The "Craft & Japanese Cafe Takumikan " (Kamishirogincho, Hirosaki City, TEL 0172-36-6505 ) in the Fujita Memorial Garden adjacent to Hirosaki Park celebrated its third anniversary on July 23.

The cafe space provides shaved ice all year round and also exhibits and sells Tsugaru crafts. The warehouse site was renovated and opened as a sister store of the "Taisho Roman Cafe" in the Fujita Memorial Garden, which has nationally registered tangible cultural properties such as Western-style buildings and Japanese-style buildings. Operated by the Hirosaki Tourism and Convention Association.

“I was thinking of making a cafe with a Japanese theme, but I thought it would be interesting to provide shaved ice in northern countries,” said Sanae Sugawara, the store manager. "At the beginning of the opening, we provided royal road shaved ice such as strawberry milk and raw melon. It was the first time to provide shaved ice in the first place. The development of homemade syrup was a grunt."

In anticipation of tourist demand, we immediately started to develop an apple syrup that gave "Hirosaki-likeness". Since apples tend to discolor, they tried to develop menus. When the service was started, the topic attracted and the number of customers increased.

After that, we increased the menu of shaved ice and now we have a lineup of 19 types. "I learned the fun of making shaved ice like Hirosaki, and developed a variety of variants such as Aomori Cassis, Fukaura Yuki Carrot, and Dakekimi Corn Milk," says Sugawara. "I want to surprise the locals, "Did you make this kind of shaved ice?", and tourists want to promote Aomori with shaved ice made from local ingredients," he says with a smile.

The current shaved ice menu is Aomori Cassis (880 yen), raw melon milk (880 yen), mango apricot milk (1,100 yen). Menu contents change depending on the season. In addition to shaved ice, we will prepare a Japanese-style curry, Japanese-style pasta (1,100 yen or more), sweets menu such as anmitsu (770 yen), and apple tart (440 yen).

On July 23, we issued a coupon ticket only for followers of SNS as a 3rd anniversary project. There was a visit immediately after the store opened, and most customers used coupons on that day. Mr. Sugawara said, “I was grateful and grateful that the number of repeaters had been accepted by the local people for what I had continued to do, and I was overwhelmed by tears. I would like to create a store where people can get paid and go through more."

Business hours are from 9:00 to 17:00 (last order at 16:30).