Study Abroad in Japan

With KCP International, you can earn more Japanese credit than you would in an entire year at your university. Plus, you can pick your start date!

Find out more

Learn Japanese Online

Immerse yourself in the heart of Tokyo with a wide variety of courses, flexible schedules and convenient packages you keep your experience easy!

Apply Now

Join Our Newsletter

Read all about Japanese immersion learning and studying abroad. Check out our eZasshi archives for more articles!

chirin-chirin ice cream

Chirin-chirin: Nagasaki’s Favorite Summertime Treat

Summer in Japan is full of fun and excitement.  The many summer festivals are much anticipated all over the country. Thrilling fireworks light up the evening sky and traditional folk dancing adds to the magic of summer.

Some of the more popular festival venues in the Tokyo area and surrounding vicinities include Tsurugaoka Hachimangu  in Kamakura, Samukawa Shrine in Samukawa, and  Enoshima Shrine in Enoshima.  There is also the Yokohama International Fireworks held at Yamashita Park in mid-July and the Sumida River Fireworks Festival in Tokyo held in late July.

Summertime in Japan also means cool delicious treats. A popular sweet summer treat is Kakigōri, composed of shaved ice usually flavored with syrup and condensed milk. There are also favorite summer Japanese dishes to help beat the heat and keep refreshed—cold sōmen, for example: boiled and chilled wheat noodles served with different types of topping and a refreshing dipping broth.

matcha kakigori

Matcha kakigori.

In Nagasaki, chirin-chirin has been around for about 50 years and remains a popular treat, not just during summer but all year round.  It comes in various flavors, but vanilla is the most popular. What makes it so special is its rose petal shape. The ice cream is similar to sorbet: light and refreshing, perfect for summer.

The ice cream is scooped into the cone a little at a time and rotated to form the delicate petals. The ice cream is sold in small carts usually manned by elderly ladies and sold for a reasonable 100 yen.

Chirin-chirin is an imitative word named after the sound of the brass bell ice cream vendors use to attract customers. The bell, according to most Japanese, sounds like “chirin-chirin”. The popular ice cream treat was made more resistant to falling when handled by excitable children by this style of scooping the ice cream into cones so as to prevent any more tears of disappointment. The child-proof scooping method coincidentally created the shape of a rose. Chirin-chirin is a beautiful and delicious way to beat the summer heat when in Japan.

Check out this video clip on how chirin-chirin is made:

Sign-up for our newsletter

Read all about Japanese immersion learning and studying abroad. Check out our eZasshi archives for more articles!