One of the first activities I ever went out to do with my friends was when we visited the Ishiya Chocolate Factory, famous for its cookies known as “Shiroi Koibito.”
It was a Friday, one of the days of the rolling graduations for my language school. We had all gone to a restaurant across the street and were eating together when some of the people at my table started talking about going to this grand re-opening of a chocolate factory up north. One of the girls had to cancel last minute and offered me her ticket that they had reserved a few weeks ago. It included a tour, a cookie-making workshop, and access to the grounds of the factory. We had to rush, literally running through the station to make it on time for our scheduled cookie workshop.
The cookie making was super fun! We were each given pre-baked cookies in the shape of Hokkaido that we could decorate with various icings, chocolate, and little sprinkles. Mine was quite messy but I still think I did a fairly good job.
The factory sported a little cafe where we could order parfaits, tarts, cakes, the works. They were a bit pricy but we each ordered something individually and they were quite tasty. I would however not recommend the waffles.
I loved the experience and I ended up going back at a later date with my friend Mochi since she wasn’t in Japan the first time my friends and I went. This time, we signed up for a specialty tour that explained the history of chocolate. It was really fun, interactive, and really popular amongst families. They had translations in English, Chinese, and Korean.
