Mitsubishi Estate Simon brings ten regional food stalls to Toki Premium Outlets for a gohei-mochi weekend
Ten gohei-mochi makers from Gifu's Mino region set up for a weekend at Toki Premium Outlets, the fourth year a tourism council and the mall have run the festival together.
Mitsubishi Estate Simon Co., Ltd. (三菱地所・サイモン株式会社) said it will run the fourth "Higashi-Mino Gohei-mochi Festival" (第4回東美濃五平餅まつり) at Toki Premium Outlets (土岐プレミアム・アウトレット) in Toki, Gifu Prefecture, on November 7 and 8, in the plaza in front of the mall's GAP store, according to an October 28 announcement. The event, organised jointly with the Higashi-Mino Historic Road Council (東美濃歴史街道協議会), runs 10am to 4pm each day, or until each stall sells out.
Ten gohei-mochi (五平餅, a grilled, skewered rice cake coated in a sweet-savoury glaze) makers from across the Mino region are taking part: Amakara Ena Honten (あまから恵那本店) of Ena, a 65-year-old shop near the former Oi-juku post town, selling a sesame-and-walnut soy glaze; Kiraku (喜楽) of Nakatsugawa, run by a fourth generation since 1943; Wakamatsuya (若松屋) of Tajimi, trading from the Taisho era inside Kokei Park; Shosei (正盛) of Kani, which fries its gohei-mochi rather than grilling it; plus Oshokujidokoro Yamato (お食事処 やまと, Tajimi, Sunday only), Konamonya (こなもん屋, Mitake), Doudan (どうだん, Nakatsugawa), Matsuya no Oyatsu (まつやのおやつ, Mitake), Minori (みのり, Nakatsugawa) and Roto-san Chi (ロトさん家, Toki). The operator said this year's vendor count is higher than the previous edition's, and that sauce, rice-cake shape and skewer style differ from shop to shop.
Running alongside is a specialty-goods sale from Sushikou (寿司幸) of Ena and the Toki City tourism association's Mototerasu Higashi Mino (もとてらす東美濃) stall, selling hoba-zushi (朴葉寿司, rice wrapped in a magnolia leaf) in packaging tied to the television drama VIVANT, along with kuri-kinton (栗きんとん) chestnut sweets and related chestnut confections.
For a tourism council whose gohei-mochi is otherwise sold across some 120 service-area and roadside-station stalls in the Mino region, a weekend inside an outlet mall's plaza is a different kind of distribution: a single stop that draws outlet shoppers rather than road travellers, four years running. For Toki Premium Outlets, about 180 brands on its own books, it is a low-cost way to extend a shopping trip into a food occasion without adding a tenant.