Billed as special fall Hokkaido salmon, the fried salmon will be available for one month only from October to November, both on its on with tartare sauce or in a salmon sandwich. To celebrate the collaboration, Sanrio has even created a new friend for Kirimi-chan called Agemi-chan, which comes from the Japanese for “deep fried,” or “age.”
At least those of us outside of Japan can have something fun to enjoy from this collaboration! In related news, somehow I totally missed this promotional video Sanrio released where Kirimi-chan transforms all of her friends into bishonen:
Kirimi-chan was never my favorite Sanrio character, but she may be growing on me…
I’m a bit late to this one because I totally missed that Otomate now has their own café! Otomate Garden, the official café for all Otomate otome game collaborations, apparently opened earlier this year in Ikebukuro last month and I completely missed the announcement. Well, it just so happens that the café’s theme for the month of September is Amnesia!
Better known as Amnesia: Memoriesin English, this café theme comes at a great time since the English version just came out at the end of August… Though most of us appreciating the English version of the game will sadly never have the chance to attend the café in person! At least we can drool over the menu and merchandise…
Why look at that, Japan is celebrating Ultra Despair Month, too! Well not really, but it’s a great coincidence that Patisserie Swallowtail is offering two rad Danganronpa-inspired cakes during the month of September. The sweets shop, which specializes in collaboration items for anime, manga, and game series popular with women, is located in Shibuya Marui on the 8th floor. If you happen to be in the area between September 9th to the 23rd, here’s what you could pick up:
The Monokuma cake is ¥750 (about $7) and contains white chocolate mousse and raspberry jelly. Yum!
The Monomi cake is also ¥750 and contains cream cheese mousse and passion cream.
Every cake purchase comes with a limited edition Danganronpa coaster:
Usually collaboration drinks are what come with coasters, but I certainly wouldn’t complain if I got one of those neat designs! Of course, which coaster you’re given when you order is random, but I’d have my eye on the Nagito or square Monomi one.
If you’re like me and have no hope of ever making it to Japan in time for this awesome collaboration, you can follow Patisserie Swallowtail on Twitter and drool over all of their various adorable creations there.
It goes without saying that the Monster Hunter X (pronounced “cross”) news is amazing and I’m beyond excited to play it when it debuts on 3DS this winter. The other Monster Hunter news that everyone is overlooking, however, is that we’re finally getting a new Monster Hunter Diaries: Poka Poka Airou Villagegame! Subtitled DX (for “deluxe”) and coming out for the Nintendo 3DS on September 10th, the game looks just as adorable as ever, and comes with a number of exciting new features.
If you don’t recognize the lazy egg yolk on top of that Felyne’s head, I highly recommend checking out Gudetama, one of my favorite new Sanrio characters. The fact that Monster Hunter Diaries: Poka Poka Airou Village DX announced this collaboration right off the bat is a testament to his immense popularity right now. Oh, and of course there will be a couple Nintendo of collaborations, as well!
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 Gearcollaboration, but this time I’m not going to miss out on a chance to drool over some cool video game-inspired food and drink.
Hello again. Sarah here! At long last, it’s time for my write up on the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Eorzea Café in Akihabara! Sorry to keep ya’ll waiting. I’m going to do my best to write up a detailed explanation of how to get the most out of the experience.
The café itself is inside a larger building, so you’ll have to keep an eye out for this display (it ran alongside the Otomate café).
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to assume you know how to get the tickets and am going to skip to the part where you arrive at the café. (If you want step-by-step instructions on how to order the tickets and redeem them at Lawson’s, let me know! If there is enough demand I will do a write up with step-by-step instructions, including screencaps.)
You’ll want to arrive at the café around 15 minutes before your reservation, and you’ll notice that you’ll be with a group of other people that will be dining at the same time. When you give your tickets to the person at the counter (there’s only one counter that’s situated between both the Eorzea and Otomate cafés), they’ll hand you a menu and an order sheet for food and drinks. This is so that you can decide what to order while you wait to be seated.
They will also ask if you have a point card, which we didn’t. Since the reservation is under one name, the points would only apply for that one person even though two people are dining (this is important to note only for diners who have their own point cards and want to save them separately).
Some impressive looking replicas of weapons from the game (bonus moogles!)
Once you are seated, the host will explain how the ordering system works. Basically you have a span of 2 hours (!) to leisurely eat, drink, and play the game itself. I highly recommend spacing out your orders as best you can, otherwise you may find yourself actually bored at times. So get drinks first, then a food item, maybe another round, some more food…That’s what we ended up doing. If you are seated at a two-person table there won’t be room for much food anyway.
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.
