It’s official: Shirokiya now totally food-crazy

Forget the electronics and most of what you walked past on your way to the upstairs food. In the latest phase of its 350-year evolution, Shirokiya — whose Ala Moana store is the last in Hawaii, and locally owned — has given over virtually half its first floor to Japanese desserts.

Most of it’s the boxed or packaged kind, from name-brand confectioners scattered throughout the motherland, but there’s also a juice and green tea counter, fresh donuts, mochi and manju, and seating next to Saint-Germain bakery where the massage chair demos used to be.

If you missed the 9:30 a.m. grand opening last Sunday, here’s a slice of the scene.

Shirokiya Meika Plaza, 1F
Ala Moana Center
9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

Special thanks to Bernice Kisako Yamagata Hirai for her command encore performance on the koto