At the Hirosaki food market "Niji no Mart" (in front of Hirosaki City Station), there are currently more junior high and high school students buying and eating raw scallops on their way home from school than ever before, which has sparked a discussion among people in the market as to why. It has become.

Niji no Mart is a market that has been running for more than 60 years, and has more than 20 shops selling fresh foods, side dishes, bread, flowers, and more. According to Mariko Ono, a salesperson at Onoki, a fresh fish shop in Niji no Mart, she has been seeing local junior high and high school students buying and eating scallops at the market since late August, and some of them have bought scallops many times. It is said that some students come to visit.

Ono shook his head and said, ``When I asked why people started coming here, all I could hear was that it was something that was done among friends.''

Onoki currently sells live scallops that can be eaten raw for 150 yen each. The restaurant also provides a service to cut scallops for dine-in on the spot according to customers' requests, and so far more tourists have purchased them than locals. Ono says, ``Even when I tell the students to go home and eat with their families, they just laugh and go buy scallops.''

A male student from a local high school, who was visiting for the first time with three friends, said, ``My friend was bragging about eating scallops on the group line.I wanted to go and finally was able to come.'' On that day, the three of them bought scallops, side dishes, bread, and other items inside Niji no Mart.

The student said with a smile, ``It's cheaper than buying a lot of things at a convenience store, and it's a great way to fill your stomach.It's also fun to be able to have a conversation with the store staff and ask them about the school.I want to come back again.''

Daitoyo Hamada of Ikiki Ichiba, which operates Niji no Mart, said, ``When I was a student, I would stop by a convenience store and eat hot snacks for 100 or 200 yen, but kids today seem to be different. Our market's reasonable prices and face-to-face sales methods may be the reason why our products are being accepted by today's students.''