"Get some Horaku Manju for me if you go to the city!" My grandmother often asked me. I often stopped by this shop to eat their shaved ice with my friends after high school and get some manju (Japanese cake) for her. It is hard to decide between the red or white bean varieties, but I ate both eventually. The manju is a round cake about 8 cm in size, filled with a sweet bean paste and quite heavy, but it was a piece of cake for a high school girl to eat two pieces.
From the street you can see the chefs making manju through the shop window and the aroma pulled me in. My grandmother was happy to receive some manju from me so many year later. The combination of the fragrance on the outside with just the right amount of sweetness from the bean paste inside is exquisite.
Minamata City is the birth place of Horaku Manju, but you could purchase them at the shops in Kamitori, Tsuruya Department Store and Kotsu Center in Kumamoto City. One manju is reasonable at just 80 yen and with its exquisite taste, it would make a good souvenir to people outside of Kumamoto.
