The very small old cafe between Kodaiji temple and Kiyomizudera temple was a Japanese famous artist Yumeji Takehisa's favorite place.

Kyoto Higashiyama is one of the most famous place to visit for sight-seeing.

Walking along the stone steps road called Ninenzaka, between Kodaiji temple and Kiyomizudera temple, there is a small sweet café “Ninenzaka-Kasagiya.”
I love this old rustic small shop especially in summer season, because you can have “Tokusei-Siruko Shake,” made by red beans and white gem, and this is the only shop where you can have it in Kyoto.

“Amatou-no Sudoori Dekinu Ninenzaka” is a famous Senryu, shortest poem in Japan, saying that “With sweet tooth, you can’t walk through Ninenzaka with non-stop.” J
I am sorry to say again but it is a small and rustic café and foreigners, or even young Japanese will pass by, however, rustic appearance also indicates its tradition in Ninenzaka street.

Yumeji Takehisa is a famous artist who liked to draw a woman in his unique style, some of Japanese Manga writers were affected by his pictures.

Yumeji was living in the house just the vicinity of this café, and this Kasagiyais well known as a favorite café of Yumeji and his wife.


This is the “Tokusei-Shiruko shake.”





Frozen Oshiruko with white gem topping.

If you say it in Starbucks style, it is Azuki Frapecino with Shiratama.

Just as looking, it is a cup of gelato and not too sweet, it is very easy to have it. In a menu, you will find some other attractive sweets, Ohagi or Zenzai made by Tanba-Dainagon red beans.

I can’t stop ordering everything if I do not make a decision before entering the shop.

Because most of the tourists do not know this shop, and usually it is occupied with local customers around Ninenzaka, I will recommend you to visit this sweet café, if you want to have a cup of sweet beverage in hot summer Kyoto.

Kyototravel

“ Kasagiya”
Kodaiji-Masuyacho 349, Higashiyama, Kyoto regular
holiday: Tuesday if it is national holiday, open
Open：11:00～18:00
Phone：075-561-9562

You can eat the powdered green tea cake in Ochaya while looking at Shirakawa river that is the symbol of Gion. “Kanmi-dokoro Gion-Komori”

There are a lot of my favorite sweets café, “Kanmi-ya” in Kyoto. That’s the reason why I put the blog title “Kyoto Sweet Tottering” as it means I totter from Kanmi-ya to Kanmi-ya ;-).

Here I introduce you one of sweet café “Gion-Komori” as I note it one of the best sweets café in Gion area.

At first, you will find the shop standing beside Shirakawa river, therefore you can always listen to the murmuring in the brook during tasting sweets. What a fresh place it is!

I do not know whether this shop was previously a Ochaya (bar with Geisha girls) or not, but you will find similarities with those Ochaya and this house.

On tatami mats, you will have sweet desert at Japanese table, just like you do in traditional Japanese hotel, Ryokan.

This is a cup of Komori powdered green tea parfait.

Maccha ice cream is covering everything, so you have to dig the ice cream to encounter another sweet stuff, but this ice cream is not too sweet, probably most of Americans will suspect whether Japanese cooks have missed to calculate the sugar dose while making. So do not mind about your failure to reach to another stuff inside.

The powdered green tea pudding is just beneath the green tea flavored ice cream ♪.

White rice dumpling, the powdered green tea jelly, the chestnut, the banana, and
the raspberry are put under green tea pudding. What a happy time I encounter!

I do again say, they are not too sweet for you, so it is very easy to have two or three cups of parfait if you want. You won’t feel sugar sticky in your mouth after eating.
But if you feel Azuki, red beans paste is too sweetie, you should avoid it. I myself may be addicted to its taste and do not feel it too sweet .

This is a sweet café for adults. And I also recommend this café to go with your boy friend who does not like to eat sweet desert after dinner. I think he can enjoy sweet parfait here.
In fact, I saw many male customers in this shop anytime I visit this shop.

This is a cup of Komori green tea & Azuki & Bavarian parfait.

You can find various sweet stuff with red beans paste inside. Most of the parfait have green tea ice cream on the top, however, you will find various taste in each menu, under the green round top.

Yes, I was always at a loss for ordering which parfait ;).

During summer season, you will find Kakigori cup in this shop. Although I recommend you Gyokuen as a best kakigori café in Kyoto, it is attractive to try kakigori and parfait at the same time in hot Kyoto summer.

Yes, let’s visit Komori next summer!

Kyototravel

“Kanmi-dokoro Gion-Komori”

Gion-Shinbashi-Motoyosicho 61, Higashiyama, Kyoto
Open: 11:00～21:00（LO.20:30）, on Sunday, close at 20:00（LO.19:30）

regular holiday：Wednesday

Phone:075-561-0504

To eat this powdered green tea parfait, many people come from various place of Japan "Ito-Kyuemon-Honten"

Ito-Kyuemon in Uji, Kyoto is well known shop for Uji green tea and Maccha, powder green tea flavored sweets.
You need 5 minutes walk from Keihan-Uji station to visit “Ito-Kyuemon-Honten” locating along the big street.
So usually most of the local people will visit the shop by their car.

What a strong and various attractive gravity of many sweets displayed in this house!
No, no, encourage me not to buy every sweets in this shop!

…Thanks, I resisted against the gravity and walked to café area in the right side of front gate ;-).
I ordered "Set of the powdered green tea parfait and this bracken rice cake".

The most popular menu powdered green tea parfait is a little bit smaller than another parfait you see. Probably it’s a half size of USA size.

But do not mind, it means that you can enjoy various kind of sweet dishes in this shop…Oh! I just found that it’s the tactics of this sweets shop ;).

The powdered green tea rice cracker, powdered green tea cream, the powdered green tea jelly, the white rice dumpling, and the red bean paste, everything flavored with the powdered green tea have gotten on up as a topping of the parfait.

In the parfait, the powdered green tea agar, the vanilla ice cream, and the green tea flavored ice cream have been tightly blocked in. The powdered green tea fun comes to want to dance gladly at a glance of it ;-).



You can eat lightly without getting tired on the way even in case of being more in the parfait because no powdered green tea jelly no powdered green tea agar-agar is too sweet completely.

In spite with strong sweetness, It is easy to eat the parfait quickly, because there are strong bitter taste of powdered green tea, which will keep you off from boring with simple sweetness.

This parfait is just an article of the sweetness of pleasant. You will come for another to want to eat instinctively. This is indeed the most popular parfait at the Ito-Kyuemon.

Here is a bracken rice cake cup set with the parfait.




Black honey is garnished to the bracken rice cake. However, even if you do not put black honey on the bracken rice cake, you can eat it delicious. It feels relieved when eating after a cold parfait because this bracken rice cake is a simple, easy taste.

The powdered green tea parfait of Ito-kyuemon was a delicious powdered green tea parfait that did not fail to live up to the expectation like the reputation it. (*^-^*)

By the way, there is green tea counter that can sample favorite Uji tea in the inside of a store, too. Therefore, you can make it to the souvenir by selecting the Uji tea of the taste, and setting powdered green tea sweets sets.



“Ito-Kyuemon Honten, Sabo”Endoh-Aramaki 19-3, Uji
open：10:00～18:30（café L.O.18:00）
regular holiday：none
Phone :0774-23-3993 (Be careful, this is outside of Kyoto city, so you need to push location number 0774 at first when you call from Kyoto city.)

Cafe where kyomachiya can be experienced with the cake of powdered green tea "Sankyu-en(three-hill-garden)"

Sankyu-en (three-hill-garden) is a small café restaurant for food or sweets basically arranged by Uji green tea.

Uji city, you know is a small city at south side of Kyoto and it was famous as the resort town where retired aristocrat have their small house in the mountain and live in nature.

The humidified weather of the Uji region made by mist come from Ujigawa river or Kitsugawa river is appropriate for growing tea trees, and now Uji is a representative name of good green tea producing region.

It’s so small but popular restaurant that sometimes foods or sweets would be sold out before evening, but fortunately, when we visit the shop, every popular sweets were sold in the shop, which you can confirm it reading the small signboard set in front of the shop you can find them in above picture.

When you walk into the entrance space, you will find the souvenirs or sweets are sold there, and you can ask employee to go into the café and restaurant space filled with Tatami mat.
It means you have to take off your shoes ;-).

Because the seat where it had faced the courtyard of the café space had just become vacant, we sat there.
Although it was in hot summer, we enjoyed the cool breeze passed by us.

We were reminded the functional construction of an old Kyoto house Machiya, using the benefits of natural weather things like breeze, sun light, sometimes rain for keeping house comfortable.

When you sit down your seats, an employee will come to give you Green-tea flavored snack or chocolates and ordinary green tea Bancha.
It is just like a table charge snack in many of the Japanese bar restaurant Izakaya.
But in this case, it was free or very cheap.

I ordered "Set of the powdered green tea pudding and the green tea" that was one of the signboard menus of three hill garden.
I ordered green tea with ice, it was one of the seasonal tea menu.

You may sometimes feel the Japanese pudding is too soft with low percentage of egg, however, this Maccha (powdered green tea) pudding was really steady and hardened with egg.
The taste of powdered green tea was also very strong that you cannot forget the taste of this Sankyu-en powdered green tea pudding.
I miss it even now writing this article.

In contrast to Maccha pudding, MacchaWarabimochi (powdered green tea flavored bracken rice cake, soft dumpling) was soft and not too sweet, so that you will taste quite contrasted two types of sweets.
You can have a second cup of green tea with ice.

My partner ordered a set of the powdered green tea flavored Warabi soft dumpling and Maccha green tea.

Tanba-Dainagon (red beans) set aside Warabimochi is sweet, soft and tasty.
They are especially large red beans produced in Tanba, north side of Kyoto prefecture.
You fin Koicha in the right of the picture, high concentrated powdered green tea in hot water. This taste bitter, although I love it, you should not choice it if you are not familiar with green tea taste.

It is very comfortable to stay long during afternoon and I was about to sleep, as it is talked about this Japanese style café by a lot of people.

I recommend you to visit not so late in afternoon, before 3:00 p.m. because most of the customers tend to stay long and occupy the space like me ;-).

“San-kyu-en” (three-hill-garden)
Kyotoshi Shimogyoku Ayakojitori Shinmachi Nishi-hairu Yadachou
open:11a.m.～6 p.m.regular holiday: Thursday
Phone: 075-351-3361

The most popular kakigori shop in Kyoto "Saryo Gyokuen"

If you eat kakigori in Kyoto, this is only and the best restaurant I recommend to you.
Saryo-Gyoku-en is the name of the retaurant for sweets and green tea.

You will never forget the taste of kakigori in this restaurant if you try it.
This was quite different from my image of kakigori taste in any other shop or stalls I have experienced.

It is a cup of cotton candy made by ice, brown or green color remind me Barbe a` papa animation ;-).
You may never feel it is ice at first, because you usually have no time lug to feel the soft and silky touched ice melting on your tongue.

If you feel it taste like cotton candy, please talk to the employee in Japanese,
"Kore fuwafuwa de watagashi mitai."
You can look young shy Japanese girl's lovely smile.

My personal best choice is tasted by raw sugar syrup with white gem dumpling, Kuromitsu-Shiratama-Dango.

Raw sugar usually have various kind of taste of sugarcane, they will harmonize the sweetness with sweet milk to make the cotton candy ice supreme.
Quick melting ice is the conductor and the main playor of the harmony, that will keep the sweetness not too strong.

I regret that I am not be able to tell you the lovely taste of this kakigori in accurate manner by only writing and pictures.

White gem dumpling, you will usually find it not soft on ice in ather restaurant, but you can enjoy soft dumpling in this Saryo-Gyokuen.
I do not know the secret of this dumpling softeness in shaved-ice, so please tell me if you can estimate or understand.


This is a cup of Uji-Kintoki, my partner ordered.
Uji is a name of the city at south side of Kyoto and famous as a good pladce for green tea production.

This is the reason why you will find Uji on the top of Japanese foods you will always find they are green tea flavored.
What a strong taste of green tea powder!

It taste like as if you are eating expensive greentea powder directly put into your mouth.
Of course I love its taste, but if you are not familiar with tea ceremony, you should better avoid to try.
It is just like your first trial to taste espresso coffee ;-).


You know, whennever you eat kakigori in many other restaurant in Japan, you will sometimese shaved ice are aggrigated in the bottom of the cup, but you will never find such a situation here.
Why? Because you will eat it much faster than any other kakigori, I promise.


In anyway, kakigori ice in Gyokuen is soft, quick melting, and gentle to your mouth and stomach.
Although you must be patient for waiting ten minutes or so to look your cup after your order, it is clear that you will find a surprising experience of Japanese taraditonal taste those was popular in 60's, my friend talked to me.
It may be your first experience, but you may think this is the experience you met in your child memory lost in long days ago.

You must try it in hot humidified Kyoto summer.

Saryo Gyokuen
North end of Pontocho street, Kyoto
open from 14:00 to 21:30
regular holiday Thursday
Phone: 81-75-231-8353 (231-8353 in Kyoto city)