Hanshin Umeda runs a third Amami Islands products fair on its Umeda food terrace

Hankyu Hanshin Department Stores is holding the third edition of its Amami Islands regional-products fair, “Amami Islands Wonder Trip 3,” at Hanshin Umeda Main Store's first-floor Food Festival Terrace from 23 to 28 September, the H2O Retailing subsidiary said.

The fair centres on a tasting bar pouring more than 30 varieties of black-sugar shochu (a spirit distilled from sugarcane) from roughly 25 distilleries across the Amami islands, the company said. Food stalls will sell keihan (a shredded-chicken rice dish), tropical-fruit gelato in mango, passion fruit and island-tangerine flavours, mozuku seaweed tempura and craft cola syrup, alongside mud-dyed textiles, Oshima tsumugi silk weavings and shell jewellery that glows at night. A local radio station will broadcast live from the venue, and island song performed in the local dialect will run daily, according to Hankyu Hanshin.

Regional-products fairs like this — built around live tasting, food and a folk-culture programme rather than discounting — are one of the steadiest crowd-pullers in Japanese department-store retail, drawing repeat visits a straight apparel floor rarely manages. Running a third edition, rather than a one-off, suggests the format has earned a recurring slot on Hanshin Umeda's events calendar, and gives H2O a low-cost way to keep footfall moving through Umeda's food halls without competing purely on price.