When I found out that the Pokémon With You charity foundation had teamed up with Nakauraya, a historic Japanese confectionary shop, I had to check out what their Wajima pudding was like for myself. While we couldn’t make the trip all the way out to Noto to help support them in person we were able to order from the online store. We were shocked by how quickly it came and even more delighted by how cute and delicious the puddings were. The sweet caramel sauce topping of this collaboration? It supports the recovery efforts in the Noto Peninsula following the 2024 earthquake.
About the Pokémon With You Charity Foundation
The POKÉMON with YOU initiative began with the hope of returning smiles to children who were deeply traumatized by the Great East Japan Earthquake that struck eastern Japan on March 11, 2011. While reconstruction has progressed, many children still need support. Furthermore, in recent years, major natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons have occurred not only in Tohoku but also in other parts of Japan. Pokémon are always by your side. This initiative to bring smiles to children in disaster-stricken areas will continue as the core of POKÉMON with YOU and expand its reach from Tohoku to all of Japan.
The 2024 Noto Earthquake
On January 1, 2024 a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck just 6 km northeast of Suzu which is located on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa. The shockwaves and eventual tsunami caused widespread destruction to the area especially the towns of Suzu, Wajima, Noto, and Anamizu. There was also damage reported in the Toyama and Niigata prefectures. The natural disaster damaged over 200,000 structures, injured thousands of people, and lead to over 700 casualties. It was one of the deadliest earthquakes in the country to occur since the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Today many scars still remain from the disaster but the recovery efforts are going strong as are the people of the areas affected.
About Nakauraya
Source: Nakauraya Online Shop
The Nakauraya confectionary shop was first established in 1910 and is famous for their yuzu sweets such as yubeshi which is a form of candied yuzu that is carefully handcrafted over 6 months. Their company aims to respect Japan’s history and traditions while experimenting with new ideas. They were affected by the 2024 Noto earthquake and created an online shop while they work on rebuilding and so they can continue to offer their products to everyone.
Wajima Pudding ~Connecting Noto with Pokémon~
According to the official product description: This rich pudding, characterized by its melt-in-your-mouth smooth texture, is carefully handcrafted one by one using eggs and milk raised on the Noto Peninsula, a World Agricultural Heritage site, and other fresh ingredients. It can be enjoyed as is or with the included caramel sauce to your liking.
The packaging features various Pokémon embodying the wish for recovery and the desire to “bring smiles to Noto.”
Ingredients: [Pudding] Milk (raw milk from Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture), eggs, sugar, cream, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla flavoring [Caramel Sauce] Sugar
We purchased the 3 pudding set from the online shop for 1,683yen.
The website description honestly was not overembellishing. This pudding was simple yet so delicious and you could really just taste the quality in the simplicity and ingredients. There was so much care put into this product. The pudding had a rich texture with a very gentle flavor and adding the caramel sauce gave it that extra boost of sweetness to turn it into a great little snack.
While the Pokémon theming itself was also simple I did appreciate that it was wrapping on top so they weren’t damaged. I plan to reuse the wrappers in a scrap book later to preserve the memories.
I will say that the shipping basically doubled the price considering it was cooler box and such a fresh product it was basically expedited shipping. However, it arrived so quickly we could hardly complain and it all goes to a good cause.
If you can visit the actual stores and also the Noto Peninsula sights I highly recommend it but if you can’t then I definitely say this is a Japanese snack worth paying the premium for if you happen to be a pudding and Pokémon fan.
Would you like to try out the Wajima pudding from Nakauraya? Have you ever participated in any of the Pokemon with You activities or collaborations before? Have you ever visited Noto Peninsula or plan to? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Useful Links
Nakauraya Online Shop: https://nakauraya.base.shop/
Pokemon With You Website: https://www.pokemon-foundation.or.jp/
Visit Kanazawa Trip to Noto: https://visitkanazawa.jp/en/trip-ideas/detail_491.html
Noto Peninsula Ishikawa Tourism Website: https://www.ishikawatravel.jp/en/destinations/noto/
