Matsuya's Official X Account Poses a Store-Guessing Quiz With Just One Photo and 'Where Is This?'

Matsuya’s official X account (@matsuya_foods) posted a single photo at 12:08 p.m. on October 4, captioned simply, “Where is this? (╹◡╹)” It appears to be the latest installment of the familiar store-guessing quiz, in which followers try to identify a location from a photo of store signage. As of this writing, no post has revealed the answer.

Just One Line, With No Word Naming the Store

The caption consists of nothing but the single line “Where is this? (╹◡╹)” and the emoticon (╹◡╹) the official account often uses. There is no corresponding source text in the official site’s announcements or menu descriptions, suggesting the wording was written from scratch by whoever runs the account.

This series has run intermittently since May, and looking back at past installments, the caption has always included the word “Matsuya” or “MATSUYA,” as in “Which Matsuya is this?” or “Matsuya Now — where is this?” This time, the caption is only “Where is this?” with no word naming the store at all. The only clues are the red circular logo and the “Matsuya” sign visible in the photo itself — a narrower way of posing the question than before.

The Recurring Store Quiz: The Answer Has Been Revealed Only Twice

The store-guessing quiz debuted on May 11, followed by installments on May 15, July 18, August 5, August 9, August 18 (posed as a video), August 23 (prefaced with “Matsuya Now”), and August 28. Through August the quiz ran at a high frequency of every four to nine days, but this time comes 37 days after the previous installment on August 28.

Of all the past installments, the official account itself has revealed the correct answer only twice. For the August 5 quiz, the next morning, August 6, brought the answer, “Shin-Matsudo, correct!,” naming the Shin-Matsudo Store in Chiba. For the August 23 quiz, the following night, August 24, revealed the answer as the Koka Minakuchi Store in Shiga (introduced as the first roadside store with a co-located Matsuya/Matsunoya format). Both answers came within a day of the quiz being posted, but no answer can be found for any of the other installments — they ended with just the question. This time, too, no answer has been revealed as of this writing.

The Photo’s Clues Point to a Leading Candidate

The photo looks up at a store entrance where a yellow sign bears Matsuya’s red circular logo alongside the blue characters for “Matsuya.” The entrance is glass-fronted, with recessed ceiling lights typical of a mixed-use building lined up overhead, and a “FREE Wi-Fi” sticker affixed to the glass.

Reflected in the glass in the foreground is the station building across the street, where the sign “Seibu Sayamashi Station / Sayamashi Station” can be made out. Given the location in front of Sayamashi Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line (in Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture), the leading candidate is the Matsuya Sayamashi Ekimae Store, located on the first floor of the station-front mixed-use building “Sky Terrace.” The store’s address is 1-3-2 Irumagawa, Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture. Since the official account has yet to reveal the answer, we’ll be waiting for a post confirming it.

Will the Answer Land Alongside This Week’s Other Milestones?

The week of this quiz is also a busy stretch for Matsuya. At 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 6, the new menu item “Neo Kashmir Curry and Rice” goes on sale just as the “Sumikko Gurashi” collaboration begins, and at 9:59 a.m. that same day, the second round of the “ONE PIECE” collaboration comes to an end. Whether this quiz, dropped amid a run of back-to-back announcements, will be followed by an answer as it was on the two previous occasions remains to be seen.