Dagashi Shop: CANDY STORE

An American dagashi shop, out of nowhere in the mountains

Deep in Aikawa, inside a leisure facility called QB BASE, stands “Dagashi-ya CANDY STORE”. The sign colors and the wooden exterior give it a West Coast small-town vibe. Nothing but forest around it — driving up, you half-wonder “wait, is there actually a shop here?” Step inside and it flips completely — you’re in a Showa-era dagashi shop. Umaibo, Big Katsu, fugashi and all the nostalgic penny candies line the shelves; adults walk in and immediately stop moving. The “American exterior × Showa interior” combo shouldn’t work on paper, but lands somehow. Kids find everything new; adults find everything nostalgic — an ideal exchange rate.

Not just candy — a small playground

The shop is peppered with extras beyond candy — miniature trains, old-school arcade machines, little details that catch a kid’s eye everywhere. You walk in thinking “quick stop for sweets” and look up 30 minutes later still inside. Time dissolves here.

Super-ball scooping for a year-round summer-festival feeling

In one corner, there’s a super-ball scooping setup with pure summer-festival booth energy. The same feeling of chasing colorful balls on the water’s surface with a paper scoop, available any time of year. Cheap enough that “do a round on the way to the register” is an easy yes.

The dedicated gacha room quietly steals the show

Personally, the strongest impression came from the dedicated gacha room with machines covering every wall. The range is wide — mainstream anime capsules at one end, mysterious novelty items you can’t guess the point of at the other. The swing from “we got an amazing one!” cheers to “…what do we do with this” silence is gacha in its purest form. After a kid has happily burned through dagashi money, many parents end up accidentally feeding the gacha machines too.