Some Sweet Deals to Be Had in Japan Port City

This is one of Japan’s most important ports, famous for its exceptional cuisine.

Tender and pricey Kobe beef tops the list of delicacies, and locally produced sake is considered Japan’s finest. Less known, but deserving of attention, are Kobe’s sweets.

This city is Japan’s confectionery capital. Dozens of shops make and sell an eclectic selection of traditional Japanese and Western-style sweets, and at reasonable prices.

Once a secluded port, Kobe was the gateway where Japan, after a long period of isolationism, tentatively opened its doors in 1868 for trade with the West.

Baked goods, previously little known in Japan (except for Castella, a still-popular spongecake that had been brought to Japan by the Portuguese during the 16th Century), became popular status symbols. Kobe was the place to get these goodies because Kobe was where the foreigners set up shops.

Over the years, Japanese bakers adopted and adapted recipes for butter cookies, rich yellow and chocolate cakes that are now readily available throughout Japan. But the best are still baked in Kobe.

Japanese traditional sweets, known as wagashi , are also produced in Kobe. Made of rice or wheat flour flavored with peanuts, poppy or sesame seeds and with an (azuki or white bush bean paste sweetened with sugar), these are steamed (rather than baked or fried) and are presented in the shapes of leaves, flowers and other forms. Recipes and decoration styles were originally imported from China in the 7th Century.

Sweet-Shop Hopping

Most of Kobe’s top confectioneries are within walking distance of Sannomiya and/or Motomachi stations, in the city’s main shopping and business district. Sweet-shop hopping is a favorite Kobe pastime.

Near Motomachi Station is Fugetsudo (3-3-10 Motomachi-dori), Kobe’s most famous traditional sweet shop, with tasty Japanese wagashi that are gift wrapped. The great artistry used in preparing and packaging these sweets and their healthful ingredients have made them popular in the West, but no import gourmet shop can duplicate the variety offered at Fugetsudo.

This family-owned business has been making wagashi since 1897. Assortments include sweet bean paste in rice flour pancakes, steamed rice flour or glazed sugar, green tea paste in white rice flour dough or bean paste in green tea dough (about $1 U.S. per piece), as well as small delicious ovals of sweet potato pie or cake (about $1.50 each).

The items are shaped like pretty little flowers or leaves and are individually wrapped in colorful bits of rice paper with traditional Japanese designs.

In addition to wagashi , Fugetsudo began making Western-style sweets after World War II and is famous for Marron Glace (glazed chestnuts; gift packs are about $10 and up), Simosan (small poundcake rectangles containing a rich rum-raisin-flavored cream; about $8 and up), and Gauffres (crispy wafers forming a sandwich around rich cream with coffee, vanilla or strawberry flavoring; gift wrapped assortments cost about $4 to $100).

Fugetsudo’s goodies are packaged in reuseable tins decorated with traditional Japanese designs or souvenir views of modern Kobe.

Traditional Sweets

Kameido Sohonten (6-13-17 Motomachi-dori) specializes in two traditional sweets: Manju is made with sweet bean paste wrapped in rice dough and steamed, and Kawarasenbei are crispy, roof-tile shaped cookies made from sweetened rice flour. Both come packed for travel and/or gift wrapped; prices begin at about $5.

Midway between Motomachi and Sannomiya Stations, Juchheim’s (1-4-13 Motomachi-dori), a German-style bakery, is credited with having brought the Western confectionery industry to Kobe.

The bakery was opened in the Meijiya store in Tokyo in 1921. Then it was opened in Yokohama in 1922 and moved to Kobe in 1924. Juchheim’s closed for a while after Juchheim died in 1945 and Mrs. Juchheim and her family were sent back to Germany. Employees reopened the shop in 1950.

Mrs. Juchheim returned to Kobe in 1953 and was decorated by the government in 1966. She died in 1977, but the shop, which has branches in West Germany in Frankfurt and Hauptwache, continues to attract customers from around the world. It is known for exceptional baumkuchen (which stays fresh for about a month and costs about $8) and an unusual rose or white wine-flavored cake (which lasts for about three weeks and costs about $8), as well as teegeback , a very popular gift-wrapped assortment of cookies and small pies (about $8).

Nearer to Sannomiya Station, Freundlieb German Home Bakery (1- 26-6 Nakayamate-dori) is another of Kobe’s oldest Western-style confectioneries. The shop was established by Heinrich Freundlieb, born in Germany in 1884 and taken captive by the Japanese during World War I. After his release, Freundlieb remained in Japan.

In 1919 he became the chief technical expert for the Shikishima Bread Co., and in 1924 he and his Japanese wife, Yoshi Takagi, started their own bakery. Freundlieb was succeeded by his son, Harry, who still runs the store.

Butterfly Cookies

Freundlieb makes melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies. Sold pre-packaged in small cellophane bags (about $4 per packet) or in prettily wrapped gift assortments (priced from about $20 and up), these are ideal souvenirs.

Additionally, Freundlieb makes delicate butterfly cookies (about $1.50 each) and has a tempting selection of fresh apple pie, Dutch almond pie, chestnut and jam pies (about $2 per slice), banana and walnut pastries (about $2 each), rare cheesecake (about $2.50 per slice) and a super-rich Schwartzwarter cake of chocolate, cream and cherries (about $3 per slice), as well as homemade bread crumbs (about $1.50 per package).

Nearby, Atenor (1-22-13 Nakayamate-dori) makes Gateau Atenor, a rich chocolate cake (about $2.50 per slice) that rival’s Freundlieb’s. Fraise a la reine is a superb strawberry and custard cream pie (about $3.50 per slice).

Kobe Gateau Club, pleasing pre-packaged gift assortments of pretty oval cookies and a rich butter cakes, sell for about $8 and up. Atenor makes chocolate animals (about $5 each) and excellent chocolate-covered cherries presented in a pretty wooden box for about $12.

Morozoff (Sun Plaza, First Floor, 1-5-2 Sannomiya-cho), one of Kobe’s most famous and elegant confectioneries, was established in 1931.

In addition to superb butterfly cookies topped with white chocolate (about $2 each), Morozoff makes delicate Swiss recipe yellow cakes prepared in the form of large flowers (from about $8) and individually wrapped bite-size cakes covered with slivered almonds or other toppings and sold in pre-packaged assortments (from about $8), and chocolates (gift wrapped assortments from about $10 and up).

Theme Packages

The truffles and pralines are rich and creamy, but best of all are the chocolate-covered chestnuts. Assortments of chocolates are sold in delightful theme packages for weddings, birthdays, Halloween and other holidays or special occasions. Particularly popular are the wedding and/or valentine assortments that present individually wrapped chocolates in heart-shaped boxes made of chocolate and covered with chocolate roses.

Cosmopolitan (1-3-6 Sannomiya-cho) provides take-home treats in the form of strongly brandied, but not too sweet chocolates named Odile (about $4 per 100 grams), and a mixture of fresh nuts and chocolates called Oakies (about $4.50 per 100 grams).

Seiyo Kashi Dokoro Fouquet’s (4-22-28 Yamamoto-dori) specialties include cheesecake (about $2 per slice), unusual baked pudding called shibusuto and green tea mousse (about $4 per serving).

Also for immediate gratification, Henri Charpentier (Ijinkan Club, First Floor, 4-1-12 Kitano-cho, near Kobe’s famous turn-of-the-century foreign residences) has extraordinary strawberry shortcake (about $3), crepes with fruit and fresh whipped cream (about $4.50 to $7 per serving) and sacher torte (about $2.30 per slice).

Although it’s a bit out of the way and requires a taxi ride, Kikusuisohonten (3-3-15 Tamon-dori), perhaps the most traditional of all Kobe’s sweet shops, deserves a visit.

The shop’s bakers divide the year into 36 terms to make and sell different, seasonally coordinated confections during each period.

Prices quoted in this article reflect currency exchange rates at the time of writing .