Wagashi by Togetsu

ONE OF THE BEST JAPANESE SWEETS SHOP IN FUKUOKA. DELICIOUS SWEETS LIGHT ON THE WALLET.

The easiest thing you could do when finding good stuff is to buy something more expensive. Going to expensive restaurant should worth what you're spending. What's really hard is to find the best stuff with fewer cost.

If you like Japanese sweets, "Wagashi" (和菓子) and visiting Fukuoka. I suggest you to visit wagashi shop called "Togetsu" (兎月) located in "Ropponmatsu" (六本松) where is 10 min from "Tenjin" (天神). The access from subway station is no more than 3 min walk.

Togetsu has been making delicious wagashi for more than 80 years. Depending on the season you visit, there may be limited sweets made from seasonal ingredients. Other than the limited ones, "Shiomame daifuku" is recommended. "Shiomame" (塩豆) is dried peas put in salt water and roasted, known for its chewy texture. Togetsu uses high quality shiomame which gives extra chewy texture.

Including Shiomame daifuku, some of the sweets are constantly line up at the store. So unless they are sold out, you ca buy them any time of the season you visit.

Here are some of their limited wagashi.

togetsu, japanese sweets, fukuoka, mementravel

Kotatsu de mikan, (こたつでみかん). Price: ¥290

Season limited. It is tradition of Japanese families to sit down together inside "Kotatsu" table and eat "Mikan" (mandarine orange) while watching TV. (Kotatsu is a table that has electric heater underside of the table and futon attached. Very cosy and warm.) So if you say mikan, Japanese should be thinking about the table, especially in winter. If you say kotatsu...well you know the rest.

mandarine orange looking sweets, wagashi by togetsu, mementravel

This sweet surely looks like the mandarine orange but no mikan is used for neither the skin and filling. The skin is made from "Nerikiri" (練り切り), mixing and kneading white bean jam, gyuhi and chinese yam.

This orangy color is made with natural food coloring. To make this orange, it requires experienced craftsmanship.

What's really amazing about this sweet is, as showed in the picture, you can actually remove the skin like real orange. (Friendly clerk at the store taught me to use Bamboo skewer or toothpick, which I DID.)

Thin stripes (orange's pith) are made from white bean paste. Inside, black bean jam. The taste is, off course, nothing like orange. (no orange is used) Both skin and fruit parts taste sweet bean jam.

Ichigo tsutsumi, (いちご包み).

Price: ¥291

Season limited. Famous strawberry (ichigo) breed, Toyonoka is wrapped (tsutsumi) with Gyuhi. (A type of rice cake that is made from rice flour and sugar. Soft and elastic texture.)

Juicy strawberry is slightly sour, which makes its taste deeper with sweet gyuhi and white bean jam.

Uguisu mochi, (うぐいす餅).

Price: ¥194

Season limited. On top is kinako flour. Gyuhi is mix with sweetened green peas. (Although there are many kinds of Uguisu rice cakes in different regions in Japan, Togetsu perform their uguisu mochi by the color, green.) Inside, sweet black bean jam. Harmony of chewy, soft mochi, black bean jam and aromatic kinako flour is just so good.