GraffArt Cafe and Owls in Ikebukuro

After my long walk in Saitama, I was ready for lunch. I ended up heading back to Ikebukuro. Because if you want to eat in Ikebukuro, there's a lot of choices. Really, a person could eat at a different restaurant every day and there would still be more untried places.

I decided to check out a cute place I had seen online. GraffArt Cafe. It was on a side street and a little hidden, but I found it.

Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew was there greeting customers. GraffArt refers to this style of art, chalk on chalkboard.

Inside was more cute art. And yes, photos are okay to take. So of course here are some that I took. 

GraffArt is a company that creates goods and promotes artists. 

So of course there are a lot of different items to see and buy. 

The Cafe is one room with video monitors where you can watch short anime and other images. 

The Cafe was decorated for Christmas including artwork for the holiday. 

Characters from various manga and anime also decorated the walls.

There are goods also for these characters including classic ones like the two hearted Sapphire from Princess Knight. 

The menu was only four food items. This is more of a place to sit and drink while enjoying the surroundings and any friends you may be with.

There are many more drinks to chose from. I went with the Calpis Blue. It's Calpis (Calpico for outside of Japan) with blue curaçao. It was very nice.

As for food, I had a choice of a waffle, pancakes, or two types of cake. I went with the pancakes. They were soft and warm. Berries with pancakes is a delicious way of serving them. That's chocolate ice cream in the little souffle cup. 

Because it was a 65th anniversary of Nakayoshi manga magazine, there were special coasters given out. Lucky me getting three. 

GraffArt Cafe's website is here http://graffart-cafe.athree3.com/#box

And their address is ＪＫ７ 1階, 1 Chome-9-21 Minamiikebukuro, Toshima City, Tokyo 171-0022, Japan

Back outside the weather was moving towards rain. I decided to walk a different way back to my hotel. Not far from GraffArt Cafe was this giant torii and chochin lanterns. 

Turns out this is the Nichiren Shoshu Honden, the headquarters for Hokkeko affiliated with the Nichiren Shoshu school of Japanese Buddhism. Their website is here http://www.hodoin.net/

I also saw more owls.  This artwork is at Ikebukuro Nishi-guchi Park.

Besides the owl statues, there are more owls at the base. Along with pigeons.

And it was wrapped with lights for the holiday.  

Ikebukuro's illuminations here didn't start for another week, but the trees were colorful.

A Day When Nothing Extraordinary Happened

There was a day when the weather was very hot and humid. Not feeling 100% I decided to just stay in Ikebukuro and do a little shopping.

Pretty much this post is just to document I did go to MOS Burger near Sunshine Dori and ate a shrimp burger and their delicious onion rings with an ice tea.

Ikebukuro proof is the owls.

While not all bought on this day, I did stop in at Tomads which had the Herb time bath salts. The lavender and eucalyptus one is really nice. The others I bought at Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro.

The other good place to shop this trip was Uniqlo because they had nice long t-shirts and t-shirt dresses in solid colors.

Since this post is so short, I'll share a few food items. Of course I visited Midori Sushi in Ikebukuro Station.

Really good chirashi. Midori Sushi has delicious ikura.

Caesar salad from 7-Eleven! Yes I was surprised that they have expanded their salad selection. Probably the nicest caesar salad I've had in Japan with romaine lettuce and I could taste garlic in the dressing.

Something I received when I was shopping at SEIBU's food hall. I had to wait till I got home to try this dip style Nescafé coffee. Now I want more. Why can't we buy it here?

I'm not sure what day I received my Moi-même-Moitié order. There is a bit of a story to this. Part of this order was for items I bought back in April. But the US Post Office failed to deliver them to me, instead sending them back to Japan. There was no reason for them doing that, my address was correct. They still have not responded to my request to be reimbursed for the shipping.

By the time the items made it back to Japan, I had made a second order of the yukata and accessories. So Wunderwelt and Moi-même-Moitié were really great in combining both orders and sending me everything to my hotel in Tokyo. I am very grateful they did this.

As for the yukata, obi, lace tabi socks and obi bands? They are all very pretty. The tabi socks are very soft and I'm so happy to have the candelstick lace bands.

My first order was to replace my lost Jewelry Roses print fan. Sadly they no longer have these, so I went with the Cross fan.

One other item I received with my yukata order was the Pass Case with Strap. This was so helpful! Unless a person has actually been in Ikebukuro Station, you don't know how chaotic it is. Having my train pass right there and not having to worry about dropping it was a big help.

Like my last trip, there was an evening run to Closet Child in Harajuku. This little Moi-même-Moitié gargoyle had been there for some time so I decided to give it a new home. It was also my dinner companion one evening during my trip.

The real reason for the run was this. A vintage Moi-même-Moitié Coffin Blue Ring. Something I had wanted for a long time but was unsure because I wanted one that would fit my finger. So it was really nice to be able to try it on before buying. And yes, it does fit perfectly.

The Ride to Narita and Ippudo Ramen

Passing by Shinjuku again on the NEX train to Narita.

And by Shinjuku's Time Square.

I finally got an okay photo of the Osaki gnome.

Tea time on the train. I think I'm hooked on Kirin's Salty Lychee drink. It's really good when it is hot out. I also tried 7-Eleven's Matcha White Choco cookie. It does look like the photo on the package and tastes like matcha green tea.

As the train heads out of Tokyo Prefecture, there were glimpses of Sky Tree.

And headed towards Narita the landscape turns to farms.

A little green beginning to show back in March. By June, everything was green. A bit of blurriness due to the speed of the train, sorry about that.

And into Narita International Airport with a little time and feeling a bit hungry, I decided to check out a well known place.

Since airline food is hit or miss, I end up not eating so much while flying. So I opted to get a bowl of the Shiromaru Classic ramen at Ippudo Ramen.

Nice soft boiled egg. As for the ramen, I wasn't feeling it. I don't know if it was because there were a lot of loud people in the place, or if it was a bit heavy. It was a decent bowl but it was kind of underwhelming in flavor.

Ippudo is in a lot of places now, so it's easy to check it out while staying in Tokyo. Now I can say I did just that.

I also was tempted by cookie samples at a shop by there. And ended up bringing home a box of Sagu Langue de Chat in their sakura flavor. Ishiya Ginza is actually in Hokkaido, with a couple shops in the Tokyo area.

These light cookies were really nice. After my long flight back to Oregon on Delta Airlines, it was a nice treat to enjoy with green tea.