple districts.

The path we’d been walking on came to an end at a T-intersection, so we zigzagged left and then right again, putting us on another cobblestone path, this one lined with trees.

And after walking a little further, we found ourselves at a temple called Zoshigaya Kishimojin…

…and then standing underneath this amazing icho (gingko) tree.

Even standing at the edge of the grounds, it was difficult to fit the entire tree within a single photo.

Craning our necks to look up at the branches, filled with healthy green leaves that provided shade from the sun even as they nearly glowed in the afternoon light, we wondered how tall this tree was.

Thankfully there was a sign next to it ready to provide that information: slightly over 30 meters (98.4-feet) tall (or 1.67 Gundams, to use the international scholarly standard for measuring height). The sign also informed us that the trunk has a circumference of 8 meters, and that the tree is…more than 600 years old!?!

▼ 樹齢　六百年以上 = Tree’s age: more than 600 years

Though the exact date of planting isn’t known, the tree is said to have been at the temple since the Oei era (1394-1428), and its historical value has earned it official designation from the Tokyo metropolitan government as a natural monument.

This isn’t the only thing on the temple grounds with an amazingly long history, either. Once we could finally manage to look away from the icho, we turned our head and spotted this snack stand, called Kawakamiguchiya.

Yes, the name is a bit of a mouthful, but that’s not entirely inappropriate for a store that sells all sorts of things to munch on. Specifically, Kawakamiguchiya is what’s called a dagashiya, a store that specializes in inexpensive, traditionally old-school treats of salty, sweet, or sour flavors.

A lot of dagashiya have retro aesthetics, and in Kawakamiguchiya’s case they’re absolutely warranted, since the shop first started selling snacks to temple visitors in 1781, making this its 245th year in operation.

▼ Our walking route from Ikebukuro Station to Zoshigaya Kishimojin

▼ There’s also a charming shopping street on the south side of the temple grounds.

Despite being just 10 minutes from Ikebukuro Station, Zoshigaya Kishimojin is so different from the congested buzz of downtown Tokyo that it feels like a little pocket dimension, or maybe a part of the city that’s magically frozen in time, and definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for something different than what modern city life offers.

Temple information
Zoshigaya Kishimojin / 雑司ヶ谷鬼子母神
Address: Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Soshigaya 3-15-20
東京都豊島区雑司が谷3丁目15-20
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Hopefully, this is just a mini stop on Ministop’s road to success.

The convenience store ecosystem in Japan is dominated by three apex predators: Family Mart, 7-Eleven, and Lawson. Then, there exists a secondary tier of stores like Daily Yamazaki and Ministop, the latter of which has been dealing with some money troubles as of late. It was recently reported that Ministop experienced their third straight year of net losses.

One of the causes is said to be a scandal involving falsified best-before dates on bento and rice balls, but despite that, the chain still has its legions of fans who are willing to look past it and hope for Ministop’s survival. You can even find the hashtag #SaveMinistop (#ミニストップを救いたい) on social media, and one supporter of this movement is our very own Mr. Sato.

▼ Ministop was one of the establishments worthy to be a part of his Japan’s Best Home Senbero series.

Convenience stores are magical beings that seem to feed primarily on money in order to survive. So, our writer figured the best way to help Ministop is not only to buy some stuff there, but to encourage others to do the same. And, to accomplish this, Mr. Sato is going to share with us a special combination he discovered that not only tastes addictively divine, but can only be done at Ministop.

What makes Ministop unique for this is a range of items that you can’t find in other chains, made at a surprisingly high quality. The centerpiece of these is their soft-serve ice cream that has become so popular it evolved into a separate spin-off brand, Minisof. It’s a feat even the big three chains haven’t accomplished.

Minisof is a crucial element to Mr. Sato’s secret delight, but since the beginning of April, they changed the main flavor from vanilla to Hokkaido milk for 348 yen (US$2.19). This will be our writer’s first time making the snack with the new flavor, but he has little doubt that it will be fantastic. That day, he also went with his colleague, Go Hatori, who ordered a special chocolate banana Minisof for 500 yen.

For what it’s worth, he described it as very “banana-y,” but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today. Also not relevant to the snack but neat and worth mentioning is that Ministop now offers edible spoons made out of ice cream cone wafer. It’s hard to resist not just eating the spoon right away, though.

The other component to Mr. Sato’s surprise is Ministop’s Hokkaido Wave Potato Happy Butter for 348 yen. As its pleasantly strange name sort of suggests, these are fried crinkle slices of potato. They’re a bit like a cross between potato chips and french fries.

The “Butter” aspect requires you to put them into a separate bag, add the butter-flavored powder seasoning, and shake it all up.

Once the potato is adequately covered, just take one out and dip it into the ice cream. That’s it!

It sounds simple, but the extreme contrasts between sweet and salty as well as hot and cold set Mr. Sato’s taste buds to the Moon each time. There’s also an exquisite marriage of textures between the creamy frozen treat, tender potato, and powdery butter seasoning. It has all the elements of a finely crafted luxury desert.

Of course, these snacks are already great when eaten on their own, but putting them together creates a highly addictive treat that goes beyond the sum of its parts. Mr. Sato especially loves it when he gets a thickly coated potato. It brings out the sweetness of the ice cream even more.

Even though Ministop may not be an alpha-grade convenience store in Japan, it is a very important part of the landscape. It’s unique strengths such as this that made Mr. Sato and its many other fans begin the #SaveMinistop movement. If you too would like to join the cause, you now know what to buy.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Two hours north of Tokyo is one of Japan’s best post-sakura springtime flower spots.

Sakura season may be pretty much over and done with, but that just means it’s time for Japan’s other varieties of flowering flora to get their moments in the springtime spotlight. For example, mid-April is when the Nemophila, or baby blue-eye, flowers start to bloom.

Hitachi Seaside Park, in the town of Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, is loved by flower fans for its Nemophila hill. The last time we checked in on the place, a few years back, the park’s Miharashi no Oka section boasted four and a half million of the flowers. Five years later, though, that’s no longer the case…because the park now has 5.3 million Nemophila!

▼ One Nemophila

▼ 5.3 million Nemophila

The combined train and bus rides from Tokyo to Hitachi Seaside Park take about two hours total, so the park is close enough to be a very doable day-trip from the capital, but also far away enough that you probably won’t want to just swing by without knowing the flowers’ blossoming status. Thankfully, the park has been keeping potential visitors updated, and aside from the very top photo in this article, which was taken on April 17, all of the others are from April 19 of this year, showing that the Nemophila are currently in full bloom.

According to the park’s estimates, this year’s Nemophila blossoms will be “in full glory” through April 25, and remain very beautiful through the end of the month. Once we get into May they’ll be past their peak, and after May 10 they’re expected to disappear until next spring.

The closest rail stop to Hitachi Seaside Park is Katsuta Station on the Joban Line, which can be reached from Ueno Station in downtown Tokyo in 75 minutes. From the east exit of Katsuta Station, buses depart from the number-two bus stop approximately every 15 minutes for the park, with Kaihin Park the bus stop to get off and the ride taking 15 minutes.

Related: Hitachi Seaside Park official website
Source, images: PR Times
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TeamLab’s newest artistic “digitized nature” vision features interactive light and sound elements as you traverse an ancient forest.

The town of Otaki, Chiba Prefecture, is an area known for its unspoiled forest, the Isumi and Yoro Rivers, hot springs, and rock faces, all located centrally within the Boso Peninsula. Its natural charms are also currently experiencing a modern artistic touch thanks to TeamLab’s Yoro Valley event, a fully outdoor, nighttime exhibition that blurs the lines between fact and fiction as well as life and death between April 17 through May 24. If TeamLab’s last outdoor art exhibition was any indication, this one is sure to be similarly captivating.

▼ Yoro Valley highlights reel

Let’s check out the individual displays in more detail.

Continuous Life and Death at the Now of Deep Time

Projections of flowers blooming and dying in a repeated cycle is on display within the Yoro Ravine that was sculpted over millions of years by the river. The evolving flowers on the gorge allow you to feel your own existence as part of this ongoing continuum.

The Non-dual Mass of Life and Death

Meanwhile, this darker, more somber work utilizes thousands of flickering lights on fallen trees to illustrate how life and death are not separate, but the same entity in the continuity of time.

Universe of Water Particles in the Forest of the Yoro Valley

Walk through a forest filled with waterfalls of light where the cascading spray seems spellbindingly real.

Resonating Yoro Valley and Forest

The light on the trees changes color in the close presence of people. Nearby trees then respond and create a chain reaction of color and sound.

Strata of Traces in the Yoro Valley

A cloud of material with pulsating lights overhead makes you lose sense of the material world and become astral.

Constant Flux Pillar

This windsock-like tube lacks a solid form and flows like life itself. Notice how its movement and appearance change depending on the natural elements.

The Eternal Universe of Words in the Rock Cavern

Inside what appears to be a small, flame-filled portal, written characters spring to life as if being chanted by monks and resonate to create a continuous chant.

Crystallized Accumulation of Time

Take a quiet moment to appreciate the glowing spotlights of lichen on tree bark and ponder just how many years these structures have been growing in this spot.

Forest of Autonomous Resonating Life

Wander into a clearing filled with egg-like structures that each emit their own light. When gently rocked by human hands or the wind, they also emit unique noises and nearby groupings resonate with each other.

When no one is around, the interior lights flicker dimly.

Cut Out Continuous Life

A living snapshot-like cutout captures the nighttime forest exactly as it is with light.

Advance reservations to TeamLab’s Yoro Valley are encouraged in case particular dates sell out. If purchasing tickets on-site, the prices below increase by 200 yen (US$1.26).

Weekday prices:
● Adults: 1,500 yen
● Elementary through high school-aged children: 800 yen
● Pre-school-aged children: free
● People with disabilities: 750 yen

Weekend prices:
● Adults: 1,800 yen
● Elementary through high school-aged children: 800 yen
● Pre-school-aged children: free
● People with disabilities: 900 yen

If you’d like to experience more of what the wilderness of Chiba has to offer, you may also want to stop by this roadside stop which offers a buffet of wild game dishes and unusual meat that you can bring home to cook for yourself.

Event information
TeamLab Yoro Valley / チームラボ 養老渓谷
Address: Chiba-ken, Isumi-gun, Otaki-machi, Kuzufuji 1-2
千葉県夷隅郡大多喜町葛藤 1-2
Duration: April 17-May 24, 2026
Open: 6:45 p.m.-9 p.m. (April 17-April 24), 7 p.m.-9 p.m. (April 25-May 15), 7:15 p.m.-9 p.m. (May 16-May 24), last entry is at 8:20 p.m.
Website

Source, images: PR Times
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Two Totoros, and one other Studio Ghibli character, are cute, fuzzy, and useful in new accessory lineup.

Aesthetic tastes are subjective, and that’s especially so for fashion and accessories. But let’s be honest here. We can all agree that a pouch that’s shaped like Totoro is superior to a pouch that doesn’t look like Studio Ghibli’s beloved anime forest spirit, right?

Ah, but here we run into a problem. Because if you have your pouch stuffed into a bag, inside a drawer, or somewhere else where it’s out of sight, it becomes, in effect, no different visually from a non-Totoro pouch. So to address this issue, these new die-cut cloth pouches from Ghibli specialty store Donguri Kyowakoku have their zipper at the bottom, which leaves space on the top for a carabiner.

This lets you clip Totoro to the strap or other outside points of your bag, hang it on a wall hook, or otherwise keep it on display. It also makes this Totoro a helpful companion when traveling or hiking, since you can use it to store items you need quick access to and avoid having to slip off your backpack and dig through it to found a pouch somewhere inside there.

In addition to the gray/big Totoro, there’s also a pouch of the medium/blue Totoro. And yes, the blue Totoro is slightly smaller, measuring 15 x 12 centimeters (5.9 x 4.7 inches) compared to the big guy’s 18 x 14-centimeter pouch.

There’s a third pouch too, although it’s not the small/white Totoro. Instead, it’s Jiji, the black cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service, who joins the lineup, measuring 17 x 14 centimeters.

All three of the pouches (which are plain off-white cloth on their backsides) are priced at 2,530 yen and available through the Donguri Kyowakoku online shop here, which also has you covered if you’re looking not only for Ghibli pouches, but Ghibli food pouches.

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3)
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The atmosphere is as elegant as the cuisine at this amazing restaurant.

Ganko is a Japanese restaurant group with most of its locations in the Osaka area. They’ve got a whole bunch of sub-brands with different specialties, such as Ganko conveyor belt sushi or curry restaurants. Today, though, we’re talking about Ganko’s Oyashiki locations, which are restaurants converted from yashiki, or classical Japanese manor houses.

▼ Photos of some of Ganko’s Oyashiki restaurants

Yashiki are architectural works of art, but preservation costs often make them too expensive for use as private residences anymore, and converting them to museums is also something that’s not always economically viable for local communities. With its Oyashiki restaurants, Ganko wants to help these historical landmarks obtain long-term sustainability, and there’s even an Oyashiki Ganko in Tokyo, in the Tachikawa district to the west of downtown.

Tachikawa Station is the nearest railway stop to Oyashiki Ganko Tachikawa Saryo, to use the restaurant’s full name. From the station, you can walk to the restaurant in about 15 minutes, or you can hop on a bus for a five-minute ride to Sakaecho Sanchome, the closest bus stop.

▼ Right after getting off the bus, we spotted the sign for Ganko (がんこ)

When Ganko moves into a yashiki, they don’t just preserve the building, they take care of the garden too, and we walked down an old-school stone path, past a bush of early-flowering azaleas, on our approach to what was once the Nakano estate, with its main building constructed in the early part of the Showa period (1926-1989).

▼ The Nakano (中野) family name plate is still posted by the entrance.

Because of its vintage, the house’s interior has a mix of Japanese and Western aspects, but they’re all elegantly retro,

Given the very high-class ambiance, you might expect very high-priced food too. To be sure, Oyashiki Ganko isn’t a place you’d go to if stretching your food budget is you primary concern. However, you don’t need an aristocracy-level income in order to dine here. Course meals range from about 4,000 to 10,000 yen per person, and this location even has a Japanese-style afternoon tea set for 3,630 yen (US$23), which is a pretty affordable luxury (though note that the restaurant charges a 10-percent service charge).

We were actually the first customers of the day, so after being led into a beautiful dining room with wide views of the inner garden…

…we got to choose a seat with a widow directly in front of us.

So what comes in Oyashiki Ganko’s Japanese-style afternoon tea set?

As with many fancy restaurants in Japan, the exact items vary seasonly, but since we were there during cherry blossom sweets season, the dessert tier included sakura mochi, along with mitarashi dango (dumplings in a sweet sauce), sliced fruit, and a mini strawberry parfait.

The proteins, meanwhile, were on the lower plate, where we had wagyu roast beef, ball-shaped temari sushi, more sushi wrapped in a bamboo leaf, and soy milk gelatin with cherry blossoms.

Then there were the dishes that were served separately from the tea plate tower, a bowl of kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) soup…

…a seasonal sakura cake…

…and a bowl of yuba (tofu skin) with ankake sauce.

▼ The yuba bowl was the designated main dish of our Japanese-style afternoon tea set, but Ganko also has sets with extra sushi hamburger steak instead.

Everything tasted wonderful, and the set also gives you your choice of two types of beverages from a total of six options: Kyoto-grown black tea, yuzu tea, freshly brewed coffee, and orange, mango, and white peach juice.

We can’t stress enough, though, how much Oyashiki Ganko is a treat for the eyes as well as the taste buds. The ceramics, paintings, and latticework combine to give the place the feeling of an art museum that just so happens to serve delicious food, and the building is so photogenic that it’s practically impossible to take a bad picture.

The location of this Oyashiki Ganko makes it an easy option for Tokyoites wanting to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city center for an afternoon, and it’s also easy to slot into the rest of your Tokyo sightseeing itinerary if traveling in the capital. With the dining room’s counter seating, we didn’t feel self-conscious about solo-dining here either, so this is truly a special place that’s not to be missed.

Restaurant information
Oyashiki Ganko Tachikawa Saryo / お屋敷がんこ たちかわ茶寮
Address: Tokyo-to, Tachikawa-shi, Sakaecho 3-17
東京都立川市栄町3丁目17番
Open 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. (weekdays), 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. (weekends, holidays)
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
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