Ikebukuro Eats

Since I mentioned eating at Ikebukuro Station in my last post, here's a few more things I tried while in Ikebukuro. First is a little cream puff chick that FamilyMART offered for Easter. It was actually pretty good.

Believe it or not, I've never eaten Japanese pudding. They don't sell it in the US. Given it's iconic status as an anime and manga staple, I'd thought about trying it for a few years now. 

So I finally did eat a Glico pudding. It was okay. But not something I'd eat often. Made me wishful for crème brûlée.

Something they do sell in America is Beard Papa's. The smell of freshly baked cream puffs permeated this part of Ikebukuro Station so I had to stop at least one time.  

Sorry my photos are not that great. Fun of trying to take them in a little Tokyo hotel room with not much light. But the packaging is cute. 

I ended up choosing the special which was cookies and cream. And it was good! 

I stopped at Vie en France bakery one evening. When I lived in Arcadia, California, I worked near a mall so would stop in at Vie en France for lunch occasionally. They didn't have pizza there. This was not bad for a non-pizzeria place.

Chocolate chip pastry from Vie en France. Since I didn't take up the breakfast option at the hotel. 

Another Ikebukuro Station bakery I checked out was Andersens. I've eaten pastry from them before. This was an orange pastry. Another nice choice for breakfast.

My next post will either be the bakery I went to more than the others, or a new area in Tokyo that I visited. I haven't decided yet.

Last Stop Ikebukuro

After gathering my belongings at my first hotel I got on the good ol' Yamanote Line and headed to Ikebukuro. 

My first time there. Most of my time was spent walking to and from Ikebukuro Station. 

For that Ikebukuro looks a lot like other parts of Tokyo. 

While I didn't get a lot of scenery photos there, I did get this one of a club near where I was staying. Which I could have seen Közi playing with Vamquet that night. But my feet and the rest of me were not up to the challenge. 

I did get to see a few of the denizens of Ikebukuro. Like this yaki-imo seller who had this portable oven and was baking sweet potatoes right there on the corner. 

And this fuzzy guy hanging out at the local FamilyMart. 

Which I have to say was much better than the konbi around my first hotel. Nice nigiri sushi for dinner that night. Check the price. 

And there were sakura trees blooming even with all that concrete. Just had to look up.

There is more to come...

Konbini Cuisine

Because when in Rome, or Japan... Honestly, some of the food at Japanese konbini stores at times is better than what I've found at a number of Japanese restaurants in the US. Like my first meal in Tokyo this trip. Long flight, long time in Narita, semi-long train trip to Ningyocho and all I wanted to do was nothing after that. Tired from the trip and the heat meant no desire to search out a place to eat. So great that a Lawson block away from my hotel. The sushi bento reminded me of what I've been missing. That amazing smokiness of katsuobushi. Even the inarizushi had it. Why do so many American Japanese restaurants and supermarket take out places skimp on it? My taste buds felt rejuvenated.

Since I ate very little of the food on the plane it was easy to finish not only the bento but also the ikura onigiri. Also joy to the vending machines that sell beer. I don't drink much but I figured that can of Asahi might help me sleep on the super hard mattress. Sadly it didn't but it sure tasted swell.

 The sort of macaron cookies were nice too. I'm guessing you collect the cute Snoopy stickers to get a glass plate since the kana translates to "Snoopy glass plate gift". I wonder how many it took?

Not quite macarons but still nice. Lemon and vanilla.

When I was paying at Lawson the clerk held out a box with little papers in it. Lucky me, I won a cup of instant soup. With five vegetables!

Ate this later on. Not bad and I'm all for saving money.

I did occasionally turn on the tv while eating. Mostly Olympics, baseball, news, and odd shows like this one. I think that was actor Jun Matsumoto reading lyrics while three women tried to guess the song.

One day I had to try the hanjuku tamago onigiri I found at FamilyMART.

It really did have a soft boiled egg in the middle.

I mentioned how I usually have a banana for breakfast. I found bananas in a wrappers at one konbini.

This inari undon was actually pretty good and the little fishcake flowers were cute.

More Snoopy sticker treats. I wish I had found out how many it took to get a Snoopy glass plate.

This turned out to have cheese cake with raisins in between two pieces of sponge cake.

Good old seaweed salad. Smart choice for extra iodine. Oh right, that was last trip.

This time there was this neat easy to open dressing container. Just push the two sides up and it pours out. Much easier than a packet.

Warmed bento is warm. And more food than I could eat so it was two meals.

Okra and pumpkin salad. Japanese pumpkin is called kabocha and I really like it. So neat to find this salad at a konbini.

Yes cup of sake was consumed. This was better than One Cup Sake. This was towards the end of my trip when I realized I had not had any and I did not want to rue not partaking of any during my trip.

I should have taken a photo of a water bottle because I drank so many. Just went with 2 litter ones mostly. Hotel room had a mini fridge which helped keep it cold.

There was actually anime one night on tv. I had hoped to catch D.Gray-man like I watched on my first trip to Japan back in 2008. At least I'm familiar with Kuromukuro which was on that night.

I did eat mostly konbini food this trip. Saved me some money, the heat made me feel a bit less presentable than I would want to be to eat at the nicer restaurants around Ningyocho and I do feel a bit intimidated going by myself because my Japanese is so limited. At least the last part I can keep working on.