One of seasonal traditions in Japan…Shaved ice.

It’s about time to enjoy kakigoori in Japan.

kakigoori is one of famous Japanese desserts, which made from shaved ice and topped with many kinds of flavored syrups.

It’s very easy to make kakigoori. Shave ice and top any syrups you want. That’s all. Definitely simple. However, kakigoori have their long and interesting stories.

The origin of kakigoori was in Heian era. In makura no soushi, which is the prominently historical essay written by seishounagon, you can find the phrases reffering to kakigoori. kakigoori is apparently more familiar since a long time ago than I expected.

I’m sure you have the same things in other countries, so I checked them. In America, kakigoori is called “shaved ice”, in Philippine, it’s called “halohalo”.

kakigoori in Japan change its style these days, especially the contents to be topped. In order to make it beautiful, an ice cream is topped besides kakigoori, moreover, the flavors of syrups are changed and get varieties.

The most interesting fact is that you have to get the certification for selling “ice”. You have to get good ice so that you can get a good tasted kakigoori. There are many differences between ice made in home and ice made by professional persons. If you want to do business such a selling ice, you need the certification of “hyousetu hanbai gyou” in compliance with Food Sanitation Act.

Anyway, kakigoori is, for Japanese, one of desserts you can feel “summer” from itself. One more thing, don’t eat it hastily. If you do that, you might get sudden pains in your brain. Technically, it’s called “icecream headache”(kanren-tsuu in Japanese), however, we often express it like this; “itai! atama ga keen to natta“. “keen” is not English, it’s just an imitative sound. Use caution when eating kakigoori

I’d like to show you some photos kakigoori in Japan. I went to the coffee shop only to take them…hahaha

The meaning of this flag means…”You can eat kakigoori in this shop.”, “We’ve started selling kakigoori“, something like that. If you want to eat kakigoori, you have to find this flag.

I oredered one melon-flavored kakigoori. It looks like…”Hey, I have many artificial colors and flavors! Why don’t you try me?”…hahaha. Incidentally, the menu said “melon-flavored” in it, but there’s totally no melon-flavored. Even if you come to Japan and try to eat this, please don’t complain about it.

This syrup was soooooooooooooooooooooooo sweet…it’s thick taste rather than sweet. Oops, there’s only ice around the center of kakigoori…ummm…Do I have to stir and neutralize them?

After kakigoori, I went swimming in the pool…so I slightly got a stomachache…