Dining at Tokyu Hands Cafe Again

Did I mention that the weather was very nice on March 22nd? 

Some parts of Ikebukuro were not crowded. Usually there are more cars, people walking and bicyclists.  

I was headed back over to the other side of Ikebukuro. I stopped at Ekimae Park to admire the sakura trees again. 

I can never get enough of these beautiful trees and flowers. 

I was trying to avoid going through Sunshine 60 Dori. Still, on the side streets there were a lot of people in that area. 

Including these people.

It seems some idols were there broadcasting? I don't know who they were, but it was a little disconcerting to see people crowded together like this. 

My path was to Tokyu Hands by going around the area. Longer but I avoided the throngs of people that were still congregating here. 

I bought a few things in the store and then stopped at the Hands Cafe. There were only a couple people dining there, along with not many people shopping on that floor. Most were wearing masks. So I decided it was time to eat. The view from my seat at the counter facing the windows was interesting. Not too many cars on the Shuto Expressway. 

Reflective modern architecture showed off retro-styled buildings. 

Looking further I could see Mt Fuji. 

My meal arrived. Not the cute character plate of my first visit, but this was also a limited menu item. 

It was a mustard cream pasta with fresh spring cabbage and canola flowers. Very seasonal and tasty. There wasn't a strong mustard flavor. This actually was a nice way to serve pasta and I might try making a similar sauce just to see if I can do it.

Outside of Tokyu Hands it had become even more crowded. Given the current situation with the virus, I don't know why Japan didn't take steps to limit access to these areas. They shut down sakura viewing and amusement parks yet on Sunshine 60 Dori and Takeshita Dori in Harajuku there was no crowd control to limit the number of people there. They could have kept stores open and just rationed the number of people who were allowed to go on the street. So now you can see why I was walking out of my way during this trip.

On a better note, I did find these Calbee grilled chicken chips to be really good. Sadly they weren't restocked while I was there so I only was able to enjoy them one time.

It's a Food Trip in Tokyo

I mentioned a couple of things I ate in Tokyo, including that fun meal at the Vampire Cafe. Here's a few other things. Seasonal label of Oi Ocha Green Tea. I buy Oi Ocha in the US too. Making sure I was hydrated in that hot weather was important. Glad I did well with that. 

Only bag of Calbee chips I bought, near the start of my trip. Forerunner of the "everything is lemon flavor" of that time of the year. These actually were good. 

I did get some things from Boulangere Asanoya, including those cute little pies. This was their lemon bread, which was also good. 

I found Halloween KitKats at the local konbini! Since I had not tried pudding KitKats before, I went for it.

Cute little packaging. The flavor wasn't bad, but the chestnut KitKats were better.

My one super overly sweet treat. Konbini chocolate crepe. Fresh crepes at stands are better but this was okay. 

Mostly I ate this. Salads, along with nigiri sushi. I think my sushi craving was because I needed salt and protein, but didn't want heavy food. It's great that many konbini have decent sushi for not a lot of money. 

 A few things that made it home with me. Barely. Curry from both Hiroshima TAU and Marui One Annex Shinjuku. More of that Hiroshima lemon and orange flavored black tea, along with a lemon jam and lemon juice. They didn't have the setouchi lemon juice that I usually get.

 As for the curry, the one on the left was from Hiroshima TAU. Hiroshima oysters and seasoned with Hiroshima brand Lemosco, a lemon hot sauce, this was one hot curry. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more oysters. I ended up saving part of this and reheating it with shrimp the next day. 

The other was Tochigi Prefecture Lemon Milk Curry from Marui One Annex regional antenna shop. It's on the first floor and they always have interesting food from all over Japan. It's a good place to get stuff to take home for gifts. I was a little hesitant about this since it said it was a milk curry, but it was actually good! Chicken with a nice balance of lemon. I'd eat this again if I can find it. But it's difficult because the US prevents imports of curry with meat in it, unless there is major testing first. 

And sake from Hiroshima TAU. It's a nice sake shop on the second floor. I bought that sake I like along with a bottle of something a little special. 

From Sempuku Brewery in Hiroshima, this is another of their sake for the anime movie "In this Corner of the World". It's their Chisaku Momiji ginjo sake made with maple yeast. It was a lovely sake, very nice smooth flavor.

Besides food, I did get a couple of concert related items. This Közi photobook was available at the Deep Sanctuary VI MALICE MIZER 25th Anniversary Event. I picked it up for someone but of course I flipped through it. Really nice art photography of the musician and artist Közi. I recommend it for his fans. 

It came with a post card of Közi so now I have a set of him with Mana. Sadly no Yu~ki post card was available. So I don't have a complete set of MALICE MIZER members. 

Since the MALICE MIZER shirts were not available at the show, and the ones I ordered are suppose to ship very soon (yeah having to pay shipping for something which should have been at the concert, not the best thing), I ended up getting one of the new Moi dix Mois dolman shirts. Pardon the not so lovely hotel room bathroom door.

It's bigger and lighter weight than the other dolman shirts that I have. It's good for hot weather wearing. 

I wasn't planning on buying a tote bag, but the blue of the new Moi dix Mois tote was really appealing to me. It ended up being a good thing, made it easier to carry stuff after I fell at the concert. It's bigger than my other snap Moi dix Mois tote, so that is also nice. And there are the picks I bought at ESP Museum. The new Közi and Mana MALICE MIZER picks created for the 25th Anniversary. I bought extra so I could add them to my Moi dix Mois key chain, which now has four different Mana picks.

So that is probably it for my recent trip posts. However there are a few related things I want to write about. Including the new MALICE MIZER costumes and maybe a translation or two. So that may happen very soon.

Calbee Chip Crunch Time

 So one of the fun things I did while in Japan was eating different limited Calbee potato chips. Calbee is known for creating all kinds of variations. I thought I would only find a couple varieties at the local konbini. Little did I know... So one of the first kinds I saw was this Mentaiko Pizza, 明太子ピザ. That's right, cod roe pizza chips.

I wasn't sure what to expect. Though might be really salty. Well no large chunks of mentaiko on the chips. These weren't too bad and were not too salty. Can't say I would have bought more though.

So if I could try those why not also attempt the pepperoni pizza chips.

Bigger bits of cheese on this. Definitely had a pepperoni pizza flavor. Which was a little overwhelming for their light chips.

Also with the pizza chips I'm guessing you could get pizza chip socks, ties and underwear. And who hasn't wanted to curl up in a pizza chip pillow?

Not sure if this guy is suppose to be Italian or a blond version of John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever.

Timing for this chicken wings was pretty funny. A friend online was asking why did she buy frozen buffalo wings (chicken wings). Seems they were pretty bad.

Calbee's take on chicken wings fared better.

This was an odd combination. Cheese and Edamame. 

I couldn't taste much edamame flavor. Mostly what was like a white mild cheddar. 

Something different. Calbee Takumi Ebisen from the Tau Hiroshima store.

Each chip individually packaged. Definitely an omiyage gift thing.

How they appear inside. Something special for shrimp chip lovers.

I knew I might regret this purchase. Because it was mega garlic. You have to really love garlic to enjoy these. Garlic to the point of being spicy hot. Good thing I wasn't going anywhere after these.

And my favorite. Not sure what all is on these but I know there is anchovies and garlic. Much more subdued than the mega garlic chips. Really good and I wish stores outside of Japan carried these.

I've said before I rarely eat potato chips but Calbee is the exception. Usually I try a bag or two while in Japan but this time I seemed to luck out with the different flavors. Right after this they announced they had to cut back on some of their different chips. So it was fun to try some while they were available.