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Category Archives: Japan Envy

Japan Envy: BlazBlue Pasela Café

5 / 13 / 155 / 13 / 15

blazbluecafe1

Pasela Resorts is teaming up with Arc System Works once again, this time to offer a BlazBlue-themed café in Akihabara in honor of Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma Extend! I didn’t get the chance to cover their previous Guilty Gear collaboration, but this time I’m not going to miss out on a chance to drool over some cool video game-inspired food and drink.

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Japan Envy: Seed Boyfriends (Tabegoro Kareshi Ikusei Setto)

5 / 8 / 15

Japanese companies have transformed everything from ramen to beauty products into anthropomorphized boyfriends, but the Tabegoro Kareshi Ikusei Setto marks the first time I’ve ever seen everyday vegetable seeds marketed as cute anime boys. Aimed at encouraging women to start their own home gardens, there are six different seeds available, each with their own male mascot. So, who’s your type?

seedboyfriends1
The tagline reads, “Which boy will you raise? ” which, as you can imagine, has a lot of weird connotations…

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This Q-Pot x Sailor Moon collaboration is everything I’ve ever wanted

4 / 9 / 154 / 18 / 15

I’m not usually very savvy when it comes to things like high-end jewelry and cosmetics, but Q-Pot has always been on my radar for their amazing sweets-inspired collections. But since the vast majority of their items carry a hefty price tag, I’ve been able to stay away… until now. Their upcoming Sailor Moon collection, due to launch June 30th (Usagi’s birthday), contains some of the most gorgeous pieces of jewelry I’ve ever seen!

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Pokémon Café at Shibuya Parco 2015 [Guest Post]

2 / 20 / 157 / 23 / 15
Waiting in line at the Pokémon Café

Greetings, Chic Pixel readers! This is Sarah (@everydayfoxlife), one of Anne’s newest correspondents in Japan. Recently Roy (@kotowari) and I had the opportunity to visit the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Café Anne wrote about recently in our neighboring city of Shibuya. Was it worth the 7 hour wait? Let’s see…

Getting into the Café
First, we had to wait in line to get tickets in order to make reservations. The process went like this:

  1. Line up for the entrance of the café. We arrived a half hour after it had opened, and the line went down several flights of stairs. It was maybe a 45 minute wait in total, which wasn’t bad.
  2. While you wait, staff members come along and ask how many people you have in your party so that they can create tickets ahead of time.
  3. Once you reach the café entrance, a staff member gives you an assigned ticket with a QR code that you scan with your mobile device, and proceed to actually make the reservation. We hit a snag with this because our QR reader couldn’t open the URL, and we realized that there was a specific app that the café requests you use to read the QR code (geez!). We just got a new Japanese phone plan, which was a life saver because without it we wouldn’t have been able to make reservations. We scanned the QR code and sent off an automated email, which confirmed that they would email us when it’s near time to for us to be able to get into the café.
  4. We once again lined up with the rest of the group who were called around the same time. This wait felt pretty long because it depended on people being done – a lot of times people will hang out and talk for a while after their meal. While we waited, staff members came by and let us review the menu and order ahead of time.
  5. Finally, time to eat!


Our view waiting in line. There was a little photo set where a staff member would take your picture. You could use whatever props you wanted, which were just Pikachu dolls and ears.
Ta da!

View of the café interior. Background music from the game was playing over the speakers.

 

Dining Experience

Roy and I both unabashedly love food, so we were extra excited to try out the menu items themed after the game. We decided to each try out one entreé dish and one drink.

 
Reviewing the menu while waiting in line.

First came the drinks. I ordered the “Voltekka Soda,” which had a Pikachu-shaped mango sorbet on top of crushed ice with some rosemary and lime. It came with ginger ale and pop rocks, which you mix to make an especially fizzy drink. The ginger ale, despite being called Wilkinson, is actually a product of Asahi, and has a surprisingly strong ginger flavor – the menu actually goes as far as to have a small warning for younger children.

 
The pop rocks came in a tiny plastic bowl which had the pokéball button taped to it.
A laminated Pikachu tail was taped to the spoon handle.

The drink itself didn’t taste like anything special (which doesn’t mean it was bad – the ginger ale is becoming a new favorite for me), but being able to add the pop rocks to it was a lot of fun and I am easily amused. The sorbet was kind of hard to eat, so I let it melt a bit, but then became a goopy mess inside a ton of ice. Guess I should’ve made more of an effort to eat him.

 
Melting Pikachu

Roy ordered the mix au lait, which is modeled after an in-game item. The presentation was less than thrilling as it was merely a piece of paper taped to a jar.

 
Um. Ok.

Roy said the drink tasted similar to a lassi – fruity and creamy – but with too much crushed ice. Maybe the café was anticipating little kids to take their time with the drinks, and not a grown man drinking it down like the world is ending. Who knows.

After hanging around a bit and enjoying the drinks, our food finally arrived.

Roy ordered a mabo tofu dish, which is a spicy tofu and ground meat mixture served alongside rice. The café decided to reinterpret the dish after Groudon.

 
The Pokéball-shaped tofu sitting a ground meat mixture next to the red rice.
The salad had a “dai” character cut out of a carrot, which resembled the bonfires that are lit on the mountainside in Kyoto during summer.

Roy initially thought the dish was too sweet, but it became clear that he was supposed to dump copious amounts of spice onto it to increase the heat. After that the dish was pretty good (although he found eating bright red tofu a little unnerving).

I ended up getting the Pikachu omurice (folded omelette with flavored rice) and “aqua” sauce. It came with a complimentary cup designed to look like a Pokéball.

 
The black parts of Pikachu’s face were made with dried seaweed sheets, and the rest were cut out of radishes. His ears were the omelettes, and the blue sauce tasted like curry.

The rice part was a little disappointing because it was room temperature, but as was the case with Roy’s dish, everything became increasingly tastier when mixed together. The omelettes were nice and melty on the inside, and pouring the sauce over everything made it addicting. The salad was refreshing and had a simple vinaigrette, which makes me think the café put some thought into the adults that would be dining in.

I was anticipating the portions to be a lot smaller since the menu is presumably aimed towards kids, but I left the café feeling really stuffed – which was nice after such a long wait.

Goods Shop

 

After we ate, we headed towards the joint goods shop to get some souvenirs. There was a lot of pining after items we didn’t have any use for, so we did the next best thing: take pictures.

12 year old me needs this.

 
 
Roy’s purchase: a miniature Farfetch’d doll (sorry – “Duck Onion”)

I wasn’t planning on getting anything, but broke down at this small glass with Shinzi Katoh’s Pokémon designs. No regrets.

Special Café Pikachu

Whether you were waiting in line to get in the café or just walking by, you could download a special café themed pikachu as an in-game gift simply by hanging around. This was a nice incentive for people to hang around and create buzz for the event.

Final Thoughts

So was it worth the arduous wait? I’d say so just for the experience alone! The food, while nothing extraordinary, was still surprisingly good, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun to be in. I will definitely keep an eye out for more Pokémon Café announcements in the future (most likely via this very blog!).

Wow, thanks so much to Sarah and Roy for the amazing coverage of the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Café at Shibuya Parco! I was sad I wasn’t able to go, but these photos made me feel like I was right there with them! And what’s this? They even sent me a little souvenir!

Not only did they send me the exclusive Pokémon Café notepad I asked for, but an adorable Shinzi Katoh vinyl pouch and the two coasters they got with their drinks! I’m certainly one happy Pokéfan!
I hope you liked this guest post, and if you do, let Sarah know in the comments or by contacting her on Twitter! You may even recognize her as the designer of Chic Pixel’s logo, which I’m now going to be use to watermark my images going forward. Let’s hope to see more Tokyo coverage from Sarah in the future!
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American Envy: Doraemon x House Foods Tofu

2 / 2 / 159 / 13 / 15

I know what you’re thinking: “American Envy? I thought this column was about promotions and merchandise exclusive to Japan!” Well, in a very strange turn of events, North America is receiving a special House Foods tofu campaign in honor of everyone’s favorite Japanese blue robot cat, Doraemon! 2015 marks Doraemon’s 45th anniversary, and House Foods is not only celebrating by plastering Doraemon all over their advertising, but with a sweepstakes, as well. 

I’m honestly amazed that Doraemon is finally hitting North America after enjoying so much popularity internationally. It’s currently airing on Disney XD, and as part of the House Foods campaign, his adorable face will be plastered all over everything from buses to billboards. If you live in North America, send in your Doraemon sightings! I would love to see them. 
Of course, this is the Doraemon House Foods packaging itself. All of the designs are super cute, and as a fan of tofu, I would definitely buy at least one! I think I like how the red background of the medium tofu contrasts with Doraemon’s blue the best.
If you’re a Doraemon fan living in the U.S, be sure to enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win a Doraemon t-shirt or Amazon Kindle! And, if you’re in New York City for Japan Week from Feb 18th – 20th, be sure to stop by House Foods’ Doraemon booth at Grand Central Terminal for some tofu samples and chances to win some fun Doraemon-themed prizes. 
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Japan Envy: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Pokémon Café

1 / 8 / 154 / 18 / 15

If there’s one thing I still regret about my trip last July to Japan, it’s that I never got to go to one of The GUEST cafe&diner’s themed café events. Unfortunately, even if you are lucky enough to be around Shibuya, Tokyo during one of their exciting collaborations, you’ll still need to line up for anywhere from one to three hours… And they don’t take reservations! Still, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can continue to drool over their adorable food items and exclusive merchandise from the comfort of my home in Australia. While their collaborations have usually tended toward specific characters, this time they’ve opened none other than a Pokémon Café!

Even the logo is adorable! For this event, the café is celebrating the 2014 release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for the Nintendo 3DS, so all of the food on their menu is styled accordingly. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights!

All food orders come with this complimentary paper placemat, which can be taken home with you (be careful not to spill anything on it!).
There are plenty of savory food items for Pikachu fans, the most striking of which being the omurice, or omlette rice, with either Team Magna or Team Aqua sauce. The official site doesn’t give any indication of what this special sauce might be, so let’s assume they’re both the same aside from the admittedly slightly unappetizing blue color of the Team Aqua sauce. The sauces come in the Pokéball cup pictured in the bottom right, which you can take home when you’re finished! 
The exceedingly red meal is mapo dofu (mapo tofu) based on Primal Groudon served with rice. Mapo dofu is a Chinese dish that’s quite popular in Japan, and is tofu based (hence the name) with spicy sauce and mince meat. Looks hot!
Pictured below that are some simple Pokémon french fries. I’m always amazed at how they print different pictures on edible items, though! Also note the sauce on the side shaped like a Pokéball. 
For those that have room for dessert, there’s this amazingly adorable Pikachu pancake. I love how they even added the tail! This dish also comes with a cup of maple syrup, and, as with the previous dish, the cup can be taken home. 
Since there was a dish inspired by Primal Groudon, of course they had to do one for Primal Kyogre! This dessert contains jelly, white chocolate, and berry mouse. It’s certainly very blue!
Last but not least, they also have Pikachu lattes, both hot and cold! I have to say the yellow cold Pikachu latte is definitely the more impressive of the two! 
All drink orders come with one special coaster to take home, with five different designs total. Which is your favorite?

And of course, it wouldn’t be a collaborative event without some exclusive merchandise! Here’s just a small sample of the items available – I’ll admit that I’m drooling over that tote bag! 
There are more food and merchandise items available to view on the café’s official site, so be sure to check it out! The collaboration is scheduled to run until the end of May, so you have plenty of time to plan your 3 hour wait if you happen to be in the area. If you’re able to make it in, you’ll also have the chance to download an exclusive Pikachu to your copy of Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire!
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Japan Envy: Sailor Moon Tortilla Chips

11 / 14 / 144 / 18 / 15
I’ve said it time and time again, but I absolutely adore collaborative Japanese food campaigns! There’s nothing better than a good themed café, and I’ll happily admit that putting one of my favorite characters on any sort of food packaging will increase my willingness to buy said food a hundredfold. It’s no wonder, then, that I’m totally thrilled by this new Sailor Moon Crystal tortilla chip campaign… and its hilarious promotional artwork! 

I love that rather leaving the scouts in their every day attire for the above illustration, chip company Koikeya decided to amp up the camp by having the inner scouts getting ready to gorge on bowls full of tortilla chips while in their sailor uniforms. Makes total sense!

Unfortunately, there’s nothing Sailor Moon-y about these chips aside from their packaging, but that certainly won’t stop me from lamenting that Sailor Moon tortilla chips aren’t something I can buy at my local grocery store. The above avocado cream cheese flavor is one of three in the Sailor Moon Crystal collaboration, along with Bagnacauda anchovy and garlic and Balsamico grilled pork.

Each flavor will come in one of six package designs featuring the five inner scouts and Tuxedo Mask. In addition to the cute packaging, Koikeya is offering special wallpapers for mobile phones with each chip bag purchase:

Click the image for a close-up of these cute designs!

On one hand, I’m a little sad they aren’t offering these as stickers, but on the other, exclusive wallpapers are a great alternative to additional clutter around my house, so I’ll take it! I really like the checkered effect on their clothes!

Luckily for folks like me outside of Japan, Jlist is already taking preorders for all three flavors. While the package design they send out will be at random, they say they will try not to send duplicates if you want to order more than one. Of course, it’s only natural that I’ve already preordered one of each for myself! I can’t wait to see what designs I get…

Click here for hundreds of Japanese snacks!
Japanese snacks @ J-List
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Name: Anne Lee
Birthday: December 13
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Chic Pixel is where I write about my favorite aspects of Japanese pop culture, with a focus on the cute and nerdy! Read More >

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mochiipanko Liya/mochipanko 🐰🌙 @mochiipanko ·
23 Jan

A bit late but Happy Lunar New Year!!
✨🐰🌙

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matatabimitsu MatatabiMitsu @matatabimitsu ·
17h

People are quick to blame the translators for these things but I 100% guarantee no pro translator scrubbed these lines of their own volition. This was definitely mandated possibly even by Nintendo Japan. Don't blame little guys doing their jobs, blame the corporations. https://twitter.com/Mondblut1984/status/1617857848385622018

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plantjuice ✨Kelly Pringle✨ @plantjuice ·
31 Jan

girls night! 🐱🍷🍲

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Psyduck (and me, @marcusboi and Pai Pai) have touched down in the USA! But our plane is so early they won’t let us off until customs open at 6am 🙃

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1 Feb

For the first time ever in PreCure history, we will have a boy on the main team. Congrats to Cure Wing! https://twitter.com/comic_natalie/status/1620889777087340544

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apricotsushi

Opening the June @stickiiclub vintage pack! The th Opening the June @stickiiclub vintage pack! The theme is “welcome to the meow-seum” 🐱🖼 How fun! I love how Stickii Club collaborates with different indie artists every month 💕 Soon they’ll be adding washi tape and switching to a more environmental friendly storage option. Definitely recommend! 
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#stickiiclub #stickerporn #stickerart #planningaddict #stationeryaddict #stationerylove #catartwork #catlovers #museumaesthetic #cottagecoreaesthetic #cottagecoreart #stickeraddict #kawaiiart #kawaiiartwork #cutestickers
Sharing art + making a video = ANXIETY OVERLOAD 😫😅 Anywaaay, I loved this screenshot from ACPC @cozynamie took so much that I tried recreating it with two different mediums! Colored pencils were my first attempt, gouache second. It’s good practice to do the same piece a couple of times! Thanks again @cozynamie for letting me use your screenshot as a ref 💕
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Happy Lunar New Year! @jessjhs took this lovely ph Happy Lunar New Year! @jessjhs took this lovely photo of me and Pai Pai to commentate our last Opera House visit. I can’t believe she and I are moving to the US on February 2! 😱 wishing you all a blessed year of the rabbit! 🐰
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Aki and I are not feeling this return to work afte Aki and I are not feeling this return to work after a 1.5 week vacation! Ms Aki is @jessjhs’s lovely shiba inu who we’ve been pet sitting for a few weeks☺️ mug is by Keane Ng, creator of upcoming game A Shiba Story! 
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A super cute new desk mat from a friend was the mo A super cute new desk mat from a friend was the motivation I needed to revamp my work space! 💻 I don’t think I’ll ever fully settle in to our current rental (it’s too tiny with both my husband and me working from home now), but at least this corner is cute! 💕💕 
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#geekgirl #ladygamer #divoom #divoomditoo #animecore #bulbasaur #kawaiiaesthetic #pixelart #gudetama #nendoroiddoll #hellokitty #kawaiioftheday #kawaiiness #gamergirlsofinstagram #gamergirlsunite #kawaiilife #kawaiilifestyle #desksetup #kawaiidesk #cutelife
I love these phone cases so much, I’ve been hang I love these phone cases so much, I’ve been hanging on to them for well over a year since I upgraded my phone 😬 Any ideas of what to do with a cute phone case that doesn’t fit your phone anymore? 
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#kawaiiness #kawaiioftheday #cuteaesthetic #pokemonmerch #shelfiesunday #pochacco #sanriocore #sanriojapan #sanrioaesthetic #cutestuff #cutestyle #kawaiistyle #hatsunemiku #shelfie #ladygamer
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