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1
Prepare the matcha syrup well in advance and chill it completely. Dissolve the sugar in the water over low heat, stirring until no granules remain. Remove from heat, whisk in the sifted matcha until fully incorporated and smooth, then refrigerate. The syrup must be more intensely sweet and concentrated than seems correct for a cold preparation — fine-shaved ice dilutes flavour rapidly, and a syrup that tastes almost too strong at room temperature will taste correct on the snow. The test: the syrup should coat the back of a spoon and taste assertively sweet and matcha-forward before it meets the ice.
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2
Prepare the shiratama dumplings. Mix glutinous rice flour with just enough cold water to form a soft, earlobe-pliable dough. Roll into small balls of roughly 2 cm diameter. Drop into boiling water and cook until they rise and float, then transfer immediately to ice water. They are done when they sit clearly proud at the surface and yield with gentle resistance to a fingertip.
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3
Set the serving bowls in the coldest available spot — shade seating is part of traditional service, and a pre-chilled bowl slows the melt that begins the moment shaving ends. Have the syrup, condensed milk, anko, and shiratama arranged and within arm's reach before a single stroke of shaving begins. Once the machine starts, there is no pause.
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4
This is where the dish lives or dies. Mount the ice block in the kakigori machine — manual or electric — and calibrate the blade angle to the block's crystal structure: a finer angle produces the powdery, feather-soft snow that defines artisan kakigori; too coarse and the result is granular, icy rubble rather than snow. Shave at an even, unhurried speed into the bowl, building a low, wide mound. The correct texture is a uniform, snow-like powder that holds its mounded form without collapsing — visually it should resemble undisturbed fresh snowfall, not crushed ice — and a pinch between the fingers should feel as dry and cold as powder snow, not wet or compacted.
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5
Spoon a pool of matcha syrup and a drizzle of condensed milk across the base of the mound, working quickly. Continue shaving a second layer of snow directly over this base to bury it — this is the kakushi-aji, the hidden flavour, the discovery element that reveals itself as the spoon descends. Tuck the anko into this mid-layer as the hidden flavour companion. The mid-layer should be fully concealed: no syrup colour visible at the surface.
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6
Crown the finished mound with the remaining matcha syrup drizzled in a slow spiral from the peak outward, a second drizzle of condensed milk, and the drained shiratama dumplings arranged at the summit. The finished kakigori should present as a clean white-green peak — the syrup descending in defined rivulets, not pooling into the ice. Serve immediately. Fine-shaved kakigori melts within minutes; the bowl must pass directly from maker to hand.