Terrace Dining TANGO, located at the base of Tokyo Tower, will begin selling three unique flavors of shaved ice for summer starting on July 1! These tasty treats will only be available until August 31, so be sure to visit while you can.

WA! Bear

TANGO’s original shaved ice is popular every summer, and in 2022, customers can grab a bear-shaped treat made with brown sugar syrup and condensed milk.

Strawberry Milk ~Rose Scented~

Made with fluffy ice and homemade strawberry sauce, this delectable treat is topped with condensed milk and smells like sweet roses. Inside, customers will find rose gelato and strawberry compote.

Taiwanese Pineapple and Coconut

This fluffy shaved ice is topped with coconut milk, Taiwanese pineapple, and a generous dollop of sweet sauce. The ginger adds a spicy accent, keeping it interesting until the final bite.

Terrace Dining TANGO is attached to The Place of Toyo, a wedding hall overlooking Tokyo Tower. The shaved ice, available only during the summer, is made of natural ice that has been filtered and frozen slowly for 48 hours to create a fluffier texture. Each is served with a special sauce made by the restaurant’s pâtissier.

Come enjoy these sweets that make summer a little more fun!

Nara-based tea ceremony brand Saron is serving up a tasty treat perfect for the warm weather! White shaved ice with dark matcha topping is now available until mid-September, and guests are invited to adjust the taste by altering the amount of tea added.

Lately, Nara has been experiencing a major shaved ice boom. Inspired by Himuro Shrine, known for housing a guardian deity of ice, the city introduces plenty of created recipes for the summer treats each year. The tea ceremony brand Saron was founded by Nakagawa Masashichi Shouten, in business since the Edo period–so it’s safe to say that the company knows what they’re talking about!

Guests can enjoy shaved ice made from pure Yamato ice, which is frozen for 72 hours, gently shaved, and topped with Nara’s Kasiya sweet bean paste, shiratama, agar, and condensed milk that has been boiled for four hours. 

To finish off this luxurious dish, guests can add koicha, a thick matcha tea with concentrated flavor and incredible sweetness and depth. Polished twice as much as typical matcha, this is a taste you’ll never forget.

Why not come enjoy this traditional Japanese sweet this summer?

Two new tasty types of shaved ice are now on sale at Hotel Nikko Nara! The Shinkansen Shaved Ice will be available until November 30, 2021, at the Lobby Lounge Fountain on the hotel’s third floor. 

Shinkansen Shaved Ice – N700S

Sliced Mango, dried apricots, and almond jelly

Shinkansen Shaved Ice – Inspection Train

Caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, and dried apricots

This collaboration with JR Central Japan Railway is only available for a limited time, though Hotel Nikko Nara serves up tasty shaved ice year-round. This collaboration began on October 1 to celebrate the opening of the Tokaido Shinkansen. These treats are created with nitrous oxide, which transforms the shaved ice into a mousse-like foam!

For those able to make it to Nara in time, which of these special sweets will you be trying? 

Western-style confectionary shop Chez Nakatsuka, which has three stores along Osaka prefecture’s Hankyu Senri Line, is opening a specialty shaved ice and Mont Blanc store on August 23. The shop is called ‘Yama to Koori,’ meaning ‘Mountains and Ice,’ the perfect description of these two summertime treats. 

The restaurant’s shaved ice is an arrangement of items available from Chez Nakatsuka’s hidden menu, made with richer syrup and new ingredients. It’s shaved at a surface temperature of as close to zero degrees as possible. The delicate Mont Blanc is made with carefully-selected Japanese chestnuts squeezed into a thin string shape to achieve the ultimate smooth texture. 

Raspberry and Italian Pistachio sauce/Two varieties of strawberry syrup and homemade condensed milk sauce/Uji Matcha green tea and homemade brown sugar Warabimochi

Kumamoto Japanese chestnut and Wasabon meringue

Each shaved ice and Mont Blanc are made by professional pastry chefs, and will be available year-round in limited quantities. Both are also available to eat at the restaurant or for takeout. 

Which treat would you order to help beat the heat? 

There’s no better way to combat a heat wave than enjoying a cool bowl of shaved ice! Natural hot spring resort Kobe Minato Onsen Ren, overlooking Kobe Port, is releasing a gorgeous new style of this popular summer treat. Called Fluffed Ice, it offers a slightly more sophisticated flavor, and serves as the perfect way to cool off for adults escaping the hustle and bustle of the sweltering city. 

Fluffed Ice, uniquely designed by a pastry chef: ¥900 each (Tax Included)

Setouchi Lemon

Fukuju (Nada’s Famous Sake)

Strawberry

Uji Green Tea and Hokkaido Azuki

By filtering the water and freezing it at a slower rate, the shaved ice is completely pure and free of any and all impurities. Visitors can enjoy four different flavors: Setouchi Lemon, a refreshing blend of acidity and white chocolate; Fujuku, which contains locally-sourced sake and sweet syrup; Strawberry, offering a mix of sweet and sour; and, finally, Uji Matcha and Hokkaido Azuki, elegantly mixing flavors from both northern and southern Japan. The syrup used is made from scratch, and was developed by the pâtissier of Le Pan Kobe Kitano, a bakery and sweets shop nearby.

During this incredibly hot summer, give this new Fluffed Ice a try!

The new Motosue Hanare has opened next to Motosue Kurakuen in Hyogo where they are selling a range of desserts including the Milkshake Shaved Ice and Milk Frozen.

Milkshake Shaved Ice Pudding | ¥1,290 (Tax Included)

Milkshake Shaved Ice Sweet Potato | ¥1,350 (Tax Included)

Milkshake Shaved Ice Matcha Adzuki | ¥1,200 (Tax Included)

Milk Frozen Chocolate Banana | ¥650 (Tax Included)

Milk Frozen Strawberry | ¥720 (Tax Included)

Eggy Bread | ¥750 (Tax Included)

Using milkshake as the base ingredients, the shave ice line-up gets its super fluffy texture from free range eggs. There are three flavours to enjoy, such as the pudding one which is topped with a whole Japanese pudding, adding a smooth and velvety texture to the fluffy shaved ice. Each is a perfect pick for cooling down during the summer season.

The ‘Milk Frozen’ desserts use frozen milk for the base and are topped with fruit. Each is made carefully handmade one by one, and they are even more refreshing than the shave ices. The eggy breads also come in a range of flavours including plain and custard.

Honjitsuno is a cafe based in Takeyacho, Kyoto, which introduced its new vegetable shaved ice desserts to the menu on July 1. Every month will see a different vegetable used.

Strawberry & Fruit Tomato | ¥1,600 (Tax Included)

Made with strawberry sauce, fruit tomato jam, and milk pudding. Hidden inside is soft cheesecake.

Peach & Corn | ¥1,600 (Tax Included)

Made with peach sauce, sweetcorn, custard cream, and caramel sauce. You can really taste the original sweet taste of the corn.

Matcha & Edamame | ¥1,600 (Tax Included)

Made with Mashed green soybeans, seaweed salted red bean paste, mango, and matcha sauce.

All of the sauces and jams are homemade. Combining vegetables with fruits on shaved ice creates a whole new delicious eating experience.

TEA HOUSE ANJO, a cafe in Aichi Prefecture, released a new shaved ice dessert to its menu last Friday which is made with seasonal figs.

Fig Shaved Ice | ¥1,080 (Tax Included)

Taste isn’t the only luxury of this dessert: it’s also made with appearance in mind. It’s crafted with whole fresh figs grown in Anjo that are in-season right now and is drizzled in a sauce made from fig juice. Perfectly refreshing for summer, the shaved ice also hides other tasty secrets too including homemade fig pudding and rich caramel pudding which mix deliciously with the sweet and juicy figs. The fig sauce and fig puddings that are used in this dessert will also be available to buy separately in Japan online at Oyatsu on July 12. Of course, this isn’t the only delight on the menu at TEA HOUSE ANJO, but you’ll have to pay the cafe a visit to see all the other treats they have to offer.

Eitaro Sohonpo Co. Ltd. has released two new seasonal shaved ice desserts at Nihonbashi E-Chaya in Tokyo for summertime.

Uji Matcha Yamamotoyama x Eitaro | ¥660

Made with Uji matcha from Yamamotoyama and honey from Eirato, this shaved ice is topped with adzuki beans from Hokkaido. A refreshing delight for the hot Japanese summer that’s not overly sweet.

Peach & Cream Cheese | ¥660

This flavour is made with lots of white peach puree from Yamanashi along with fresh peach pieces and Eitaro’s honey. It’s finished with cream cheese from Hokkaido and peach fluffy cream. Another perfect pick for cooling down this summer.

nel craft chocolate tokyo, a craft chocolate shop located in Nihonbashihamacho, Tokyo, released two chocolate shaved ice desserts last Wednesday for the hot summer season. The desserts are also being sold at Saryo Tsukikage, a restaurant inside the hot spring ryokan Yuen Bettei Daita in Setagaya.

Left: Cacao Kintoki | Right: White Cacao Kintoki

Cacao kintoki is a type of shaved ice made with specially-selected cacao beans from Vietnam. It uses a ‘bean to bar’ method where the shaved ice is made from scratch, roasting the beans fresh to create the dessert.

The two new treats at nel use a chocolate base and add cacao pulp to the mix, adding a natural fruity flavour derived from the bean. Each is also served with a special cacao sauce for extra flavour. The white cacao version is made by combining with in-house white chocolate. It also comes with an Okinawan passion fruit and cacao pulp sauce, resulting in a sour kick and refreshing taste.

Saryo Tsukikage

The open-air baths at Yuen Bettei Daita

A special matcha version of this shaved ice can also be enjoyed while bathing in the open-air baths at Yuen Bettei Daita. It’s made with nel’s homemade white chocolate as well as dark chocolate, cacao pulp, and specially-selected yame matcha from Shimokita Chaen Ōyama, a cafe in Setagaya.

This summer, Southern Tower Dining and Lounge South Court—both of which are located inside Odakyu Hotel Century Southern Tower—are serving up a fluffy matcha shaved ice dessert called Wa -Nagomi- from June 1 to September 30.

Southern Tower’s Famous Fluffy Light Snowfall Wa -Nagomi- Shaved Ice | Eat In ¥1,470, Takeout ¥700

The matcha-flavoured shaved ice has a texture as light and fluffy as snow. As you spoon through the dessert your taste buds are met with a range of delicious tastes and textures like the Japanese rice flour confection known as gyuhi, winter melon syrup, black soybean flour ice cream, and cream.

The dessert can also be ordered for takeout. The black soy bean flour ice cream adds a crunchy cereal-like texture to the soft shaved ice, and with the takeout option, there’s also chocolate-coated wheat bran and brown sugar syrup.

Ginza Sony Park has announced a range of seasonal items and food for Summer 2020.

Toraya Cafe・An Stand

Red Bean Paste Shaved Ice with Matcha & Rice Flour Dumplings | Small ¥841, Regular ¥901 (Tax Included) | Ginza Park Floor B3F | Available: Until September 29, 2020

Loaded with red bean paste and in-house made honey, this limited edition shaved ice is served with matcha sweet bean jelly made with Uji matcha.

Red Bean Paste Shaved Ice with Cointreau & Coffee | ¥540 (Tax Included) | Ginza Park Floor B3F | Available: Until September 17, 2020

This one’s for the grown-ups, served with Cointreau and Hawaiian coffee.

An (Red Bean) Paste – Raspberry | ¥864 (Tax Included) | Ginza Park Floor B3F | Available: Until Late August 2020

Enjoy a raspberry version of the bean paste for yourself which has been mixed with brown cane sugar.

THE CONVENI

CHECKER SHOPPER BAG | ¥7,700 (Tac Included) | Ginza Park Floor B1F

THE CONVENI is selling a checked shopper  bag made from thin PVC so that it does not get dirty easily and also makes it waterproof. The bag, which bears the name of the store, also has pockets inside the bag.

Ginza Sony Park Art Walk

SHUN SUDO – “ART IN THE PARK”

Left: NAIJEL GRAPH | Right: SP. by yuko mohri (Available until August 26)

Ginza Sony Park will also display a range of large-scale art including SHUN SUDO’s wall art ART IN THE PARK, work from NAIJEL GRAPHIC, and more.

BOTTEGA VENETA ‘THE CHAIN’ Exhibition Image | August 16, 2020 – August 30, 2020

A huge installation art piece called THE CHAIN by BOTTEGA VENETA will be displayed on the rooftop for a limited time. This installation piece has been taken around the world, and serves as a message of strength and connection to people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ginza Sony Park 2nd Anniversary

Free stickers will be handed out until August 16, 2020 to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Ginza Sony Park, which has delivered unique forms of entertainment to Tokyo’s district of Ginza.