Udon Doughnuts boom in popularity, get a whole new look at Japanese restaurant chain
Behold the Udonuts, with a texture like no other doughnut in Japan.
In June last year, udon chain Marugame Seimen transformed noodles as we know them by releasing an innovative new sweet called 'udonuts'. Made from udon noodle flour, these doughnut bites have been selling like crazy, with over 15 million sold in the ten months since their debut.
Now, the chain has quietly opened a specialty store called 'Marugame Udonuts-ya', with 'ya' being the word for 'store'. At this special branch, there's a custom menu you won't find anywhere else, with options to add your own toppings and sauces, so our doughnut-loving reporter Mr Sato set out to pay it a visit.
Located at the Marugame Seimen Kasugai Nishiyamacho branch in Kasugai City, Aichi Prefecture, the specialty store is a bit of a trek from Tokyo but around a 20-minute drive from Ghibli Park.
▼ Studio Ghibli's popular theme park isn't far from the Udonuts location.
Luckily for Mr Sato, he was in the area when he found out about the store, so he was able to hop on the Chuo Main Line from Chikusa Station…
▼ … to Kasugai Station.
Then he had to hop on the Aoi Kotsu Toukadai bus, but in his eagerness to try the doughnuts he'd failed to plan accordingly so had to wait 40 minutes for the next bus.
▼ With his stomach now rumbling, Mr Sato was finally able to board the bus…
▼ …but after getting off at his stop he still had to walk about a kilometre (0.6 miles) to his destination.
It definitely would've been better to get here by car, but for Mr Sato, the more challenging the journey, the more delicious the reward, so when he finally spotted the Kasugai Nishiyamacho branch, he immediately began salivating.
Heading to the car park, he found Udonuts-ya, standing there like a beacon of joy against the grey skies. Opened on 15 May, the store was less than a week old when Mr Sato visited, and there was already a line of customers out the front.
Looking hungrily at the menu, Mr Sato spied a few things he wanted to try, and although the Udon Fries were something he'd never seen before, his heart was set on something sweet.
The main draw here is the 'Mocchi-Mochi Satisfaction Set' (300 yen [US$2.09]), which allows you to customise a trio of Udonuts with three out of 11 toppings and one of four sauces to create your perfect combination.
The available toppings are: kinako (soybean flour), anko (sweet red bean paste), chocolate sprinkles, mini pudding, whipped cream, custard cream, sliced almonds, fruit mix, vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice cream, and matcha ice cream. The four sauce options are: chocolate, strawberry, mango, and kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup).
The options cover a wide range of Japanese and Western-style flavours, and if you have your heart set on one topping, you can even request it three times to strengthen the flavour. For Mr Sato, variety is the spice of life, so he opted for fruit mix, whipped cream, chocolate ice cream, and chocolate sauce.
This was his first time trying Udonuts so he wasn't sure if his choices would go well together, but after trying a bite, he quickly realised that the doughnuts are so good they'd go well with anything.
The first thing he noticed about the Udonuts was how 'mocchi' or 'chewy' they were. It's a unique, addictive texture you can't get from regular donuts, and it's all due to the addition of udon flour.
▼ After trying the first of his three Udonuts, he could understand why they were so popular.
It was a treat to be able to enjoy the unusual doughnuts with an array of toppings, making this one of the tastiest sweets he's had in a long time. With doughnuts this good, he has a feeling this specialty store might soon be expanding to include other locations, and might even rival doughnuts at convenience stores and specialty stores like Randy's.
After making the trek to find them, Mr Sato now has his fingers crossed that the extra toppings will soon make their way to a branch much closer to home, like this one that first brought the Udonuts to Tokyo.
Store information
Marugame Udonuts-ya Kasugai Nishiyama-cho store / 丸亀うどーなつ屋 （丸亀製麺 春日井西山町店）
Address: Aichi-ken, Kasugai-shi, Nishiyama-cho 3-14-18
愛知県春日井市西山町3-14-18
Open: 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Website
Photos©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
SoraNews24
8 hours ago
- SoraNews24
Ponyo-catching game comes to Ghibli Park anime theme park this summer
Ghibli Park gives you a chance to experience a traditional Japanese summer festival and to take home multiple Ponyos if you've got the right skills. Japan's summer festivals are somewhat like county fairs in the U.S. At both types of events there are fireworks, street food stalls, and carnival games. Of course, once you get down to the finer details, there are plenty of differences, too. You won't find fireworks shaped like anime character Doraemon or stands selling takoyaki (octopus dumplings) in America, for example, and also unique to Japanese festival are kingyo sukui (goldfish catching) booths. Kingyo sukui is a game in which you purchase a paper net and use it to scoop goldfish into a bowl. Any fish you scoop in are yours to take home as new pets, but the paper is thin and tears easily, so it takes a deft, delicate touch to catch any. This summer, though, Ghibli Park, the theme park in Aichi Prefecture dedicated to the anime films of Studio Ghibli, is putting its own spin on kingyo sukui by inviting you to catch not goldfish, but fish girl Ponyo, star of the Ghibli anime of the same name. Technically, this is what's called super ball sukui, a kingyo sukui variant where instead of scooping up live fish, players use their net to capture little high-bounce rubber balls. The rules are the same: you keep scooping until your net breaks, and take home whatever you can get into your bowl. Some people ever prefer super ball sukui to kingyo sukui, since the latter means you've got living creatures you'll now need to take care of, and also puts pressure on you to get home quickly and find a proper aquarium for your new pets, since goldfish are given to winners in a plastic bag filled with water. So instead of those worries and responsibilities, Ghibli Park's Ponyo super balls have either a little figure of the character inside the ball, or a piece of artwork from the movie. Either way it's a fun way to experience a fun bit of traditional Japanese culture first-hand, and it's especially nice if you're visiting Japan from overseas, since you wouldn't be able to take any kingyo sukui-won fish back with you across internatipnal borders on your flight home. Ponyo doesn't have her own dedicated section of Ghibli Park, so instead the Ponyo-catching game (which costs 500 yen [US$3.45] per play) will be set up in Dondoko Forest, the same part of the park as sisters Mei and Satsuki's house. The game booth will be open from July 19 to August 31, but you might want to consider timing your visit for August, because for that month Ghibli Park's screening room will be showing the Hayao Miyazaki-directed anime short The Whale Hunt. ▼ Don't worry, The Whale Hunt is a cuter, happier movie than the title might have you imagining. An August visit to Ghibli Park will also still allow you to take part in another summer activity at the park, making kinako, a roasted soybean powder used in many Japanese sweets, the old-fashioned way, and, if you go on one of three special dates, you'll also get a rare opportunity to experience Ghibli Park after sundown. Source: PR Times Top image: Studio Ghibli Insert images: Pakutaso, PR Times ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
SoraNews24
10 hours ago
- SoraNews24
Shinkansen coffee and ice cream vending machines make train travel in Japan magical
Bullet train blends you won't get anywhere else. For a lot of Japanese travellers, a ride on the Shinkansen bullet train is synonymous with ice cream, specifically Sujata ice cream. Our reporter Mr Sato is one such traveller, who says he just doesn't feel like he's on the Shinkansen unless he eats it, which is a bit of a problem as in-car sales stopped in 2021, making it more difficult to get. So when he found himself up early for a trip to Nagoya on the Shinkansen recently, he was thrilled to see a vending machine on the platform that was selling his beloved ice cream…in more than one flavour. ▼ Vanilla, Strawberry, Belgian Chocolate and Shine Muscat Grape. These were little tubs of joy for Mr Sato, and after a moment's deliberation, he decided to order the chocolate variety for 420 yen (US$2.94). ▼ The ice cream is so famous it's simply known as '新幹線アイスクリーム' ('Shinkansen Ice Cream') ▼ Within an instant, his ice cream popped out into the chute, and he noticed there was something else in there too… ▼ … a bunch of spoons. Grabbing a wooden spoon, he was just about to turn on his heel and head to the queue for his carriage when he spotted another vending machine beside it. This one contained… ▼ … Shinkansen Coffee! This was something he'd never seen before so he wasn't going to miss the chance to try it, especially when he stepped close to the machine and saw it had a choice of blends, each one named after one of the three Shinkansen that stop at this platform. ▼ The Shinkansen Kodama Blend is said to have a soft acidity, while the Hikari has a gentle bitterness and the Nozomi, the fastest train of the three, features a rich bitterness. ▼ Plus, there was an extra surprise — the Doctor Yellow Blend, named after the elusive, bright yellow inspection bullet train. Due to its rarity, spotting a Doctor Yellow is said to be a sign of good luck so that's the coffee Mr Sato went for, hoping it might give him some fortune. Available in a 'Big Size' for 500 yen, the beans for this blend are medium roasted, like the others, but with a strong acidity as their main feature. After pressing the button for his coffee, the brewing process was displayed on the screen at the top of the machine, giving it a nice, live feel. As he waited, he felt a sense of warmth and care from the sign that alerted customers to the possible 95-second wait time, preventing them from missing their train. Sure enough, after about 95 seconds, his Doctor Yellow Blend was served. The cup even had a yellow design around it to signify the special train, which was a very cute touch. With his ice cream and coffee, Mr Sato was a very happy passenger as he slid into his seat on the train. Lifting the lid on his coffee, it had a fantastic aroma, and when he took a sip he found it had a pronounced acidity, just as the flavour chart had indicated. Personally, he would've preferred a stronger bitterness, but for a vending machine coffee, it was incredibly good. Now it was time to dig into the ice cream… literally. You see, this ice cream is renowned for being incredibly hard — spoons have been known to get stuck in the tub, failing to retrieve ice cream as they should — earning it the nickname 'Shinkansen Sugoi Katai Ice' (Super Hard Shinkansen Ice Cream). The struggle to eat the hard ice cream has long been part of its appeal, but this time, Mr Sato found it was rather easy to dig into. According to the manufacturer, the Sujata vending machines can only reach a low of -25 degrees Celsius (-13 degrees Fahrenheit), so the ice creams aren't as rock-hard as they once were. Although the ice cream may no longer be firm enough to make it from Tokyo to Nagoya without melting, it still tasted fantastic, especially when paired with the bitter coffee, and he was glad he bought both of them. The machines can be found at platforms 14 and 15, 16 and 17, and 18 and 19 at Tokyo Station, and Mr Sato highly recommends trying them if you can. He says they're wonderful travel companions. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
Tokyo Weekender
12 hours ago
- Tokyo Weekender
Evangelion Voice Actress Megumi Hayashibara Compares Rude Foreigners to ‘Invasive Species'
Prominent Japanese voice actress Megumi Hayashibara has sparked debate online foll owing her latest blog post . The 58-year-old Tokyo native, who's most well known for her role as Rei Ayanami in Neon Genesis Evangelion , shared her concerns about Japan's cultural identity and political apathy on Sunday. The blog , titled 'Indifference, Ignorance, and Not Knowing,' quickly went viral. The comments that drew the most attention regarded international students receiving subsidies and foreign tourists behaving badly. She compared the latter to an 'invasive species.' List of Contents: Megumi Hayashibara's Blog The Online Reaction Related Posts Megumi Hayashibara Urges Japanese People To Vote 'Some international students receive subsidies for free, whereas Japanese students need to take out a student loan (which must be paid back, leading to debt),' wrote Hayashibara. 'The truth is being twisted. Don't leave it up to others. You must vote. We're at a point where just saying 'whatever' or 'it won't change' doesn't cut it anymore. If things continue as they are, Japanese unique qualities, such as our manners, our attitude, our technology and possibly even anime as a form of freedom of expression, will be lost. 'In the midst of all this, there are some people staying at vacation rentals with no manners, foreign tourists who don't know what it means to yield, and even those who go so far as to remove bamboo from trees in Kyoto,' continued Hayashibara. 'If we don't have regulations that are properly enforced, it could become dangerous. It will be like how Japanese crayfish were instantly devoured by invasive species. For instance , the Japanese rule of lining up to buy things could end up disappearing.' Hayashibara went on to say that she wasn't trying to criticize any specific country. She just feels that tax money should first go to people who pay taxes here, including foreign residents, as well as to disaster-hit areas and to students who are supporting the country. The original blog post also included a section discussing South Korean politics. That was later edited out after a Korean friend contacted her to say that her comments could inadvertently fuel political divisions. The Online Reaction While there have been several comments online criticizing Hayashibara's blog, including one X user who described it as 'hate speech,' many agree with her views. 'The behavior of many international tourists is really bad, she's not wrong to call out the problem,' posted one person on X. Another pointed out that Japanese crayfish was 'a metaphor for how traditional Japanese culture is being overwhelmed by outside influences. This is supported by the following line about the decline of the unspoken rule of lining up.' Related Posts Suzie Yeung on Voice Acting in Anime and Video Games Voice Actors From Japan Insist on Tighter AI Regulation Voice Actor Hideyuki Umezu Dies Aged 68
