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Tag Archives: themed café

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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Anne in Japan 2014: Artnia Square Enix Café

8 / 28 / 143 / 11 / 16

For an anime and video game nerds such as myself, there are a near limitless number of themed cafés waiting to be dined at in Japan. Since I usually visit Osaka when I do get the chance to go to the land of the rising sun, I’ve missed out on all of the exciting themed cafés in Tokyo, of which there are many. One such café is the Artnia Square Enix café, which opened at the end of 2012 in Shinjuku. Now, I can finally say I’ve made the pilgrimage every Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest fan yearns to take!

Since Artnia is located in Shinjuku, here’s a street shot I took that evening to set the scene. While the café is actually located closer to the Higashi (east) Shinjuku station, I had some time to kill before my 8:30 meeting time with Tasmanian Twitter friend Rowan (@link6616), so I walked there from the main Shinjuku station. Did you know Shinjuku station is the busiest train station in the world, with over 3.6 million people passing through it every day? And with over 200 exits, it’s notoriously confusing to navigate!

After making my way to the calmer east side of Shinjuku, I finally located the Shinjuku East Side Tower where the Square Enix main office and Artnia café are located. After looping around the perimeter of the building in search of the egg-shaped café, I finally spotted my destination:

Forgive the poor quality photo, but the café was surprisingly difficult to photograph, and it probably didn’t help that I was there at night. Here’s the posh lit sign that greeted me on my way in:

After finally meeting up with Rowan and making our way inside, it was time to order some treats! We both decided that we’d stick to dessert… After all, it’s usually the desserts that are the most creative in themed cafés.

Here’s what it looks like inside! It’s not the most flattering picture, but it does give a sense of how big the café is… which is actually surprisingly small! I don’t think more thank 15 people could be seated at a time. The red area at the back left is actually a display room for all kind of fancy Square Enix merchandise, from Play Arts figures to prohibitively expensive Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy-inspired jewellery.
Oh, and before you ask – no, I don’t know that white guy in the photo! We just happened to be seated next to trio of foreigners.

Even though I perused Artnia’s menu on their website, I was surprised to see the special The World Ends With You and Dragon Quest menus in addition to their usual fare. While I desperately wanted to try the chocobo pancakes or buster sword parfait, the Dragon Quest limited-time menu caught my eye, as not only did it offer an adorable crème brûlée dessert, but a special gift, as well!

Actually, Rowan was so taken with this dessert special that he ordered the same thing! I think it’s safe to say that we were both thrilled by our adorable crème brûlées and the take home slime mugs they came in. The waiter even brought over a bag and box for us to use, and as you can see from the above photo, the crème brûlée itself was in a separate bowl so the cup didn’t get dirty.

As you can see, I was quite thrilled to eat the slime-shaped piece of chocolate that adorned the crème brûlée. The whole dessert was very nice, and for only about $15 for the brûlée and cup, I thought it was very reasonable! For those of you who read my recap of the Rilakkuma Café at Tower Records, I was quite unhappy with the quality/quantity of food served, considering how high the price was. While Artnia wasn’t exactly cheap, I think their prices were much more reasonable, and I left feeling very satisfied.

Of course, how could I go to the Square Enix café and not try one of their special coffees? Though you’re not able to choose what picture you get, they did ask whether I would like a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy design. Why, Final Fantasy, of course! I believe they also do chocobo coffees, but I had no complaints with the moogle design I got. Rowan ordered a juice, and he was treated to his choice of a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy coaster to take home.

After finishing our meal, it was time to get shopping! Please forgive the general lack of photos of inside the café itself – again, the poor lighting combined with my little point-and-shoot camera didn’t make for the best photography. Hopefully you can get an idea from the above photo what the layout of the shop was like. Overall, it was very white, modern, and pristine!
I was slightly disappointed by the selection of the shop, simply because there weren’t very many exclusive items, which is what I’m after when I go to a themed café. They did have some amazing keychain replicas of iconic dishes from the café such as the chocobo pancakes, but they were a whopping $18! On one hand, I still regret not buying one, but on the other, $18 is just too much! In the end, I walked away with just one item, this Artnia-exclusive CD as a souvenir for Mr. Sushi:
The CD is called SE Tracks 99, and as the title states, it consists of 99 tracks. At only $5, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it turns out it’s a collection of in-game creature sound effects, from chocobos to moogles and all oddities in between. Each track is only a second or two, so it’s not really something one would listen to for fun, but I still think it was a fun little souvenir!
Finally, it’s time to take a look at the slime cup that came with my crème brûlée! Here’s the adorable box it came in. As you’ll see shortly, the parts of the above design are replicated on the cup itself.
It was really hard to get a good photo of the outside, but here it is! I just love the little slime border pattern. Check out that smiling slime in the middle! It’s such a cute little detail.
And here’s the bottom of the cup! I love when there’s a little surprise like that inside. It definitely puts as smile on my face to see the little slime staring up at me when I finish off a good cuppa.
I think it’s probably already pretty clear, but I had an amazing time at Artnia! Though the store lacked in affordable exclusive goods to purchase, it definitely made up for it in the amazing selection at the café. I’d definitely make it a priority to stop by if I’m ever in Tokyo again… I still need to try those pancakes!

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Name: Anne Lee
Birthday: December 13
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MangaGamerMangaGamer@MangaGamer·
21 May

And now for the new license announcements...
Announcement #1: From the mind that brought you Hadaka Shitsuji - Naked Butlers, it's MADA Labo's The Patient S Remedy!
https://mangagamer.org/patients

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paularcurtisDr. Paula R. Curtis@paularcurtis·
20 May

I'm excited to finally share "A Guide to Twitter and Social Media Safety for Academics (and Everyone Else)"! 📱 How do you spot a bot? When do you block? This guide is adapted (& expanded!) from my Academics Online workshop on digital harassment in March. http://prcurtis.com/docs/twitterguide2/

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Sailor Chibi Chibi Moon! 💖 from Animage Oct 1996

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犬抱っこ

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18 May

顔ハメで秋田犬になりきる柴犬🐕 #柴犬 #秋田犬

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apricotsushi

The Cupid Parasite limited edition is so amazing! The Cupid Parasite limited edition is so amazing! @ideafactoryintl knocked it out of the park 😍😍😍 I posted an unboxing video over on my YouTube channel - link in my profile!
Finally got my hands on one of the Pokémon Happy Finally got my hands on one of the Pokémon Happy Meal toys at @mcdonaldsau! (Not counting the ones @iubnasus grabbed for me hehe) I love the big stickers! It reminded me that I need to get back to New Pokémon Snap… I haven’t played since the update!
Lil budew inspired by @michelle_coffee’s amazing Lil budew inspired by @michelle_coffee’s amazing work! He’s dreaming of when he’ll bloom someday 😌🌹 be sure to check out @michelle_coffee’s art - so many stunning pieces, and her store is updating this week! My piece was made with watercolor gouache, posca and a little bit of gold gel pen. def need to stick to the 300gsm paper because this 200 warped too much with the amount of water I was using 😅
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How could I not try drawing this adorable shiba ic How could I not try drawing this adorable shiba ice cream sundae for @cremechii’s DTIYS? This is the first time I’m posting just straight-up art on this account… a lil nervous 😅
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Just finished the Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Just finished the Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars demo! Did anyone else play it? The character designs are done by Kimihiko Fujisaka, who also worked on Drakengard, Nier Replicant, and The Last Story! I still need to play The Last Story… 😅 I can’t decide if I’ll pick up Voice of Cards on release but it’s a pretty interesting premise! Worth trying the demo if you like card-style games and D&D sessions 🐉
Long time no selfie! Luckily this hat covers up my Long time no selfie! Luckily this hat covers up my months of lockdown hair growth 😆 I think I’m ready to move to a cottage in the mountains and start a coven, don’t you? Swipe to see what book I’m holding 📚 It’s a very special copy given to my by my mom, and is over 100 years old! 😮
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