and I'm here today in zoshigaya Tokyo

zoshigaya is served by Tokyo's only  remaining streetcar line

the toden arakawa line

this is an area with many universities and temples  

it has a very calm atmosphere

so it is not surprising that is also a popular residential area with easy access to ikebukuro and mejiro

both of which can be reached on foot

passing through the approach to the temple

which has a lovely quiet atmosphere

you will find zoshigaya kishibojindo

the candy is  cheap and the kids will be happy

just coming here is enough to get them excited

so we found a retro candy store in the area

right behind me it looks really cool it  looks really old

let's check it out

Hello

This building is so old

It's from 1780?

It's very old

It has been 251 years

You speak English!

How long have you been in this store? -I'm 82 years old now

70 years

That's amazing

What do you recommend?

There are so many

This candy. Two types of candy

oh wow. It's like a hard candy

Fu. Welcome Cookies

This?

This is your recommendation? So many of them

The building has been the same all along?

Maybe renovated 30years ago

Amazing. A lot of kids come?

Oh yes -You must be happy

It's snack for kids

If you come here, you get memories of your childhood

People who were kids long ago comes here

People who are around 40 years old

They come here since they remember when they were kids

The father becomes interested in this. Kids now days only like characters in games so doesn't show interest

This is amazing. It's been here since 10 years old

She's in her 80s which I cannot believe, and she's been telling me which has been popular

This used to be popular, but not as popular now kids have their games that they play

so they mostly stick to the candy

some kids here today

and we're gonna buy some things and we're gonna taste it later

and see  what it's like

so it's gonna be a lot of fun

Thank you very much. Let's buy a lot

so this is good this is one of the  recommendations

so we have to try this one

And this one, too

and I am a kid in a candy store

my inside I'm like a child

outside I'm an adult

You recommended this so...

Take off, please

I should take off?

This?

Stop

okay I see

because they're all bundled  together so you pull the string

and then when she knows which one you pulled

and you can take it by yourself

that's interesting

so that keeps it safe

oh I see

of course it  Japan so I get a nice little bag

to keep it in

thank you

caramel

caramel?

some kind of caramel candy I'll  find out what it tastes like later  

and of course I get another little bag

thank you very much

a couple more things here

this one's  scary

this one's a little scary to me

This is taste of vinegar

Taste of vinegar yeah

all three? no no no

Like a squid

but not squid -Not squid!

so it looks like squid, but it's not actually squid

So this is snack as well?

so it's also candy

all right  if it's candy I have to try it

so which one do I choose?

I think I'll choose the scariest  looking one

it really looks like a squid

look at that

there's a lot of different things to  choose from here

I think I'll get one more thing

I don't want to break the bag

this one

it's bread!

so you can get bread so you can be  healthy while you're eating your candy  

and maybe the last one

maybe  maybe last one

how about this one

Konpeito

it's a sugar candy

sugar

that's all we need for candy

I love  it all right

so I feel like I bought a lot

but let's see how much it  actually costs me for all of this  

Ready? -ready

yeah all right we'll find out  how much did I actually buy

It's all in her head

this has been working here since she  was 10 years old

because it's so easy for her

to go through everything so quickly

I can't  keep track

832yen

832.

that's less than ten dollars

thank you

Thank you so much that was a lot  of fun

we got our bag of goodies

Thank you so much. Please be healthy

thank you we've got our goodies let's go

and this is what we bought from that well inexpensive candy store

laid it out here  on the bench for you found a nice little Park

where we can give a little test tasting of  all of these items

this one is the one that the lady at the shop she recommended for me

so I think that's one that I have to try first

it's interesting it smells almost like a little  bit burned

smell on like a charcoal smell

oh this is just straight sugar

with a little  bit of a maybe a candy coating

a brown sugar

very good

now I could continue eating all of  this

but I want to get more this one's fantastic

fantastic sugar

man I need to move on

to our next  one

so next one is this uh

like shape of a bread

because it's not bread

it looks like Bread、 look  at that how cute it is

it looks just like bread

surprisingly very good

but again, we need to move on

this one is probably the one that I'm the most scared about

it looks like dried  squid

I've seen this many times in Japan but this is supposed to be candy

it's  kind of a vinegar taste to it she said

it's just as hard as a squid  would be

and it smells like squid

it's not sweet at all

It's definitely  vinegar

and it really does taste like squid

so I'm gonna put that one back away

it's interesting maybe not for everybody

I need to take a look at another one of the candies that  the lady at the shop she recommended this one

no idea what it is

oh I don't  know what the taste is

so sweet

but it kind of melts in your mouth

and it is so good

so basically whenever a nice sweet old lady at a candy shop recommends candy

you need to trust her

this is fantastic

well I've got a lot more that I need to eat

but before I get to all that

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna waste your time with that

this was amazing  and it's really interesting to see the difference

I'm from America and the candy there it's a lot of chocolate it's a lot of really bright colors

these colors are a little bit more subdued, the flavors are not quite as strong not quite as sweet

I bet the packaging is all interesting  it looks so authentically Japanese

and it was just a real treat to eat all of this

I can't wait to finish some more

you need to try it too

next time you're in Japan check out these  Japanese candies

in Japan there are many such long and quiet places next to downtown areas like  zoshigaya

there are also many retro stores like today's Candy Store

and Cafe is filled with  delicious coffee and cakes and other snacks

and it's fun just to stroll around the  area with no particular goal in mind

so why don't you find your own favorite HideAway  restaurant that is not listed in the guidebooks