Nagano, Japan｜Irohado Kinasa

Great place to eat Oyaki. It has great old house-y interior and I loved the experience. It delivers frozen oyaki as well.

Best oyaki ever. No doubt. Skin is thinner than other oyaki and stuffed decent volume of filling. This skin is the best, not too sticky but also a bit crispy. You can get frozen ones for long storage or ask to deliver them to somewhere in Japan, as well. Just be careful if you have buckwheat allergy, as the skin contains buckwheat flour.

Oyaki are an acquired taste, even among some Japanese people. Nagano Prefecture is best known for them. They're sort of like large dumplings with fillings that are unique to this general area. I think the most traditional filling is nozawana, a Nagano Prefecture vegetable (which is itself an acquired taste--you may want to start with eggplant or other fillings). I'm probably considered a "変な外人" (hen-na gaijin, or a foreigner with unusual tastes) for liking them so much, but I lived in Nagano for nearly four years and learned to really like oyaki (and I absolutely love this shop's oyaki). After nozawana, eggplant is probably the most common filling. This beautiful shop--a little out of the way along a small river--has several varieties of oyaki, and they are absolutely the best I have ever tasted. I don't think any other oyaki are even close, especially when these are freshly baked. Irohado also sells their oyaki at Nagano Station; check them out if you're there.