Power spot

Enjoy the famous soft serve ice cream at Marukanville's Large Restaurants! [Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture]

Marukan Building Daishokudo, located in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, is famous for its 10-tiered soft-serve ice cream.It is a large restaurant with a retro Showa atmosphere that offers everything from ramen to sushi to Western food.

When I was on a trip to Hanamaki, I really wanted to try this soft serve ice cream, so I stopped by, but it was a nostalgic space for the Showa generation, and an emotional space for the Heisei and Reiwa generations.

This time, I would like to introduce you to Marukan Building Daishokudo.

Hanamaki City where Marukan Building Daishokudo is located

From Iwate Prefecture Tourism Portal Site

Hanamaki City is located almost in the center of Iwate Prefecture. The only Iwate Hanamaki Airport in the prefecture, Shin-Hanamaki Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen, and the automatic road across the Tohoku Expressway and the Tohoku Crossing are now being developed, making it a key point in the expressway network.
It is one of the leading hot spring resorts in Tohoku, including Hanamaki Onsen, which has been a hot spring resort for a long time, Towa Onsen, which springs up in the Kitakami Mountains, and Sunflower Onsen, which is rich in negative ions.
In addition, sake brewing has been popular and has produced many famous brewers, and Nanbu brewers are considered one of Japan's three major brewers.

Hanamaki City has produced many famous people.

is famous as the birthplace of Miyazawa Kenji, known for its fairy tales and poetry There are also facilities scattered around where you can trace Kenji's footsteps, such as the Miyazawa Kenji Memorial Hall and Miyazawa Kenji Fairy Tale Village

Other great people who have seen and heard of it at least once, such as Nitobe Inazo, famous for his portrait of the old 5,000 yen bill , and Takamura Kotaro from the poem collection "Chieko Sho." In fact, there is a connection to Hanamaki.

Recently, Otani Shohei and Kikuchi Yusei, have also graduated from Hanamaki Higashi High School. I spend my youth in Hanamaki.

Monument commemorating the election of Yusei Kikuchi and Shohei Otani

Hanamaki Higashi High School , the alma mater of Kikuchi Yusei and Otani Shohei, has a monument with handprints.

To commemorate the selection of the 2021 MLB AII-Star Game Hanamaki Onsenkyo has presented it to Hanamaki Higashi High School. It seems that you can also compare it to your own hands.

Both of them were both academics and athletics and had excellent results. I would like to appreciate the success of the two of them.

Hanamaki Higashi High School <Information>

  • Name: Behind the Hanamaki Higashi High School ground back net
  • Location: Hanamaki Baseball Stadium 2nd Parking Lot in front of Hanamaki Higashi High School, 55-1 Shozonocho, Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture
  • Access: 7 minutes by car from Hanamaki Station, 18 minutes by car from Shin-Hanamaki Station
    *This is within the grounds of Hanamaki Higashi High School, so please observe moderation when visiting.

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Good old Marukan Building restaurant from the Showa era

From Iwate Prefecture Tourism Portal Site

Marukanville Restaurant opened as a cafeteria on the 6th floor of the Marukan Department Store (commonly known as Marukan Department Store), which was founded in 1973. However, the earthquake resistance diagnosis in the summer of 2015 was diagnosed as maladaptive, and it was difficult to survive, so it closed once in June 2016.

In response to the signing of a local Hanamaki high school student's cafeteria, and growing public comments about the closure of the cafeteria, the cafeteria on the 6th floor resumed in February 2017. Kamimachiya Morisha Co., Ltd. raised funds through crowdfunding, and the funds were apparently over 20 million yen. It is clear that it is a restaurant loved by the local community.

When you go to the cafeteria on the 6th floor, you will be greeted by food samples lined up in a showcase. The inside of the dining room is very spacious, and everything including the tables, chairs, lighting, and chopstick holders are very emotional. It's like traveling back in time to the Showa era. Also, the waitresses' costumes are so cute that it looks like a Showa era maid cafe.

After choosing a menu from the retro food samples, purchase a meal ticket at the cash register. The spacious restaurant seats 580 people. On the day I visited, it was crowded with many locals as well as tourists.

Marukan Building Daishokudo's famous soft serve ice cream

When you think of soft serve ice cream, you'll think of it as soft and thawed quickly.
However, the 10-tier soft serve ice cream at Marukanville's Large Dining Room is different. I was watching the soft serve ice cream make, and the way they piled up 10 steps while stretching out the cream was like Turkish ice cream. Apparently it is about 25cm tall

This towering, hearty soft serve ice cream is eaten with chopsticks! I also used chopsticks carefully.
The soft serve ice cream, made for a little bit, has a smooth texture and is not too stubborn, so you can eat it in no time. However, it was quite a lot, so it was delicious with the kids.

It seems that this soft serve ice cream was a standard size when it was first sold. The founder of the former Marukan Department Store wanted to make his customers happy, and his favorite phrase was ``make things even better.'' During this time, during a TV interview, an enthusiastic staff member rolled up a soft serve ice cream in 10 layers to ``make it even better'' and that's how it all started. It's funny that it's now a specialty!

Popular menus are Marukan Ramen and Napoli Katsu

Marukanville Restaurant has over 110 dishes, including ramen, set meals, Japanese, Western food, and desserts. I was amazed at how abundant it is!

I mainly visited for the soft serve ice cream, but there were many locals enjoying their meals around me.

So, I looked into the popular menu items and Marcan Ramen and Napoli Katsu are recommended.
Marukan Ramen is a spicy, spicy ramen with plenty of ingredients such as vegetables, mushrooms, and kamaboko.
Naples Katsu is very voluminous. It comes with a generous amount of Neapolitan and a whole piece of freshly fried cutlet that you can cut the meat once you receive your order. There are plenty of salads on the same plate. It's filling enough to eat.
This is a popular menu that is often sold out, so we recommend visiting early.

Chocolate banana crepe that Shohei Otani also ate

The performance of the Japanese national team at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is still fresh in our memories.

In hoping for Otani Shohei to perform well at WBC, , became a hot topic at Marukanville Cafeteria

In fact, the chocolate banana crepe that Shohei Otani also ate was sold at the food court of a commercial facility in Hanamaki City.
The food court closed in 2022, and Marukan Building Daishokudo has revived it using the same ingredients and method. He learned the recipe from the sales company and also took over the machine used to bake the 40cm diameter crepe dough, creating crepes that faithfully reproduce the taste and texture of those days.

It seems that the limited edition crepes were sold out every day.
You can currently purchase it at the web shop. (Information as of July 2023) I definitely want to try the crepe that Shohei Otani also ate!

summary

Marukan Building Shokudo is located in the center of Hanamaki, but there were few people passing by and it seemed a little lonely.
However, the dining room on the 6th floor was crowded with many customers in a space that made you feel like you had traveled back in time to the Showa era! It's sad to see the good old days of local shopping streets, not just Hanamaki, disappear.
I hope that the Marukan Building Diner, which is loved by everyone, will continue to be loved in the future! We hope.

Marukanville Restaurant <Information>

  • Name: Marukanville Restaurant
  • Address: 6-2 Kamimachi, Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture
  • Phone number: 0198-29-5588
  • Business hours: Weekdays 11:00-15:30 (15:00 LO) Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays 11:00-18:30 (18:00 LO)
  • Official URL: Kamimachiya Morisha – Marukan Building Restaurant

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