Visit Wakayama

Gyokurin-en, a tea house founded in 1854, launched its Green Soft soft serve in 1958. Made with stone-ground matcha, it combines a refreshing flavor with a pleasant touch of bitterness and restrained sweetness, and it has long been a local favorite. That popularity has grown into a whole product line, including Green Soft Candy and Green Soft Rolls. The candy keeps well and comes in cute packaging, which makes it an especially good souvenir. You can buy it at Gyokurin-en’s own shops, such as Green Corner Main Store and the Main Tea Shop (53 Dejima, Wakayama City), as well as at convenience stores and roadside stations across the prefecture.

Green Corner Main Store

Address: 48-1 Dejima, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Founded nearly 100 years ago, Shuneido is popular for both the traditional Japanese sweets handed down through its generations and the Western-style pastries made by its third-generation pastry chef. It’s a beloved neighborhood shop, yet its signature Chou-Pari has a nationwide reputation. A crisp, fragrant shell holds a generous filling of custard cream, and the shop sells around 2,000 a day. Look for Matcha-Pari, filled with matcha custard, and Choco-Pari, along with seasonal specials in the display case.

Shuneido

Address: 1-5-13 Wakaura-naka, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Kishu Maruichi Farm has worked the land since the 17th century (the Edo period), and it makes this chestnut jam by hand. The chestnuts that give the jam its flavor are the farm’s pride, grown in nutrient-rich soil on its own land at an elevation of 350 meters. After aging, they are boiled, scooped from their shells, and simmered slowly, a product of real time and care. Delicate hints of rum and vanilla accompany the sweet, deeply rich flavor of the chestnuts. The jam is sold at Kura to Kuri, the shop the farm runs.

Kishu Maruichi Farm (Kura to Kuri)

Address: 685-4 Nishino, Kimino Town, Kaiso District, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

This maker has held to traditional methods for more than 100 years, and its crackers have a simple, unpretentious flavor. The range is wide, from classics such as soy sauce and salt to more unusual flavors like peperoncino. The standout souvenir and gift is Tama Arare, whose packaging features Ultra Stationmaster Tama, the Wakayama Electric Railway’s cat stationmaster. It comes in three varieties: plain, salt, and soy sauce. You’ll find it at places such as the Tama Cafe at the railway’s Kishi Station and the Masuda Beika Head Office Factory Store.

Takasago Arare (Masuda Beika Head Office Factory)

Address: 999-1 Okada, Iwade City, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Naniwado is a long-established confectionery shop, in business for more than 80 years, tucked into a quiet residential neighborhood. Customers arrive in a steady stream even on weekdays, all for the shop’s signature odango. These simple sweets are dumplings made with domestically grown rice and coated generously in fragrant kinako (soybean flour), and they are astonishingly soft. Good ingredients and a method passed down through the generations combine to delicious effect, so be sure to try them. Because the shop wants you to taste them freshly made, its confectioners prepare the dumplings by hand in small batches.

Naniwado

Address: 678 Oda, Koyaguchi-cho, Hashimoto City, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Kamikishiya, a specialist in yakimochi (filled rice cakes), has been in business for 300 years at the foot of Koyasan, a World Heritage site. Two of its products have long been staples among souvenirs for Koyasan visitors: Shiro-mochi, soft rice cake filled with mildly sweet adzuki bean paste, and fragrant Yomogi-mochi, with mugwort, a traditional Japanese herb, kneaded into the rice cake. At home, toast them briefly in a toaster oven to bring out even more aroma and flavor. Hanasaka Store is on the way to Koyasan, and Koya Store is in the center of town.

Kamikishiya Hanasaka Store

Address: 753-1 Hanasaka, Koya Town, Ito District, Wakayama Prefecture

MAHALO, a specialist in outstanding baumkuchen, sells Fresh Baumkuchen with Arida Mikan, made with 100% additive-free juice from locally grown Arida mandarins in place of water. Grated zest is kneaded into the batter, adding a fresh citrus fragrance. To make the cake moist and fluffy at once, the shop uses its own blend of flour and works in about three times the usual amount of moisture, the kind of attention to detail you’d expect from a specialist. It’s available at the Main Store and the Kainan Store (Kainan City).

MAHALO Main Store

Address: 533-1 Suya, Miyahara-cho, Arida City, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Anchin, a shop on the approach to Dojo-ji Temple, bakes Anchin’s Bell Manju in-house, shaped like a temple bell to echo the temple’s legend. Dojo-ji, the oldest temple in Wakayama Prefecture, is the setting of the tale of Anchin and Kiyohime, a tragic love story between a monk and a young woman. The rice-flour dough is soft and springy, with the gentle egg sweetness of sponge cake. Fillings range from several kinds of sweet bean paste, each with its own texture and flavor, to custard, caramel, and tangy-sweet ume plum paste.

Anchin

Address: 1745-3 Kanemaki, Hidakagawa Town, Hidaka District, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Suzuya, a confectionery shop founded in 1924, is about a three-minute walk from JR Kii-Tanabe Station. Its signature Deluxe Cake dates back to the 1960s: moist castella sponge cake sandwiching a special house jam, all coated in white chocolate. The cute retro packaging is unchanged from when the cake first went on sale. You can find it at souvenir shops around the prefecture, but Hashikko (“end pieces”), a good-value treat made from cake trimmings left over in production and coated in white chocolate, is sold only at the main store. It makes a nice souvenir for yourself, too.

Suzuya

Address: 15-11 Minato, Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture

Tokei Manju are cute Japanese sweets shaped like chickens. They’re modeled on the red and white roosters that gave Tokei-jinja Shrine its name. The shrine, a World Heritage site, is about five minutes on foot from the shop. The roosters appear in the cockfight episode of the Battle of Dan-no-ura, as told in The Tale of the Heike, a famous Japanese historical epic. Tokei Manju are made with Wakayama-grown ingredients: smooth, house-made bean paste wrapped in a thin skin and baked. They come in two flavors. The white package holds a yuzu (Japanese citrus) filling, and the red one holds a tangy-sweet ume plum filling.

Kasho Ninomiya

Address: 27 Shimoyashiki-cho, Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Kagerou is one of Wakayama’s most popular souvenirs. A specialty of Fukubishi, a long-established shop in Shirahama Town, it sandwiches mildly sweet buttercream between light, melt-in-your-mouth layers of cake. It has been a bestseller since its release in 1967, loved by every generation, and its 40-day shelf life makes it an easy gift to carry home. At Kagerou Cafe, next to the main store, you can try Nama-Kagerou, filled with fresh whipped cream.

Fukubishi Main Store (Kagerou Cafe)

Address: 1279-3 Shirahama Town, Nishimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Usukawa Manju (“thin-skinned manju”) originated in the late 19th century, during the Meiji era, when sweeter confections were generally considered better. Its creator took a different approach, developing a less-sweet treat that was ahead of its time. Smooth, mildly sweet red bean paste, made in-house, is wrapped in a delicate layer of dough and steamed to perfection. The result is a light, easy-to-enjoy sweet that leaves you reaching for another. Its shape is inspired by Hashigui-iwa Rock, a scenic landmark in Kushimoto Town at the southernmost tip of Honshu. In addition to the Main Store, these treats are available at the Sanbashi and Hashigui stores, both in Kushimoto Town, and the Kintetsu Store in Wakayama City.

Usukawa Manju Gihei Main Store

Address: 1851 Kushimoto, Kushimoto Town, Higashimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture

Parking: Available

Use the map to find where to buy the sweets featured in this article.

*For products sold at more than one location, the pin marks the head office or main store. Please check each shop’s official website for details.