Visit Nara

This beautiful 400 year old sweet shop is worth visiting even if you don’t have an interest in wagashi. With its slatted wood screens and raised tatami seating area, it looks like it hasn’t changed in the last 400 years. By the tatami area, there are glass display cabinets housing the wooden molds used to shape sweets and there is always a beautiful seasonal ikebana arrangement or bonsai. Make sure to look up; the ceiling is also covered in sweets molds. Most of the sweets for sale are very traditional and based on anko (sweet bean) paste, but they have started to produce some more colorful jellies shaped like Yamato Koriyama’s famous goldfish.