Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake with More than 110 Years Is Slightly Sweet and Very Soft -Suetsugu Shokai in Kyowa-

Suetsugu Shokai (末次商会) is a Japanese confectionery store near Kozawa station (小沢駅) in Kozawa, Kyowa town and is famous for selling Kozawa's local specialty sweets "Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake (トンネル餅)". The Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake was made in commemoration of the completion of Inaho Tunnel for Hakodate Main Line with great difficulty construction by the founder, Mr. Kyutaro Nishimura (西村久太郎), in 1904. This is the longtime seller Japanese sweet more than 110 years. By the way, the son of Mr. Kyutaro Nishimura is Mr. Keiyu Nishimura (西村計雄), Japanese painter, and Keiyu Nishimura Memory Museum (西村計雄記念美術館) is built in the Kyowa town.

I visited here around 14:00 on weekdays. The store looked like an atomosphere such as a cafe, but they were not seem to serve a meal. Except the Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake, something like snacks and key rings of Kozawa Station were sold. There were an owner and his mother at the store and they were very kind.

About 6 boxes of Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake were piled up on a counter and one box was sold for JPY 400. I bought 1 box of Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake, and I went to Kozawa Station to eat those becase the Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake was related a railroad. There were 8 beautiful white Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake in one box with thin sheet of wood. Probably those mochi cakes will not stay good for more days without using food additive and food preservative. A sliced of Tunnel-mochi Rice Cake with light green and light pink lines is slightly sweet and very soft. This is not an ordinary rice cake, and I felt a texture like a thin skin rice cake of Yukimi Daifuku, famosu mochi ice cream, and it was very tasty! The sweetness was not too much, and I ate up soon.

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