Kakigōri good!

It has been so hot here in Tokyo since we got back from the States. Most days have been filled with 95 degree fahrenheit (35 degree celsius) temperatures or over and high levels of humidity. It feels like you are walking into a sauna while wearing a hot wet blanket when you go outside. Yesterday the babe and I walked down to the grocery store to pick up a carton of milk and some other essentials. After doing our shopping we could not help but stop at our little kakigōri stand set up in the parking lot of the store. I scanned the list of flavor options and ended up choosing melon. It was so good. Nothing tastes better on a hot Tokyo day than kakigōri. This morning I woke up thinking that I may need to revisit the kakigōri man, but as I type this post I can hear the sounds of distant thunder and the view out of my living room is one of a stormy sky.

Today I may not need the kakigōri man, rain may cool Tokyo down for me.

Kakigōri (かき氷) is the Japanese version of a snow cone/shaved ice. However, unlike a lot of snow cones that you get in the States, the ice for kakigōri is actually shaved by an ice shaving machine. This makes the ice kind of crispy instead of crunchy.

Watching my kakigōri man, he would shave a small amount of ice into a cup off of a big block of ice using his ice shaving machine. He then added some syrup and repeated this process. As a result, I had a wonderful distribution of syrup throughout my ice, making it even yummier.

Kakigōri is very popular in Japan during the hot summer months. Street vendors sell it, as well as some convenience stores and coffee shops. Kakigōri can always be found at matsuri (Japanese summer festivals) as well. Kakigōri is so popular in fact, that a French restaurant in Tokyo came up with a version that replaces the syrup with Dom Perignon champagne.