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.

TAU of Ginza

So what was it I wanted to find in Ginza?

I wanted to find Hiroshima.

That is TAU Setouchi Hiroshima. I do not know why I did not see it the first day I went looking. Maybe it's easier to see at night because of the lit signs?

Home of a lot of Hiroshima Toyo Carp gear

and restaurants.

Where you can dine on Hiroshima cuisine.

Along with having a lot of things made with lemons and a lot of other products that come from Hiroshima.

So how did I know about this place? From a Japanese show called "Wakako Zake". I first saw the anime and then started watching the live version. It's about the enjoyment of food. The main character Murasaki Wakako is from Hiroshima so one episode she visited TAU. Since you can't take photos inside the store I grabbed a shot from that episode. Wakako is at the door. That center shelf is full of lemon pastries. I know, because I grabbed a few when the store was closing.

It may seem strange to buy lemon pastries like this but they were perfect for hot summer weather.

The gâteau was nice. Because it was a little crumbled I ate that first on the plane. Really that was my reason for buying a few things I could take with me. Since I was wise to the fact that the food wasn't going to be very good.

The rest made it home with me so I enjoyed each one on different days. First was the Toraya lemon cake. Toraya is Japanese Western sweets shop in Hiroshima along with selling their products throughout Japan. This was a lovely cake and I wish I could get more. The balance of sour and sweet was just right.

This fun looking little pastry looks like it would be really sour with the lemon slices on top but actually it wasn't. This treat from Renoka and the lemon was soft and a bit sweet. Also was really delicious.

This little Hiroshima lemon tart from Mike didn't fare so well. Still was very enjoyable with my tea.

This last purchase isn't pastry. I had told my friend in Japan that I realized what is missing in a lot of Japanese food in America is the flavor that comes from katsuobushi. I don't know if it's the quality or just that a lot of places do not use enough in their recipes. I told her I wanted to get some in Tokyo. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to find some so when I saw this inexpensive Hiroshima Toyo Carp katsuobushi I couldn't resist. Makes me laugh a little to see it.

TAU Hiroshima Brand Shop's website is here. They are located at   〒104-0061
1-6-10, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Ginza top one building

So while I've showed you what I bought at TAU I still haven't written why I went there. That's the next post.