Tsuki no Oka

A trend-setting confectionary shop located just beyond the hustle and bustle of the Tsukioka Onsen hot spring district, the inner parlor of Echigo. Operating out of a century-old Japanese home moved to this location, the shop sells Japanese and Western-style confections made with local ingredients. Vaunted Yu Bijin Manju are made and sold by long-standing manju shop Yukido inside the establishment; these exquisite confections are made with molasses crafted from Okinawan kokuto brown sugar mixed with Yoshinohonkudzu and covered with a melt-in-your-mouth outer cake coating. In the middle of Japan’s sultry summer, customers are encouraged to cool them in a refrigerator before eating. The cream cheese-filled Tsukioka Cheese Manju; and Shio Daifuku dumplings, made with salt harvested on the Sasagawa Nagare coast, both made by Mochidokoro Maikiya, are also popular.