TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Overview
  2. Ingredients
  3. Making Food
    1. Oven Recipes
    2. Stew Recipes
    3. Cold Desserts Recipes
    4. Frying Pan Recipes
    5. Fried Foods Recipes
  4. Learning More Recipes
  5. Customers
  6. Requests
    1. Mood Cookies
    2. Lucky Charm
    3. Cool Clothes
    4. Invitation Bouquet
    5. Jewelry Box
    6. Calming Tea
    7. Surpise Pie
    8. Prank Feather Pen
    9. Fall-In-Love Cake
    10. Magic Lamp
    11. Enchanting Fragrance
  7. Daily Summary
  8. Helper Cat
    1. Place Items
    2. Product List
    3. Check Trends
    4. Customer List
    5. Check Requests
    6. Shop Information
  9. Storage Cat
    1. Collect Profit
    2. Call The Carpenter
    3. About Sales
    4. King's Request
  10. Evaluation
  11. Fairs
  12. King's Requests
  13. Rumors
  14. Changing From Kanji To Hiragana

OVERVIEW

I'll only be covering food here since that's the type of store I have, but a lot of this stuff probably applies to every kind of store. Similarly, I'm playing the 3DS title, but most things here probably apply to the DS games as well. I haven't been playing for very long, so I'll update this as I go and add more info, but this should be more than enough to get you started!
By the way, it's possible my game's text may look a little different from yours. If you're wondering why, it's because I... can't really read kanji so I changed the game's settings to make everything hiragana. I've switched into using kanji once just to check how different everything would look, and surprisingly, pretty much every menu option I cover in this guide as well as most keywords still seem to be written exclusively in hiragana, so I... don't think it'll be a problem. If you have any further questions, though, I'll probably be able to help you better if your game is also set to only use hiragana, so I'll explain how to do that at the end just in case.
Finally, to be clear, I'm not an authority on Magician's Quest or the Japanese language, I kind of just made this because it's... better than nothing, I guess! It's focused very specifically on making the shop system playable to people who can't read Japanese. If you can, there are plenty of better guides than this one, such as the one I frequently referenced while making this, or this other one that's much more complete but I find a little harder to navigate. Please note that I've never done anything like this before, so I apologize if it's not really helpful. Let me know if that's the case, I'll be happy to clear things up and make this guide better!
Extra special apology for the bad pictures haha, I don't have an emulator I can take screenshots of. Please don't make fun of my extremely dirty screen. Feel free to make fun of the stupid hat I'm wearing in some of the pictures, though.

INGREDIENTS

You can buy most ingredients at the beach, by entering the ship by the shore.
Hassan sells ingredients for every type of store, so if yours is for food, pick the first option. Here's what your ingredient store may look like, although Hassan gets new items in stock sometimes. Unfortunately I'm not sure what triggers this, but just give him some time and he'll probably stock new stuff. Sometimes certain items will be sold cheaper or more expensive than usual, and you can check this by looking above the item's price. If "やすい" is written in green, it's cheap. If "たかい" is written in red, it's expensive. Don't spend more money than you have to! If I'm not mistaken, these prices change daily. You'll notice some ingredients have something written above the name. That's regarding its flavor. If you use an ingredient with a certain flavor, it'll probably influence the final flavor of whatever you're making.
Once you select an item and choose the amount of it you want to buy, you're taken to this screen: If there are more things you want to buy, press the green button on the left, and once you're done, press the yellow one on the right.

MAKING FOOD

If you've ever tried to play this game but given up on cooking because you can't read Japanese so you don't understand the tutorials for it, don't worry: you're not missing out on much! They're pretty vague about everything. It's always "do this at the right time" or "do that when you're supposed to", and sometimes when you fail, they'll just say "You did that badly. Try not to be so bad next time". OK, man. Thanks, I guess. I'll try to help you the best I can, but there are a couple of recipe types I've never successfully completed haha...
Anyway, you have to speak to the cat with the chef hat to cook food. You can get to him by going through the doorway at the back of your food shop. From his explanation, it seems as though "arrange" refers to touching up clothing you make or taking photos of it. Because this guide is for food, I won't go into it.
After selecting "つくる" (create), you'll be asked to choose what kind of food you want to make (oven, frying pan, etc). You may notice there are small icons on the right of each recipe type. These indicate which minigames are involved in making each type of recipe. You can also take stuff out of your shop's storage by pressing the blue button on the bottom left.
In addition to the main ingredient and the condiment, the game will ask you to add two extra items that will pretty much give the dish its flavor (and greatly influence its price). Depending on what you're making you'll want to add vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, fish, berries etc.
I'd like to go into more detail about all recipe types here and how to clear each of their minigames, but I won't cover the decorating minigame that seems to be common to nearly all of them, because I think it's... impossible to fail. Just drag and drop your two additional ingredients onto the food you made. I wouldn't worry about it.
As far as which ingredients you'll want to use to make what, I've found this guide to be very useful and straightforward, and it'll probably make sense to you if you translate the page, but for ease of access, I'll list all the different combinations in each subsection.

  1. OVEN RECIPES

    Here are all the combinations for oven recipes:
    • こむぎこ (flour) / パンコ (panko) + イースト (yeast) = パン (bread)
    • こむぎこ (flour) / パンコ (panko) + ベーキングパウダー (baking powder) = マフィン (muffin)
    • こむぎこ (flour) / パンコ (panko) + バター (butter) = パイ (pie)
    • こむぎこ (flour) / パンコ (panko) + ピザソース (pizza sauce) = ピザ (pizza)
    • こむぎこ (flour) / パンコ (panko) + anything else = ケーキ (cake)
    • メンチ (minced meat) + anything = ミートローフ (meatloaf)
    • にく (meat) + anything = ローストビーフ (roast beef)
    • ごはん (rice) + anything = ドリア (pilaf)
    • パスタ (pasta) / ちゅうかめん (chinese noodles) / うどんメン (udon noodles) / そばメン (soba noodles) + anything = グラタン (gratin)
    The order in which you do these two minigames will depend on what you're making, and certain recipes don't even have both of them (tip: if you don't like mixing, try making pizza or the recipes that don't use flour). The order I'm following here is the one for making cakes, since that's pretty much the "default" recipe.
    The first step you'll take is mixing your main ingredients. Just continuously draw circles on your touch screen at a steady pace. If you're too fast or too slow, the bowl will tilt and the ingredients will start spilling, but if you're doing it correctly, the cats on the sides of the screen will sing and dance. The bowl tilts in the direction of whoever's going faster, so if it tilts to the left, you should slow down, and if it tilts to the right, you should speed up. During the last 10 seconds, once the bell rings, you have to speed up.
    The next step is baking your ingredients. The instructions tell you to tap the touch screen when whatever you're making is "browned", but watch out! I thought my cake looked pretty browned but I ended up failing the recipe because it was too soon. I'd say the most reliable way to clear this minigame with perfect timing is to watch the steam coming out of your product. It'll rise and fade at a steady pace all throughout, but the second it stops and completely disappears, tap the touch screen. It'll stop way at the right end of the dial, by the way, so don't be hasty!

  2. STEW RECIPES

    Here are all the combinations for stew recipes:
    • ミンチ (minced meat) / にく (meat) + コンソメ (consomme) = スープ (soup)
    • ミンチ (minced meat) / にく (meat) + anything else = シチュー (stew)
    • ごはん (rice) + カレールー (curry roux) = カレーライス (curry rice)
    • ごはん (rice) + デミグラスソース (demi-glace sauce) = ハヤシライス (hayashi rice)
    • ごはん (rice) + anything else = どんぶり (donburi)
    • パスタ (pasta) + anything = スープパスタ (soup pasta)
    • ちゅうかめん (Chinese noodles) + anything = ラーメン (ramen)
    • うどんめん (udon noodles) + anything = うどん (udon)
    • そばめん (soba noodles) + anything = そば (soba)
    There's only one step here, but it's a little longer than usual.
    Just continously draw circles at a steady pace, but pay attention to your broth, because you have to remove soup scum whenever it shows up by tapping it with your stylus. If you've ever turned your game off without saving, think of the dust you have to clean off of stuff. Scum looks pretty similar to that, only colored differently. It comes in various sizes, so pay close attention!
    Anyway, like with the oven's mixing minigame, if you're doing it at the correct speed, the cat will dance and sing. If you're going too fast, some of the soup will spill.

  3. COLD DESSERTS RECIPES

    Here are the two combinations for cold desserts recipes:
    • ミルク (milk) + シロップ (syrup) = パフェ (parfait)
    • ミルク (milk) + anything else = アイスクリーム (ice cream)
    There's only one minigame here, and it's the exact same mixing minigame as the oven one. I'll just paste the explanation for that one so you don't have to scroll back up:
    Just continuously draw circles on your touch screen at a steady pace. If you're too fast or too slow, the bowl will tilt and the ingredients will start spilling, but if you're doing it correctly, the cats on the sides of the screen will sing and dance. The bowl tilts in the direction of whoever's going faster, so if it tilts to the left, you should slow down, and if it tilts to the right, you should speed up. During the last 10 seconds, once the bell rings, you have to speed up.
    Also, it may be worth mentioning that the decorating phase of this one is a little different. Your secondary ingredients are already mixed in so instead of using them as toppings, you're just supposed to place two scoops on top of each other.

  4. FRYING PAN RECIPES

    Here are all the combinations for frying pan recipes:
    • こむぎこ (flour) / パンこ (panko) + ベーキングパウダー (baking powder) = ホットケーキ (pancake)
    • こむぎこ (flour) / パンこ (panko) + anything else = クレープ (crepe)
    • ミンチ (minced meat) + anything = ハンバーグ (hamburger)
    • にく (meat) + anything = ステーキ (steak)
    • ごはん (rice) + anything = チャーハン (fried rice)
    • パスタ (pasta) + anything = パスタ (pasta. Don't look at me, that's what it says.)
    • うどんめん (udon noodles) + anything = やきうどん (fried udon)
    • そばめん (soba noodles) / ちゅうかめん (Chinese noodles) + anything = やきそば (yakisoba)
    If you're making pancakes or crepes, you'll have to do the mixing minigame that's been mentioned previously. Here are the instructions again:
    Just continuously draw circles on your touch screen at a steady pace. If you're too fast or too slow, the bowl will tilt and the ingredients will start spilling, but if you're doing it correctly, the cats on the sides of the screen will sing and dance. The bowl tilts in the direction of whoever's going faster, so if it tilts to the left, you should slow down, and if it tilts to the right, you should speed up. During the last 10 seconds, once the bell rings, you have to speed up.
    As for the actual frying pan minigame, it consists of stirring what you're making by dragging your stylus left and right repeatedly, and flipping the contents of the pan by tapping the touch screen. The two main things to look out for are that both sides are fried for a pretty even amount of time, and that you don't stir the same side without flipping for much longer than 10 seconds at a time. If you take too long to flip it, you'll lose your ingredients. What I've settled on is flipping every 7.5 seconds until the timer reaches 0.

  5. FRIED FOODS RECIPES

    Here are all the combinations for fried foods recipes:
    • こむぎこ (flour) + さとう (sugar) = ドーナツ (donuts)
    • こむぎこ (flour) + anything else = てんぷら (tempura)
    • ミンチ (minced meat) + anything = メンチカツ (minced meat cutlet)
    • にく (meat) + anything = からあげ (fried chicken)
    • ごはん (rice) + anything = ライスコロッケ (rice croquette)
    • パンこ (panko) + anything = フライ (I think this just... generically refers to fried foods as a whole? Please correct me if I'm wrong, of course)
    • パスタ (pasta) / うどんめん (udon noodles) / そばめん (soba noodles) / ちゅうかめん (Chinese noodles) + anything = あげそば (fried noodles)
    I've only tried doing this one once but I messed it up and lost my ingredients AND my will to cook. If you've figured it out, though, please explain it to me.
...And that's all of them! Once you choose your ingredients, if you've already made the recipe type you chose before, the next thing you'll be asked is if you want to hear the minigame explanations again. I'm assuming that if you need this guide, you won't really get much from his explanations, so pick the second option.
Once you're done, the first thing the cats will ask you is if you want to name your creation. I never do, but you may want to do this so you can give it a name in English so it's easier to keep track of if you'd like. If you do want to name it, choose the first option. Next, if your pockets aren't full, they'll ask you what you want to do with what you just made. If you want it in your pockets, select the first option. If you want to store it, select the second one. If you do a really good job at all the steps, you'll get two of whatever you're making.
If you see this text bubble, that means you're getting two!

LEARNING MORE RECIPES

To unlock recipes that use cooking methods other than the oven, you'll need to take Melissa's classes (that's the blonde teacher who wears glasses and a red scaly dress. I believe her class is right after Miss Strawe's, and classes change every half hour). Many of her classes are specific to one type of shop, so it's cool that this game gives you access to every single class right at the start!
I've pointed out in these images which classes will give you new recipes that you can sell in your store: So basically, the ones relevant to food are: There is a class on oven recipes, but I'm 90% sure you don't need to take it to use the oven if your store is a food store. Feel free to skip it.
There are certain classes she teaches about cookies and pie and such, but don't be fooled! You cannot sell these in your store. Their main purpose is to complete townspeople's requests, which is a feature I'll go into later.

CUSTOMERS

If you speak to a customer while they're standing in front of one of your products, they'll ask you various questions and decide whether or not they want to buy it.
I'm pretty sure there are three questions customers will frequently ask you. I don't think you have to be able to read anything to know which question they're asking you, because the main three all have a different amount of possible answers. You don't have to speak to customers or even be in the shop to make sales, but you do make way less money. Also, I don't think their rating of your store will go up unless you speak to them yourself.
If you answer any question incorrectly they definitely won't buy your product, but sometimes even if you answer correctly, they still don't buy it. In any case, even if you don't land a sale, as long as you answer appropriately, your store rating will go up slightly.
You'll be seeing this text bubble a lot.

By the way, sometimes you can get people to move into your town after making a successful sale. If you're given another option after selling one of your products, that's probably what it's about. Their rating of the store doesn't seem to have to be very good, and it seems like the who and when are mostly random. Also, I don't know how they choose who to replace in your town, because when I got Antonio to move in, one of my closest friends, whom I made sure to talk to every day, moved out, so make sure it's someone like Antonio who'll be worth it no matter what.

REQUESTS

Sometimes, your fellow classmates will have a request, and ask you to make them a magic item based on that request. This pays pretty well and you keep 100% of the payment, so it's probably one of the best ways to make money in this game. Not to mention, your store rating goes up if you're able to complete them, AND it's a lot more fun than explaining five times in a row to the same guy that ice cream is, in fact, sweet. I definitely recommend investing your time into these.
Like with regular, non-magic recipes, you have to take Melissa's classes to learn these magic item recipes. I only started getting requests once I took three of them, but that may have been a coincidence. The classes you'll want to take are as follows: When you receive a request, your helper cat will let you know at the end of your daily summary. The main thing to look out for is the word "いらい" (request), written in purple. If you're not confident that you'll be able to spot this particular text bubble, though, you can always just speak to your helper cat once a day and choose the 5th option. If you have any, a list will pop up showing all current requests. This is where you review and accept your requests. If you select one, you'll see more details about it. Once you're ready to take on the request, press the blue button on the bottom right. Your helper cat will call in the client who made the request, and you will once again be asked if you accept it. Just be aware that you can only work on one request at a time, and to accept another one, you have to either finish or cancel your current one. Once you've accepted the request, you can get started!
Because a lot of these magic items are accessories, which require jewels, I think it might be worth mentioning — and this isn't very reliable but it sure helps — that a pretty effortless way to get precious gems is to visit the cave every day and cast the Treasure Hunt spell. Every day, there are 5 new buried items in there, and (I'm pretty sure) at least one of them is always a precious stone. Jewels can be pretty expensive, so try this if you have the extra time.
Anyway, here's how to make every type of magic item:

  1. MOOD COOKIES

    Your main ingredient is こむぎこ (flour). Depending on what mood you want the cookies to elicit, your condiment may differ. The different types of cookies and necessary magic ingredient to make them are as follows:
    • しあわせクッキー (happiness cookies): つきのしずく (moondrop) or おとめのなみだ (maiden's tears)
    • ラブクッキー (love cookies): ブキミがえるのアブラ (freaky frog fat) or どくリンゴのジュース (poison apple juice)
    • なかよしクッキー (get-along cookies): てんしのひやく (angel elixir) or バラについたよつゆ (rose dew)
    For the two additional ingredients, I'm pretty sure you can do whatever you want. They won't affect the appearance of the cookies in any way, and there's no way to check the cookies' flavor, so I wouldn't (and didn't) worry about it.
    To get started, talk to the chef cat and select ムードクッキーレシピ.
    The creation process is the same as any other sweet oven-based recipe, except you cast a spell instead of decorating. I'll just paste the instructions for the oven minigames here for ease of access:
    The first step you'll take is mixing your main ingredients. Just continuously draw circles on your touch screen at a steady pace. If you're too fast or too slow, the bowl will tilt and the ingredients will start spilling, but if you're doing it correctly, the cats on the sides of the screen will sing and dance. The bowl tilts in the direction of whoever's going faster, so if it tilts to the left, you should slow down, and if it tilts to the right, you should speed up. During the last 10 seconds, once the bell rings, you have to speed up.
    The next step is baking your ingredients. The most reliable way to clear this minigame with perfect timing is to watch the steam coming out of your product. It'll rise and fade at a steady pace all throughout, but the second it stops and completely disappears, tap the touch screen. It'll stop way at the far end of the dial, by the way, so don't be hasty!
    Once you're done, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-ふしぎ-いっしょ (magic-mysterious-together). With that, you've made Mood Cookies!

  2. LUCKY CHARM

    You'll need ふしぎなくさり (mysterious chain), エメラルド (emerald) and ぎんのスカラベ (silver scarab) to make this. The mysterious chain and emerald can be purchased from Hassan by choosing the third option, アクセサリ (accessories), when speaking to him.
    Onto the creation process! It's very simple, really. Just head over to the atelier (to the right of your storage), talk to the apron cat and select ラッキーチャームレシピ.
    For the first minigame, just drag the emerald into the hole in the chain. It's probably impossible to fail.
    Next, the cat will tell you to polish the jewel, which just consists of rubbing it continuously until the game tells you you're done. This second step does have a timer, but it's a whole minute long, and the polishing is perfectly doable in about 20 seconds.
    Once you're done, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-うらない-うえ-にっこり (magic-[fortune-telling]-above-happy). With that, you've made a Lucky Charm!

  3. COOL CLOTHES

    You'll need ぬの (cloth of any kind) and かたがみ (pattern of any kind of top-clothing, such as shirts or jackets), both of which can be bought from Hassan by selecting the second option, ふく (clothes), when speaking to him.
    The magic ingredient you'll want to use may vary depending on the type of clothing you want to make. Here are all the types and the necessary magic ingredients to make them:
    • カワイイ (cute): ながれぼしのカケラ (shooting star sliver)
    • カッコイイ (cool): マンドラゴラのねっこ (mandragora root) or こだいリュウのウロコ (ancient dragon scale)
    • シンプル (simple): ぎんのスカラベ (silver scarab)
    • ゴージャス (gorgeous): くろバラのイバラ (black rose thorn) or まじょのツメ (witch's claw)
    Head to the atelier, talk to the apron cat and select イケてるふくレシピ.
    The minigame for this involves tracing over your pattern with a needle, by holding your pen onto the touch screen. The needle will always move 90 degrees towards the "camera", so you have to position the camera with your stylus so that it'll follow the dotted line properly. For very sharp curves or angles, you can turn the machine off by pressing the button above the needle. When you do, touching the touch screen will no longer move the needle, so you can adjust the angle freely. Once you're at the right angle again, turn it back on and continue.
    Once you're done, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-みる-ようふく-みんな (magic-see-clothes-all). With that, you've made Cool Clothes!

  4. INVITATION BOUQUET

    You'll need two flowers, リボン (ribbon) and おとめのなみだ (maiden's tears) to make this. You can buy flowers and ribbons from Hassan by choosing the fourth option, はな (flowers), when speaking to him, but you can just take flowers that are growing around town, too.
    Head to the atelier, talk to the apron cat and select おさそいブーケレシピ.
    To make the bouquet, just trace over the arrows that appear on your screen to fold the paper around the bouquet, then trace more arrows to tie the ribbon, and then place the flowers the way you want them to look, similarly to decorating your food.
    Once you're done, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-あそぶ-いっしょ (magic-play-together). With that, you've made an Invitation Bouquet!

  5. JEWELRY BOX

    You'll need ふるいはこ (old box), any jewel and ながれぼしのカケラ (shooting star sliver) to make this. The old box and jewels can be purchased from Hassan by choosing the third option, アクセサリ (accessories), when speaking to him.
    Onto the creation process! Just head over to the atelier (to the right of your storage), talk to the apron cat and select ジュエリーボックスレシピ.
    For the first minigame, just drag your four jewels into the four yellow areas on the box's lid by touching the arrows on the sides of the box to rotate it.
    Next, the cat will tell you to polish the jewels, which just consists of rubbing them continuously until they look clean and stop making noise when you rub them. You'll need to use the arrows again to rotate the box to get to all four jewels.
    Once you're done, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-こうせき-たくさん (magic-ore-many). With that, you've made a Jewelry Box!

  6. CALMING TEA

    You'll need バラについたよつゆ (rose dew), a flower and ガラスのポット (glass pot) to make this. You can buy the latter two from Hassan by choosing the fourth option, はな (flowers), when speaking to him.
    Head to the atelier, talk to the apron cat and select やすらぎティーレシピ.
    The minigame here is fairly similar to the prank feather pen and enchanting fragrance minigames, but a little more complicated, so I'd recommend doing one of those before attempting to make tea. Either way, though, here's how you do it:
    The flower and some water are put into a contraption with a dial at the bottom. You have to slide the dial to raise the temperature of the flame to brew the tea. If the temperature's too high, the whole contraption will start to shake, so you'll want to lower it. You'll know you're doing it correctly if the water is making a constant noise and emitting sparkles, but note that you'll have to slightly and slowly lower the temperature as time goes on. Once you've brewed all the tea, and the water level's reached the line at the top of the glass container, drag the dial back down to turn the flame off.
    Once you're done, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-いっしょ-おんしつ (magic-together-conservatory). With that, you've made some Calming Tea!

  7. SURPRISE PIE

    Your main ingredient is こむぎこ (flour), and your condiment is マンドラゴラのねっこ (mandragora root). For the two additional ingredients, I'm pretty sure you can do whatever you want.
    To get started, talk to the chef cat and select ビックリパイレシピ — not the オーブンりょうり recipe! This one will be further down, and is separate from regular, non-magic pies.
    The creation process is the same as any other sweet oven-based recipe, except you cast a spell instead of decorating. I'll just paste the instructions for the oven minigames here for ease of access:
    The first step you'll take is mixing your main ingredients. Just continuously draw circles on your touch screen at a steady pace. If you're too fast or too slow, the bowl will tilt and the ingredients will start spilling, but if you're doing it correctly, the cats on the sides of the screen will sing and dance. The bowl tilts in the direction of whoever's going faster, so if it tilts to the left, you should slow down, and if it tilts to the right, you should speed up. During the last 10 seconds, once the bell rings, you have to speed up.
    After it's been mixed, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-あげる-ひみつ (magic-give-secret). Then, type the message that'll come out of the pie. The contents of your message probably won't influence how well you'll be rated.
    The final step is baking your ingredients. The most reliable way to clear this minigame with perfect timing is to watch the steam coming out of your product. It'll rise and fade at a steady pace all throughout, but the second it stops and completely disappears, tap the touch screen. It'll stop way at the far end of the dial, by the way, so don't be hasty!
    With that, you've made a Surpise Pie!

  8. PRANK FEATHER PEN

    You'll need ふしぎどりのはね (mysterious bird's feather), ルビー (ruby) and つきのしずく (moondrop) to make this. You can buy the first two from Hassan by choosing the third option, アクセサリ (accessories), when speaking to him.
    To get started, head to the atelier and talk to the cat there, and select イタズラはねペンレシピ.
    There's pretty much only one step, which is to take the color out of your ruby. There'll be a contraption consisting of a flask filled with white ink, and a dial below. Adjust this dial to change the temperature. The temperature has to be pretty high to extract the ink, but don't let it get too high, or the whole contraption will shake! Slow and steady seems to be the way to go here, as they give you plenty of time, and you don't want the temperature to be too high, or it won't turn out very good. You'll know the color is being extracted if there's a constant noise coming out of the flask. Otherwise, the temperature's probably too low. Just note that you'll have to slightly and slowly lower the temperature as time goes on.
    After this, just chant the spell, which is まほう-おく-いたずら (magic-put-trick). With that, you've made a Prank Feather Pen!

  9. FALL-IN-LOVE CAKE

    Your main ingredient is こむぎこ (flour), and your condiment is てんしのひやく (angel elixir). For the two additional ingredients, I'm pretty sure you can do whatever you want.
    To get started, talk to the chef cat and select こいするケーキレシピ — not the オーブンりょうり recipe! This one will be further down, and is separate from regular, non-magic cakes.
    The creation process is the same as any other sweet oven-based recipe, except you cast a spell instead of decorating. I'll just paste the instructions for the oven minigames here for ease of access:
    The first step you'll take is mixing your main ingredients. Just continuously draw circles on your touch screen at a steady pace. If you're too fast or too slow, the bowl will tilt and the ingredients will start spilling, but if you're doing it correctly, the cats on the sides of the screen will sing and dance. The bowl tilts in the direction of whoever's going faster, so if it tilts to the left, you should slow down, and if it tilts to the right, you should speed up. During the last 10 seconds, once the bell rings, you have to speed up.
    The next step is baking your ingredients. The most reliable way to clear this minigame with perfect timing is to watch the steam coming out of your product. It'll rise and fade at a steady pace all throughout, but the second it stops and completely disappears, tap the touch screen. It'll stop way at the far end of the dial, by the way, so don't be hasty!
    Once you're done, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-ラブ-うえ (magic-love-above). With that, you've made Fall-In-Love Cake!

  10. MAGIC LAMP

    You'll need ふるいランプ (old lamp), any jewel and まじょのツメ (witch's claw) to make this. The old lamp and jewels can be purchased from Hassan by choosing the third option, アクセサリ (accessories), when speaking to him.
    Onto the creation process! Just head over to the atelier (to the right of your storage), talk to the apron cat and select まほうのランプレシピ.
    For the first minigame, you'll be given 6 jewels. Just drag three of them into the three holes, then use the arrows on the sides of the lamp to rotate it and drag the remaining three into the other side.
    Next, the cat will tell you to polish the jewels, which just consists of rubbing them continuously until they sparkle and stop making noise when you rub them. You'll need to use the arrows again to rotate the lamp to get to all six jewels.
    Once you're done, you'll be prompted to chant the magic spell, which is まほう-もらう-ふしぎ (magic-take-mystery). With that, you've made a Magic Lamp!

  11. ENCHANTING FRAGRANCE

    You'll need てんしのひやく (angel elixir), a flower and ガラスのこうすいびん (glass perfume bottle) to make this. You can buy the latter two from Hassan by choosing the fourth option, はな (flowers), when speaking to him.
    To get started, head to the atelier and talk to the cat there. Select the first option, and then select みわくのかおりレシピ.
    There's pretty much only one step, which is to extract the flower's fragrance. There'll be a contraption consisting of a flask filled with liquid and your flower, and a dial below. Adjust this dial to change the temperature. The temperature has to be pretty high to extract the fragrance, but don't let it get too high, or the whole contraption will shake! Slow and steady seems to be the way to go here, as they give you plenty of time, and you don't want the temperature to be too high, or it won't turn out very good. You'll know the fragrance is being extracted if there's a constant noise coming out of the flask. Otherwise, the temperature's probably too low. Just note that you'll have to slightly and slowly lower the temperature as time goes on.
    After this, just chant the spell, which is まほう-あつまる-はな (magic-gather-flower). With that, you've made an Enchanting Fragrance!

Once you're finished, talk to the helper cat again and select the same "check requests" option (the fifth one). Select the second option, and he'll want to make sure you're carrying the requested item with you. If you are, select the first option. When the customer arrives, just hand them their item, and if all goes well, you'll be payed pretty generously. If all goes REALLY well, they'll come back the next day to thank you personally.

DAILY SUMMARY

At the start of each day, your helper cat will tell you how well the store did the day before.
You can check which items made you the most money, which items gave you the most profit, which items you sold the most of and how much of each item is remaining. Once you're done looking through all that, he'll tell you what the total amount of money you made was, and ask if you want to take your share of it or not. Your share is around 60% of the total amount of money made, but it varies sometimes. Not sure why. If you don't want it for some reason, you can collect it later at any time from the storage cat.

HELPER CAT

That's how I refer to the cat who's in your store 24/7 taking care of stuff. The game calls multiple cats "part-time cats", including this one, so I'm changing their names for clarity.
Anyway, if you speak to this one, you can ask several different things. These options are "しなものをおく" (place items), "しょうひんリスト" (product list), "トレンドをチェック" (check trends), "おとくいさまリスト" (customer list), "いらいのかくにん" (check requests) and "おみせのじょうほう" (shop information). I'll be going through them one by one below.

  1. PLACE ITEMS

    It says "place items", but what you can do with this is much broader than that. If you select this, the cat will ask you to confirm that you'd like to proceed and close the shop temporarily. Once you select yes, customers will leave and stop coming in until you tell the cat you're done. In this state, you can change the store pretty much the same way you can change your dorm room. Add, put away and move furniture, change the wallpaper/flooring, and, of course, add new items to sell.
    When putting a new item for sale, just take it out of your pockets and place it the same way you'd place furniture. Whenever you place an item in your store, the game will ask you if you want to sell the item as a product or simply decorate your store with it, so make sure to choose the first option in this case. If you press A in front of one of your products, you are given these options: Regarding item prices, they're set by default by the cats, but you can change them here if you want. If one of your items is really popular, or even trending, you should make the price higher, and people will still buy it. If customers seem to have completely lost interest in one of your products, you may want to lower the price.
    "Clean up" will throw away whatever amount is remaining of the product you've selected. Be careful not to do this by accident! However, if the product hasn't been purchased at all yet (meaning its stock is still 35/35 or however many its total is), instead of "clean up", this option will read "pick up", and it'll go into your pockets.
    Finally, "examine" does the same thing as pressing X in front of the product, and "rotate" just... rotates it 90 degrees.
    When you're done here, just talk to your helper cat again. The first option will open the store back up. The second option is the same product list you're shown during your daily summary, but they also let you change product prices through here for convenience by pressing A. The third option allows you to put stuff in and get stuff out of your shop's storage.
    When you select the first option, the cat will ask for confirmation that you want to reopen the store.

  2. PRODUCT LIST

    Here's an example of what your product list may look like: The main reason you'll want to check this is to make sure you still have enough in stock of all your products. Melissa mentions in one of her classes that your shop rating goes down if you leave products out after they've already been sold out, so don't do that!
  3. Here's what my mall's top 5 are at the time of writing this:
    The items aren't usually this disgusting, I promise.
    Melissa teaches a class that goes more in-depth into trends, but the general idea is that customers decide what to buy based on what's on this list, and if you sell items that are similar to the trending one, that item will also be very popular.
    Mystery Time also seems to have some kind of effect on the trends, but I don't know much about how that works haha... Various other ways to make your products more popular is by recommending them or just gifting them to your fellow students, or by lowering their price.
    If you'd like to recommend one of your products to your classmates, just call them over with X and talk to them. You will get several options to choose from. Choose the first one. Then, you'll get several store-related options. Choose the first one again, then just hold the item you'd like to recommend. This does not consume the product, by the way, so don't worry about that, but note that it won't really have any effect if there's already a trending product. You'll want to wait until something is done trending before recommending your own item.

  4. CUSTOMER LIST

    Customers are added to your customer list after you help them in the store for the first time.
    Your shop ranking will go up the more customers you have registered here. As I've mentioned before, the main use of this list is to check various customers' different shopping styles, but there's a lot of other info, too.
    Here's an example of what it might look like: If the storage cat is to be trusted, "rating" refers to how much they like the way your store looks. Yeah, they care about your interior design. The minister even mentions it during your shop evaluation, so watch out for that.
    You can get even more information on your customers by selecting any of them. Something like this should show up on the top screen: As you know, each food item has its own particular flavor, and according to the second box in the image above, Christine here is a big fan of salty food. I'm pretty sure the second bit that says "pleasant" refers to the type of flowers she likes. The term "イメージ", which I've translated as "concept", has shown up before. If you'll recall, pressing X in front of your products will tell you what "concept" you had in mind when creating it, but I think this also refers to the types of clothes and accessories she likes. I have yet to figure out why I would need to know that she likes studying, though.
    When a character hasn't told you what their shopping style is, it'll show up as question marks.
    Like I mentioned previously, I've already compiled all the students' shopping style info on this other page, but in simpler terms, here's a list of all the different shopping types there are, and which response they'll be looking for when they ask you to pitch the item to them:
    • おすすめによわい (weak to suggestions), せつやくずき (likes to save), かいものずき (likes buying things): とっても おかいどく! (option #1 - "It's a very good deal!")
    • コレクター (collector): めずらしい いっぴん (option #2 - "It's a rare piece of merchandise")
    • グルメ (gourmet), トレンドだいすき (loves trends), おしゃれずき (fashionable): いまにんきです! (option #3 - "It's popular right now!")
    There is also a "きぶんや" (temperamental) shopping type, but if I'm not mistaken, the response they're looking for is completely random, and changes every time they ask.

  5. CHECK REQUESTS

    Refer to the previous section.

  6. SHOP INFORMATION

    You can check your shop's current ranking here.
    This is what your information may look like: "Anazeru Shop" is just... what I called my store. I went with the default.
    Title is the same as the wizard titles you get, that go from beginner to 5-star.
    I'm pretty sure that "advertisement" is because I put up a sign on my store that says I'm a two-star meister. I'll go over how to change the appearance of your store further below, under "Storage Cat" > "Call The Carpenter".
    The fair is another thing I'll talk about further below, and finally, the rating refers to how much people like your store. There are many ways to make your rating go up which I've mentioned above, such as speaking to customers and completing requests.
    The date at the bottom is just when you were issued your store.

STORAGE CAT

Your storage is to the right of the cooking area. The cat stationed here is really useful.
Here's the first page of options he gives you:

  1. COLLECT PROFIT

    As mentioned previously, here's where you can go to collect your share of the store's earnings whenever you want.

  2. CALL THE CARPENTER

    The carpenter can change the look of your store... for a price.
    If you select this, the cat will ask which part you want to make changes to. It seems like different workshop designs are unlocked by completing various requirements, the same way you get various magic titles, so I won't go into that in this beginner's guide.
    Instead, if you choose the first option, Genzou the carpenter will appear and ask you what you want to change. The first option, "store's appearance", refers to what the store will look like from the outside. Supposedly, customers will look at the outside of your store and determine if they want to come in based on that. For example, when you start out, there's a cake sign on your store, so customers will tend to come in expecting to see cakes.
    Just keep in mind that if you don't see anything you like the first time you check, don't worry! You'll unlock many more customization options by ranking up your store. Most notably, you can even buy bigger floor sizes.
    These are all the elements you can change from here: I won't explain them one by one because you'll probably want to look through them yourself.
    The second option, "inside the store", lets you change the size of your store, the walls, the floor and the windows. You'll notice there are also table, seating and counter options here, but I wouldn't worry about them if you're just starting out. I have yet to write a section about the "restaurant" feature in this game, because it takes a while to even get enough money to consider making the change, but I'll write about it some day, and when I do, I'll explain these additional options.
    Finally, design a sign lets you design your own sign. You're given various tools similar to the ones you get when designing clothes. Genzou will explain that you get up to eight different signs, and then ask which one of them you'd like to overwrite. At the start of the game, they'll all be transparent and completely blank. Please be aware, though, that before ranking up, you'll only be able to display "My Sign 1" at the front of your store.

  3. ABOUT SALES

    To be clear, this is "sales" as in "discounts", not as in "products that have been sold".
    According to the cat, there are three types of sales you can choose to apply to your store:
    1. とっかひんセール (bargain sale): for the next 3 days, sell products with a 10% discount. A larger number of customers than usual will come.
    2. とくばいセール (special sale): for one day only, sell products with a 10% discount. A larger number of customers will come.
    3. ウエルカムセール (welcome sale): for the next 3 days, products are sold with a 10% discount. New customers are more likely to come.
    If you select this option, a second menu will show up. If you select "set", he'll ask you which of the three sales you want to apply to your store. The sale starts the day after you set it. "Check" will show you which sale, if any, is currently taking place in your store.

  4. KING'S REQUEST

    Apparently, there are two types of requests the king can make, and I haven't received the request that this item is about. I'll update this once I do.
The second menu page just lets you change little things about your store; the music that plays, the store's name and the staff's uniform. Note that you have to actually own a CD to play it in your store, though. Simply knowing the tune is not enough. Please go to Piquard's store every day, you'll want to change the song very quickly in my experience.
If you are at a loss as to which songs are which and don't want to aimlessly spend money on songs you may not even like, here are a few of my favorites whose Japanese titles I've been able to verify:

EVALUATION

To get your shop evaluated, travel to the castle from Lover's Point and speak to the minister (the volcano-head with glasses).
Or, if you just don't get an evaluation for about four days, Reginald will tell you to go when you start the game. I don't think there's any penalty for refusing to go. In this game, you receive your student, fashion and shop evaluations all at the same time, in that order, so if you're only interested in the shop aspect you'll have to skip through quite a bit of dialogue.
Frankly, you're better off not being able to read Japanese the first few times you get evaluated. The minister, uh... really rips into you. It's brutal.
The points you are evaluated on are as follows:

FAIRS

Once a month, the king summons you to the castle to tell you about this month's fair. To briefly sum it up, he wants you to sell specific items or items that use specific ingredients and compete with your classmates to see who sold the most.
After the fair has ended, head to the castle, and a cutscene will trigger automatically that will give you the results of the fair. Placing first doesn't actually give you a prize, but I think you get a title for being first place in every single fair.
While a fair is taking place, there's an additional question your customers may ask you, which is whether or not the item they're looking at is part of the fair (AKA does it use one of the ingredients you were asked to use). If it is, it's a guaranteed sale! The two options you get to respond to this query are similar to when they're asking if the product is trending, so if there's a fair going on, you may have to look out for certain keywords in the text to be able to differentiate the two. If you see the word フェア anywhere, they're asking about the fair.
I haven't been playing for a year, so I can't verify all of these yet, but here are all of the monthly fairs and the ingredients/foods you'll be asked to sell for them, according to this guide:
Fair Period What to sell
はつうり (First Sale) January 1st - January 14th ワカサギ (pond smelt), イセエビ (spiny lobster), タイ(lobster?), りんご (apple), おもち (mochi)
バレンタイン (Valentine's) February 1st - February 14th チョコレート (chocolate), チョコクリーム (chocolate cream)
ホワイトデー (White Day. If you're unfamiliar, this is when you give back to people who gave you chocolate on Valentine's Day) March 1st - March 14th パイ (pie), クレープ (crepe), ドーナツ (donuts), パフェ (parfait), あんこ (red bean paste), チョコレート (chocolate), チョコクリーム (chocolate cream), なまクリーム (fresh cream), カスタード (custard), キャラメル (caramel), たいやき (taiyaki)
スプリング (Spring) April 1st - April 14th もも (peach), チェリー (cherry), ストロベリー (strawberry), ブラックベリー (blackberry), フナ (crucian carp), コイ (carp), ヤマメ (trout?), ブラックバス (black bass), ブルーギル (bluegill), ニシキゴイ (colorful carp)
ははのひ (Mother's Day) May 1st - second Sunday in May Unfortunately, there are no food ingredients you can sell for this one. If you'd like to sell clothes here instead, use ドレスのかたがみ (dress), フォーマルのぬの (formal cloth), ワインレッドのぬの (wine red cloth), or, if you'd rather sell flowers, use カーネーション (carnation)
ちちのひ (Father's Day) First Sunday in June - 3rd Sunday in June Same deal here. If you'd like to sell clothes, use ジャケットのかたがみ (jacket), フォーマルのぬの (formal cloth), ワインレッドのぬの (wine red cloth). As for flowers, use バラ (rose)
サマー (Summer) July 1st - July 14th オレンジ (orange), なし (pear), パイナップル (pineapple), バナナ (banana), メロン (melon), ブルーベリー (blueberry), ラズベリー (raspberry), カツオ, (bonito?), ハゼ, (goby?), アナゴ (conger eel), アユ (sweetfish), ウナギ (eel), キングサーモン (king salmon), ナマズ, (catfish), ドジョウ (loach), アイスクリーム (ice cream)
お祭り (Festival) August 1st - August 14th やきそば (yakisoba), クレープ (crepe), たいやき (taiyaki)
オータム (Autumn) September 1st - September 14th Mushrooms, クランベリー (cranberry), サケ (salmon), サバ (mackerel), サンマ (pacific saury?), ニジマス (rainbow trout), サツマイモ (sweet potato), クリ (chestnut), ブドウ (grape)
ハロウィン (Halloween) October 18th - October 31st カボチャ (pumpkin)
げいじゅつさい (Art Festival) November 15th - November 28th There are no options for food here. If you sell flowers, use あかいほうせきのはな (red gemflower), and it seems like all accessories can be sold for this, as to my knowledge, you need jewels to make them all. You can also sell the shogun and treasure furniture series as well as instruments
クリスマス (Christmas) December 12th - December 25th ケーキ (cake), マフィン (muffin), なまクリーム (fresh cream), カスタードクリーム (custard cream), チーズ (cheese)
I tried to translate all the fish names and cross-reference the fish from Mysterious Times, but that didn't always work. Still, once you catch the fish, you'll see its name in Japanese anyway, so you don't really need the English names.
Speaking of fish, a couple of these fairs involve taiyaki, which confused me at first, because I couldn't find the recipe for taiyaki anywhere. So... to be clear... similarly to sushi, they're classified as a fish. You fish them out of the ocean during Mystery Time.

KING'S REQUESTS

Once you're a One-Star Meister or higher, at the end of an evaluation, the minister may ask you to make "Mysterious Soup", an ancient royal dish they're trying to figure out the exact recipe for.
He will list two necessary ingredients: one of them is a fish exclusive to Mystery Time, and the other is one of the spell ingredients Malila sells at her store. Then he'll tell you which spell to chant when stirring the soup. Once he's done explaining, he'll ask you if you'll accept the request. If you do, he'll give you 30 days to complete it. I will once again be referring to this guide for what will be requested when:
Months Fish Ingredient Spell
March through May しゃちほこ (shachihoko) てんしのひやく (angel elixir) たからさがしのまほう (treasure hunt: まほう-ひみつ-さがす / magic-secret-seek)
じんめんぎょ (human-faced fish) ぎんのスカラベ (silver scarab) へんしんのまほう (transformation: まほう-こうかん-だれ / magic-exchange-who)
さんようちゅう (trilobite) こだいりゅうのウロコ (ancient dragon scale) ハンモックのまほう (cloud hammock: まほう-そら-ねる / magic-sky-sleep)
June through August アーケロン (archelon) おとめのなみだ (maiden's tears) いねむりのまほう (sleep: まほう-ひる-ねむい / magic-daytime-sleepy)
コウモリダコ (vampire squid) まじょのつめ (witch's claw) こえたかのまほう (loud voice: まほう-はなす-うえ / magic-talk-above)
うみぼうず (I suspect that this is the giant sea creature) ながれぼしのカケラ (shooting star sliver) はなびのまほう (party popper: まほう-はな-がっき / magic-flower-instrument)
September through November ブッカブー ("bookaboo". This is a funny new river creature that looks like a ghost) ブキミがえるのアブラ (freaky frog fat) ふうせんのまほう (balloon: まほう-おおきい-うえ-いたずら / magic-big-above-trick)
ハンマーヘッド (hammerhead shark) つきのしずく (moondrop) じしゃくのまほう (magnetic: まほう-ラブ-あつまる / magic-love-gather)
ハルキげニア (cambrian creature b) バラについたよつゆ (rose dew) ながれぼしのまほう (shooting star: まほう-あつまる-ほし / magic-gather-star)
December through February リバイアサンのちぎょ (leviathan spawn) どくリンゴのジュース (poison apple juice) かみなりのまほう (lightning: まほう-ほし-いかり / magic-star-anger)
イクチオサウルス (ichthyosaurus) くろバラのイバラ (black rose thorn) くるくるのまほう (round-and-round: まほう-うえ-みぎ-した-ひだり / magic-above-right-below-left)
まりも (marimo) マンドラゴラのねっこ (mandragora root) テルミーラブのまほう (love insight: まほう-たんけん-こいびと / magic-explore-sweetheart)
Because this is such a special recipe, you actually use the cauldron at the back of your workshop to make it instead of speaking to the chef cat.
Once you've accepted a request, you can walk up the stairs and press A in front of the cauldron to pull up a little menu with the option to either check the recipe or start making the soup. You should get something like this if you select the first option: The advantage here is that the keywords are all written in purple, so they're probably easier to parse than in the minister's really long speech at the end of a mostly unrelated evaluation.
Anyway, once you have your ingredients, select the second option and add them all in as usual. Once you do, the chef cat will ask you how high you want the flame to be. I picked low, but the idea is to check in on your soup daily and adjust the flame as necessary, so I don't think it matters either way. Finally, you'll be prompted to chant the spell, and if all goes well, you'll see this: So that's your first day of three! For the next two days in a row, go up to the cauldron again. You'll be given two options: stir the soup and check its status. Do both every day, but I'll cover the first one first, because it's much simpler and faster. Just chant the same spell again, and your character will stir the cauldron. No minigame required!
Now, onto the second option, here's what mine told me at first: Here's where this guide gets a little tricky... I really do think you'll have to try to read this and find one keyword or another to do this part correctly. If you see "よわい" anywhere, that means the flame is too weak and you'll need to make it stronger. If you see "つよい" anywhere, that means it's too strong and you'll need to make it weaker.
To adjust the flame, stand on the red carpet at the bottom of the stairs and press A. When you check your soup, this is what you'll want to see: That "ちょうどいい" means "just right", so look out for that.
On the fourth day, once you enter the kitchen, you'll be sent to the castle, and the king will taste your soup. If all goes well, he'll like it very much, but tell you that it's not the royal recipe after all. He'll reward you with an insultingly small payment for your three whole days of hard work (10000 ritch), and that's it, until he requests another one!

RUMORS

Occasionally, rumors will be going around town about a shop that is really good in some way or another. So far, I've had rumors of a store with good interior design and of a store with a good assortment of products. Within a few days, if your store meets whatever requirement is being talked about, your classmates will congratulate you, and the king himself will visit your shop personally and spend a very generous amount of money, which will cause your store rating to go up.
Unfortunately, I don't think there's a very reliable way for me to translate all of the rumors. I'm sure there are several others, but judging from these two, the rumors will all be about things you should already be working on in your shop. I can't explain this in as much detail as I'd like, because it's so broad and the rumors are probably hard to spot in the dialogue if you don't understand any Japanese, but if you just work towards making your store good, you'll probably be fine.
Basically, it's not a huge deal if you don't know if there are rumors going around. I'm just putting this here so you'll know this exists, and so you won't be surprised or confused if the king comes to visit your shop.

CHANGING FROM KANJI TO HIRAGANA

The advantage of using hiragana is that you can tell how a character is pronounced just by looking at it, which is not the case with kanji. This may just be me but I'm much more intimidated by a wall of text that I don't even know how to begin to pronounce than by a wall of text that, given the time and patience, I could look up a table of characters and figure out how to pronounce it all. Plus, the text in this game is so small, if you're not already familiar with the kanji it uses it's reeeeally hard to make out.
Again, you don't have to do this, but... here's how to do it anyway!
At the start screen, before starting your play session, instead of continuing, choose the last option. From there, if you're just starting out, you'll only have one option available. Select that one. If there's more than one, pick the first one. Now, just select the option with 4 "characters", and there you go! Everything should be written in hiragana now.