Fried bread, fruity ciders, and more tasty treats from across Japan and across generations.

Going on now until mid-August at the Tokyo Nihonbashi location of Japanese department store Takashimaya is the “Takashimaya Summer Festival”, with a number of activities and experiences happening on each floor, and a number of beloved treats from generations past coming together to help revive the feelings of childhoods and summers gone by.

Betsukai Dairy – triangular milk and milk coffee

If you grew up in the U.S., you’ll likely remember having individual serving-sized milk cartons with your school lunch. If you grew up in Japan, your school lunches may have instead come in triangular-shaped pouches. On the first basement floor at the Meijiya Store, you can get one of these nostalgic 180-milliliter (6-ounce) pouches of milk – or milk coffee! – for 152 yen (US$1.37), with milk fresh from cows raised on the grassy fields of  Betsukaicho in Hokkaido.

Kujira no Tomisui – battered fried whale

A dish that older generations grew up with, but many of the younger generation has never tried is whale tatsuta-age. The whale meat is flavored with soy sauce and cooking sake, coated in katakuriko starch, and deep fried. This rare fare can also be found on the first basement floor in the deli/side dish section, for 810 yen per 100 grams.

Various Japanese ciders

Since most everything these days comes packaged in plastic, there’s something special about getting a soda beverage in a glass bottle, especially one with cool retro labeling.  At the basement first floor Meijiya Store, you can find eight different ciders from around Japan, like watermelon cider from Kumamoto or melon cider from Kochi, starting at 162 yen per bottle.

Kifukudo – agepan fried bread

Another nostalgic throwback to Japanese school lunches of the past is age-pan, or fried bread. The Kifukudo bakery has been around since 1916, and has revived its old age-pan recipe from decades ago. Pick from plain or kinako (soybean powder) flavor for 195 yen each. Find them in the Aji Hyakusen corner on the basement first floor, but you’d better get there early – each kind is limited to only 10 per day, and no shipments of them on Mondays and Tuesdays!

From August 9 to 22, you can also find over 40 different candies and sweet from all over Japan that even the older generations will appreciate. If you want to get a taste of Japan’s past, now’s your chance!

Source, images: Digital PR Platform 
Top image edited by SoraNews24

Store information
Nihonbashi Takashimaya / 日本橋タカシマヤ
Address:  Tokyo-to Chuo-ku Nihonbashi 2-4-1
東京都中央区日本橋2-4-1
Open: 10:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Website
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