Enjoy the best Japanese shaved ice at a store that only pops up for three months in summer!

Summer is the season for kakigori shaved ice desserts in Japan, and if you’re looking for one of the best places to try them, you’ll want to head to a store called Nanashino in Tokyo’s Nakameguro neighbourhood.

This sweets specialty store actually changes its products depending on the season — in autumn, it sells baked sweet potatoes, in winter it sells chocolate, in spring it sells cherry blossom sweets, and in summer, it transforms into a shaved ice shop. 

The store is so popular in summer that reservations tend to fill up quickly, making it one of the hardest places to get into in Tokyo. Those who do manage to get a reservation are in for a treat, though, because the crowning star on the menu is a dessert you won’t find anywhere else:

▼ Shaved ice that looks and tastes like an onigiri rice ball.

The “rice” section of the dessert contains ice and milk syrup, while the seaweed part is made with a homemade seaweed sauce. Inside, you’ll find sweet layers consisting of caramelised plum milk syrup, made with high-quality Nanko plums from Kishu, along with walnuts, homemade caramel sauce, and Nanko plum jelly.

▼ The plum-heavy flavours will make you feel like you’re eating an umeboshi (pickled plum) rice ball, complete with the seaweed accent.

While the onigiri kakigori has been on the summer menu since the store first opened in 2020, it boomed in popularity last year after going viral on social media, selling seven times more than the opening year. Nanashino says it plans to add more varieties of onigiri kakigori, like Seaweed with Mentai (Pollack Roe) and White Sesame, and Seaweed with Cheese Okaka (soy sauce bonito flakes), in future.

▼ But for now, the Seaweed and Plum onigiri will “shock you with its visuals and blow your mind with its taste”.

This unusual kakigori costs 1,950 yen (US$12.58), and it’ll be on the menu during the summer months, from 7 June to 28 August. The store is only open on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and reservations are required to eat there, so if you want to eat a frozen dessert masquerading as a rice ball, be sure to check out the reservation site and make your booking…and check out these other nine other recommended spots for kakigori too!

Store Information

Nanashino / ナナシノ
Address: Tokyo-to, Meguro-ku, Kamimeguro 2-13-6, Jouet Nakameguro 201
東京都目黒区上目黒2丁目13-6 Jouet中目黒201
Open: 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. (Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays)
Irregular holidays
Website

Photos: ©SoraNews24
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