Visited to purchase souvenirs during a trip to Kameoka. The store was bright and had a factory direct sales atmosphere where you could probably do tastings if it weren't for Corona. Since tastings were not available, I carefully considered and ended up buying Kinpira Gobo and Sansho Kogane. Each item had a label indicating whether it was hard or soft, which was helpful. Both items had a strong flavor and were very delicious. The staff at the store were also very friendly. Thank you for the meal! I heard there is a branch in Kyoto as well, so I will visit there next time!

Various flavored slim mayonnaise rice crackers. I finished the whole bag in one go (^q^)

Tamba Kameyama yaki. I was attracted by its glossy soy sauce color and couldn't resist buying it. When I opened the package, a fragrant rice aroma reminiscent of "arare" filled the air. The anticipation was high. When I tasted it, it was just as I expected. Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. They use Tamba-grown Shinba Nijumai rice and black soybeans, showing their commitment to quality ingredients. They also have plain and salad-flavored versions. I only saw the soy sauce flavor when I bought it, but it's definitely a top-notch product. I'm glad I bought several bags as souvenirs! Great choice!

August 17, 2013. A friend who had been hospitalized was discharged and I received a "get well soon" gift~♪ Congratulations on your recovery and thank you very much. This time, I received a set of Tanba Kameyama-yaki (580g). When I opened the box, I found various types of rice crackers inside, all looking delicious~♪ Personally, my favorite was the Tanba Kameyama-yaki with soy sauce made from Tanba rice and black beans. The soy sauce flavor was rich, and the texture of the black beans was just perfect. (There were also lightly flavored ones and slightly sweet ones!) The rice crackers wrapped in seaweed were also tasty~♪ The overall texture of the rice crackers was just right, not too hard. I enjoyed my rice cracker life for about a week~ｗ Thank you for the treat~ January 2014. A friend from Kameoka brought me a New Year's gift when they visited Osaka~♪ This time, it was New Year's arare. It was so lovely. There were six small bags containing various types of arare. Each bag had just the right amount that made you think, "I want more, but I can resist, but I also want more." Personally, I'm not a fan of the sweet arare with sugar (just stating my preference). But I enjoyed the other types of arare very much~♪ Thank you for the treat~

Today's tea sweets were received from a customer. It was a set of assorted snacks from the Hosuzu River Arare Honpo. It was written on the sash, "Hobby Hail." The small bags contained seaweed rolls, zarame, sesame, and more. Each one had a polite greeting, and for some reason, the phrase "it is" was written, which felt somewhat assertive. The "Kakimochi" was a large square piece with soy sauce sprayed on the surface. The unique flavor of soy sauce may be a love-it-or-hate-it situation. The "Sesame" had a fairly dense amount of fragrant black sesame in soy sauce-based arare. This one was quite popular.

In Kanto, there are high-quality hand-baked rice crackers that are simple with just rice and soy sauce, like the ones from "Iriyama Senbei" in Asakusa. They are crispy with a bit of burnt edges, salty soy sauce flavor. "Iriyama Senbei" is especially delicious. It's rare to find rice crackers that can compete with just soy sauce flavor. Many rice crackers are seasoned with sauce before being baked, but if not done well, they can taste cheap. There are, of course, delicious rice crackers that are well-balanced even with seasoning sauce (although I can't think of any off the top of my head). I came across a large rice cracker that I thought was a senbei or arare, but it turned out to be "arare." It looked like soy sauce senbei. The shine was a bit concerning, but it looked delicious and was slightly more expensive, so I decided to buy it. I took a bite. It was sweet. A sweet soy sauce flavor. I wonder if arare from western Japan tends to be this sweet... The ingredients listed were glutinous rice, soy sauce, sugar, starch, dextrin, spices, seasoning, and more. I was surprised to see so many ingredients. I expected a high-quality arare to only have glutinous rice and seasoning. Perhaps it's because it's mass-produced in a factory. After taking a bite, my family said the taste was off. Indeed, there was something unnatural about the taste (or aroma)... I wonder if it's because of the spices. Why use spices? What are the starch and dextrin used for? I was left with questions about this arare.

Every month, on the days with a 9 in them, there is a special discount day at this factory direct store where 150g of "warearare" is sold for 324 yen. Today, there was a special deal where you could get 3 packs of rice crackers that are normally 540 yen each for a total of 1080 yen. This new factory store is clean and offers a wide variety of rice crackers for tasting. You can also enjoy coffee or tea while you shop. They have an online shop as well, but if you can, it's worth stopping by in person. There is also a section at the Nishimura Kameoka store near JR Kameoka Station. It's a great place to pick up souvenirs while enjoying a boat ride down the Hozugawa River. The rice crackers are labeled with a hardness scale from 1 to 5, so you can choose your preferred texture. The sweet soy sauce flavor with a hardness level of 1 is very soft and has a crispy texture that is popular among older customers. You can even order delivery on the spot, making it a convenient option for small gifts. Once you try these rice crackers, you'll be hooked on their delicious taste.

In Kameoka, this shop is known for its arare, often used as gifts. They also offer warabi mochi and ayu sweets, perfect for this season. But what I want to introduce is their Mochitto Pie. It's chewy like mochi but also crispy like pie, priced at 157 yen each. When you go at 9 am, you can enjoy freshly baked warm pies. The shop allows you to sample arare and offers complimentary tea or coffee. I bought the Mochitto Pie and Minazuki (157 yen each) this time. The Mochitto Pie has a shelf life of 2 days, making it difficult to ship long distances, but it makes a great souvenir. The karinto manju is also highly recommended.

While I was out driving, I stumbled upon a shop with a beautiful exterior and couldn't resist going in. Inside the shop, there were so many varieties of rice crackers that I had a hard time choosing. There were many intriguing options, but what caught my eye was the rice cracker with sugar coating - a unique texture! The light rice cracker paired perfectly with the sugar! It was so delicious! Also, you can see them making the rice crackers inside the shop, which was fun and made me want to visit again for sure.

Subtle Misunderstanding Ryuichi Ishii and Kazuya Yoshii A colleague at work who had to take time off for recuperation after contracting COVID-19 brought in some sweets as an apology for causing inconvenience. It seems like there is an unspoken rule in our workplace that if you are absent for a while due to COVID or any other reason, you should bring in some kind of sweets as a gesture of apology. Well, it was indeed tough for everyone while you were away. But even so, it's painful to have to spend money on treats when you're already losing pay for being off work. I definitely need to be extra careful to avoid getting sick with COVID or the flu! So, I received a snack called "Hosaki Asobi," which contains seven different types of rice crackers - white sesame, black sesame, seaweed, salt, soy sauce, sugar-coated, and softly soy sauce-flavored. They are bite-sized snacks that you can enjoy when you're feeling a bit peckish, and it's nice that each flavor comes in a separate pack. All the flavors were delicious, but my favorite was the sugar-coated one. I seem to prefer sweet and salty snacks over salty ones. If you ever have to take time off work for COVID recovery, it's a good idea to think about what kind of sweets to buy for an apology. Any recommendations?

A long-established rice cracker maker located in Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture. I received this product as a return gift for hometown tax payment. It is a set of 10 bags of "Hozugawa Arare Honpo Unsorted Rice Crackers", with each bag weighing 120g, totaling 1.2kg. The donation amount was 10,000 yen. The sticky rice used is domestically produced. The crackers have a light and crispy texture, with a satisfying crunch. The taste of the rice is prominent, and the seasoning on the surface is slightly strong. It may make your throat dry after eating. Despite being labeled as unsorted, the quality is excellent and doesn't feel like a mix. Personally, I love rice crackers, so having so many of them makes me happy.

I received a variety pack of rice crackers. They looked to be of high quality, and first, the rice cracker in the photo. It had a nice crispy texture and the soy sauce seasoning was well absorbed. Next, the bite-sized sesame rice crackers. These were also flavorful and delicious.

I obtained "Tamba Kameyama Ware (unsalted)" at a supermarket in Minamirinka for 500 yen excluding consumption tax. The expiration date is over 3 months, so I will enjoy it as a snack after meals. According to the website, the main product is called "Arare Ichiryo," but the "Tamba Kameyama Ware (unsalted)" also won the Honorary President's Award at the 24th Confectionery Grand Exhibition (Technical Division). It seems to have less beans compared to "Arare Ichiryo," but I tried 4 out of 9 pieces, hoping for Tamba-grown mochi rice (Hanejyu). It has a crispy and light texture. The salt used is apparently from Izu Oshima, and it has a delicious umami flavor.

On January 4, 2021 (Monday), the first day of work, I was eating one of the snacks I received at the end of the year. It was a bag of "Sankuruzeru" from a station building. The snack was called "Choco Arare Matcha" from the Hosokawa Arare Honpo Watanabe Seika. It was a stylish and perfect snack for enjoying with tea, with matcha-flavored hail. The Hosokawa Arare Honpo Ararekan Factory Direct Store was listed on Tabelog, so I posted it here from my blog.

I came across the "Hozu Gorge" package in the rice cracker section at YOROZ. I had purchased this before at Kamitsumi Mantokudo and it was delicious! The package confirmed that it was the same product. I also bought the "Yakata" variety which contained bite-sized seaweed-wrapped rice crackers. The packaging can be resealed, which is convenient. The rice crackers are flavored with just the right amount of soy sauce, and the seaweed wrapping is high quality. The Yakata variety includes three types of rice crackers with different soy sauce levels and flavors, all of which were delicious. It felt like there was a hint of dashi broth in the flavor. I couldn't stop eating them. I would definitely visit again and buy more whenever I visit Kyoto. Thank you for the delicious snacks!

I received some vegetable rice crackers as a souvenir. They were wrapped in colorful packages and were a hit at the small party. I also enjoyed them as they had a light texture and a subtle vegetable flavor. It was easy to eat many of them because of their lightness.

I love salty snacks, especially rice crackers, more than sweet treats. I have always had a weakness for rice crackers since I was a child, and even now I can't resist buying delicious-looking rice crackers (especially soy sauce flavored ones). Some reviewers have started calling me the "salty ostrich" because of my preference for salty snacks. This time, I tried some rice crackers from the "Hozugawa Arare Honpo" at Senri Hankyu department store. I bought the "cracked rice crackers" and the "seaweed stick Kinuware." These products are offered at a discounted price because they are made from cracked pieces during the manufacturing process. The salesperson assured me that the taste is the same as the regular ones. I bought two bags (I think it was around 300 yen per bag) and as soon as I got home, I couldn't wait to try them. The cracked rice crackers had a rich soy sauce flavor, perfect for someone like me who loves soy sauce-flavored snacks. The seaweed sticks also had a strong soy sauce flavor with the added taste of seaweed, making them delicious. It might feel a bit too salty if you eat a lot, but for those who enjoy intense soy sauce flavors, these snacks are irresistible. "I can't stop eating these addictive soy sauce rice crackers. Thank you for the treat."