On a hot summer day, the best spot to visit on Nakamachi Street is Nakamachi Hyouka Ten (中町氷菓店). You will find phenomenal shaved ice made from natural ice made in Yamanashi Prefecture. We were a little bit hesitant to make an order because 1,500 yen isn’t cheap. However, after the first bite, we were glad that we went ahead with the purchase. Although the shaved ice doesn’t look fancy, it tasted incredible!
What Is Natural Ice?
Natural ice is ice that is made only from the cold in winter. As you can imagine, edible natural ice is hardly found nowadays. In Japan, there are only five natural ice makers. One of them is called Kuramoto Yatsuyoshi (蔵元八義), which is based in Yamanashi Prefecture’s Hokuto City (北杜市) near Nikkō. Using the springs from the southern Mt. Yatsugatake (八ヶ岳南麓高原湧水群) and the area’s harsh cold temperature in winter, the ice maker was able to make ice without bubbles.
To ensure the purity of the ice, the pool used to make it is thoroughly cleaned before it is filled with natural spring water. For about two weeks, the staff takes turns cleaning the water so that no impurities are in the resulting ice.
Why two weeks? Because water freezes at an average rate of 1cm per day, it takes around two weeks to freeze the entire 15 cm-deep pool.
Apparently, if any impurity is found in the ice, the entire process needs to be restarted. Even rainwater isn’t allowed to enter the ice-making pool!
Photos of how the natural ice was made were exhibited at Nakamachi Hyouka Ten.
Nakamachi Hyouka Ten’s Shaved Ice
To bring out the best of natural ice made by Kuramoto Yatsuyoshi, Nakamachi Hyouka Ten is very particular about how they handle and shave the ice.
Unlike ice made using a machine, natural ice is extremely hard, making it harder to shave. Apparently, the taste of the ice changes depending on the type of blade and the angle at which it is shaved, so a special machine is used to make each bowl of shaved ice by trained staff.
As a result, Nakamachi Hyouka Ten’s shaved ice is light and fluffy. The ice would melt in your mouth gently so that it wouldn’t give you a headache if you consumed it too fast.
To ensure the quality of the saved ice, the syrup is homemade. Sourcing the fruits and vegetables (yes, they also use vegetables to make syrup) directly from local farmers. The freshest raw fruits are used to make syrup on the spot. Thus, several seasonal flavors are usually on the menu.
Our Visit to Nakamachi Hyouka Ten
We visited the shaved ice maker in early autumn. The temperature was still warm enough for shaved ice as a dessert after lunch. There were several seasonal flavors on the menu, including apple, chestnut and black current, and persimmon. We had a really hard time deciding which one to go after. In the end, we decided to go with the persimmon because it was in season and you could hardly find desserts made from it.
Everything except the natural ice was made from scratch. The staff was peeling the persimmon in front of us before making it into persimmon sauce. The special condensed milk was also made before the staff took out a squared natural ice cube and started shaving it. The icy cube was huge, and so was the deliciously looking shaved ice!
Our only complaint about the shaved ice was that it melted too fast. It was already melting while we were taking photos of it!
Nakamachi Hyouka Ten’s Business Hours and Access Information
- Nakamachi Hyouka Ten is open from 10 am to 5 pm from Friday to Wednesday.
- From JR Matsumoto Station (松本駅), it is around a 13-minute walk.
Discover Other Great Spots on Nakamachi Street
Nakamachi Street close to Matsumoto Castle is a street lined with traditional houses with a rather unique appearance. The main street of the old Matsumoto is still one of the best places to shop for handicrafts and local specialties. Needless to say, you can also enjoy a delicious afternoon tea here in one of the cake or confectionery shops.
So, refer to our Nakamachi Street article for a list of shops that we found interesting!
