Izumiya

Izumiya’s modest presence and diminutive size belies its outsized popularity. Queues of customers frequently form at its door to savour lushly delicious home-made ice cream in the spectacular surrounding countryside of highland scenery set between the Kuju Massif mountains and Mt. Aso, Japan’s largest active volcano.

Izumiya was established as a boutique parlour by its husband and wife team 40 years ago and together they craft some of the best ice cream found in Japan. The husband swears by the milk of a locally raised herd of Swiss Brown, or Braunvieh, dairy cows, a rare breed in Japan. They harness this milk’s high fat and protein content to create a creamy ice cream with a delicately rounded flavour. Soft ice cream is served in freshly made waffle cones and, besides vanilla, come in a range of natural flavours including peanut, green tea, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry and kabosu citrus. Hard ice cream comes in these flavours plus sesame and ume plum. Izumiya also specialise in Skyr, a yoghurt-like cheese that originates from Iceland.