2014年03月31日
Souvenirs with a Twist
Shikoku Shop 88 is located just across from JR Takamatsu Station in the Sunport Plaza complex. When I first saw it, I thought it was just another souvenir shop but today I learned otherwise.
Established in December 2013 by Ikomaya, a Shodoshima-based noodle company, it sells products from all parts of Shikoku. While it does stock the traditional favorites, its mission is to showcase the extremely local and the unique. Broad bean or olive ice cream anyone?
This little fellow seemed very interested in the drink machine.
And for a good reason: it sells only Tokushima Coffee products, a company I had never heard of, although the drinks looked very familiar.
The store features an impressive collection of capsule toy machines known as “gachapon”. The contents are devoted to a wild and weird array of mascot characters from little towns and villages in Shikoku.
Ikomaya negotiated with the gachapon maker to insert these goods into capsules and became the only shop selling them in the world (at least for now). Predictably, there were several using our own local specialty, Sanuki udon (noodles) as a motif.
Local products also included special designer goods commemorating the 3rd Takamatsu International Piano Competition.
I am not sure if people anywhere else will recognize this little gift but it’s a piano keyboard and a bowl of udon noodles made from local handcrafted wasanbon sugar.
Here are a few things I brought home to try. Gummy noodles (lemon flavored and extremely chewy), carrot rusks and Hiraga Gennai coffee. (Hiraga Gennai was an 18th century local inventor.) All with very original packaging.
I was amazed to find that we have our own local super heroes! Remujia (which read backwards in Japanese is “aji-mure”, two local villages famous for their aji granite and stone masons). Where were these guys when I needed them?
And look at these seals featuring two cute girls? This is Kirara Takano and Mai Awano, representing the Nankai Ferry that runs between Wakayama and Tokushima. Ordinarily, Kirara and Mai goods can only be purchased at the Nankai Ferry but Shikoku Shop 88 got special permission to carry them.
As you can see, it’s an interesting little shop to check out if you want something local but different. And, if you’re set on doing Shikoku’s 88 pilgrim route, you can get everything you need here from the white jacket to the staff, straw hat and prayer beads, without waiting until you get to a temple.
For more info on Takamatsu:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Takamatsu
http://www.city.takamatsu.kagawa.jp/english/
http://tia-takamatsu.jp/
http://www.my-kagawa.jp/eg/
Other Takamatsu bloggers:
http://pat.ashita-sanuki.jp/
http://ogijima.com
Established in December 2013 by Ikomaya, a Shodoshima-based noodle company, it sells products from all parts of Shikoku. While it does stock the traditional favorites, its mission is to showcase the extremely local and the unique. Broad bean or olive ice cream anyone?
This little fellow seemed very interested in the drink machine.
And for a good reason: it sells only Tokushima Coffee products, a company I had never heard of, although the drinks looked very familiar.
The store features an impressive collection of capsule toy machines known as “gachapon”. The contents are devoted to a wild and weird array of mascot characters from little towns and villages in Shikoku.
Ikomaya negotiated with the gachapon maker to insert these goods into capsules and became the only shop selling them in the world (at least for now). Predictably, there were several using our own local specialty, Sanuki udon (noodles) as a motif.
Local products also included special designer goods commemorating the 3rd Takamatsu International Piano Competition.
I am not sure if people anywhere else will recognize this little gift but it’s a piano keyboard and a bowl of udon noodles made from local handcrafted wasanbon sugar.
Here are a few things I brought home to try. Gummy noodles (lemon flavored and extremely chewy), carrot rusks and Hiraga Gennai coffee. (Hiraga Gennai was an 18th century local inventor.) All with very original packaging.
I was amazed to find that we have our own local super heroes! Remujia (which read backwards in Japanese is “aji-mure”, two local villages famous for their aji granite and stone masons). Where were these guys when I needed them?
And look at these seals featuring two cute girls? This is Kirara Takano and Mai Awano, representing the Nankai Ferry that runs between Wakayama and Tokushima. Ordinarily, Kirara and Mai goods can only be purchased at the Nankai Ferry but Shikoku Shop 88 got special permission to carry them.
As you can see, it’s an interesting little shop to check out if you want something local but different. And, if you’re set on doing Shikoku’s 88 pilgrim route, you can get everything you need here from the white jacket to the staff, straw hat and prayer beads, without waiting until you get to a temple.
For more info on Takamatsu:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Takamatsu
http://www.city.takamatsu.kagawa.jp/english/
http://tia-takamatsu.jp/
http://www.my-kagawa.jp/eg/
Other Takamatsu bloggers:
http://pat.ashita-sanuki.jp/
http://ogijima.com
My Profile
Cathy Hirano キャシー ヒラノ
I've lived in Japan since 1978. After graduating from a Japanese university with a BA in cultural anthropology in 1983, I worked as a translator in a Japanese consulting engineering firm in Tokyo for several years. My Japanese husband and I moved to Takamatsu in 1987 to raise our two children in a slower-paced environment away from the big city pressures. We've never regretted it. I work as a freelance translator and interpreter and am involved in a lot of community work, including volunteering for Second Hand, a local NGO that supports educational and vocational training initiatives in Cambodia, and for the Takamatsu International Association. I love living in Takamatsu.
Cathy Hirano キャシー ヒラノ
I've lived in Japan since 1978. After graduating from a Japanese university with a BA in cultural anthropology in 1983, I worked as a translator in a Japanese consulting engineering firm in Tokyo for several years. My Japanese husband and I moved to Takamatsu in 1987 to raise our two children in a slower-paced environment away from the big city pressures. We've never regretted it. I work as a freelance translator and interpreter and am involved in a lot of community work, including volunteering for Second Hand, a local NGO that supports educational and vocational training initiatives in Cambodia, and for the Takamatsu International Association. I love living in Takamatsu.
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