Subway Cafe Amanti: chocolate delight!

Right in the buzzing subway of Ikebukuro station you can find a piece of Europe. Cafe Amanti, located in the maze of subway hallways, gives you the chance to flee the rush and have a quick moment of rest and the illusion of time.

Once walking through the wooden door you are greeted by European inspired interior. A bar with a waiter polishing a glass with a towel makes you feel like you are watching a movie. Sitting down, the smart looking waiter comes over and presents you with the menu.
On the door a sign that had praised their hot chocolates has caught your attention and so the choice will be their special hot chocolate.
Even the wet towel and the coasters carry the logo of the cafe. Attention to detail that i appreciate.

Once the hot chocolate arrives you take a moment to marvel at the thick and dark brown colour, decorated with a white cream swirl. The colour of the drink already tells you that there is a higher cocoa content compared to the average hot chocolate. One sip and your tastebuds pick up rich and strong chocolate flavour. Where some hot chocolates taste milky, Amanti's tastes of dark chocolate.
But that is not the only thing trained cafe lovers will pay attwntion to. Looking around you, the person next to you has another delicate teacup with yet another design, different to yours. Even the bill has been customised for amanti customers.

**Quick review of Cafe Amanti**
PLUS
+Nice interior, you will even forget you are in the subway area of Ikebukuro station
+gorgeous and rich hot chocolate
+ lovely attention to detail in their branding
MINUS
-It seems a little small, so before going there with larger groups you might want to check for seats
- It seems quite posh, so going there in fancy fashion or lolita fashion might earn you some strange looks
A quick stop, a quick moment in a movie europe, is what amanti offers its customers. Classy and a little bit posh, amanti is worth a visit if you want to forget the busy day for a moment.

Colourful&Collectible: Japanese Anime themed sweets

Who doesn't love sweets?! What's even more exciting are sweets that are anime themed or that do collaborations with famous anime series or characters. Let me show you some of the sweet, cute and collectible edibles I got while in Japan!

Morinaga brought out chocolate wavers in the Miku Hatsune Design! The sweets are fairly basic, but the package and cards were Vocaloid themed! Each package contains 1 of 18 collectible cards. Mine was of Rin and had a see through pattern. The artist's style was pretty awesome too.

Galbo did a convenience store Anime collaboration special. If you bought two of their sweets, you got a free sticker of "Natsume's book of friends" to stick onto your monthly suica train card (not the normal ones though). The sticker can be used for other purposes as well. The sweets are green tea or strawberry covered chocolate bits that claim they don't melt in the summer sun!

Coolest collaboration that month was the Madoka Magica Movie special. Buying two of the campaign sweets in a convenience store, you could receive a free clear file of either of the characters. I got one pack of Madoka themed candies (right hand side) that contain one sticker (bottom right). The collaboration was so popular that the stores ran out of the files pretty quickly though. By the time I arrived, Sayaka was the only one left, so I was lucky I got one at all.

If you go to a convenience store in Tokyo, it's always good to check if there are Anime offers or collaborations running at the time. You might get some rare goodies of your favourite anime! Family Mart is known for its Miku Hatsune items, but they are usually not on a special offer but rather just rare designs (they are quite pricey though).
If there are free collaboration items, just make sure that the things you pick are actually included in the offer. If you pick the wrong sweets, you might not get the item you wanted!

That's it for today! Thanks for reading!
Stay sweet

x
Cat

Mister Doughnut - Hello Kitty Halloween

Mister Doughnut is a coffeehouse chain from Japan.
Well, actually that's wrong.
It USED to be a chain from America, but now the headquarters of it are in Japan, while most of the American stores transformed into Dunkin' Doughnuts.

I've been to Mister Doughnuts a couple of times, their "Pon de Ring" is my favourite, but since they are a chain, they lack the cozy tea house charm that some individual places have.

I know it's waaay past Halloween, but I wanted to show you the cute Halloween special they did during the time:
The Halloween Hello Kitty Doughnuts!

Mmmmh Kitty!

They came in two flavours, strawberry and pumkin and were shaped like Hello Kitty pumpkins. The both tasted quite delicious, even though I felt they were a little too cross on the inside.


They had an offer that combines one doughnut with a drink, so that way you can save a little bit on the coins when you are going for tea in Tokyo.

Mister Doughnut used to give away plushies, bento boxes and other goodies to loyal customers, however just this autumn the system has changed and all the customer cards expire now. We can only hope that they will do great price off deals in the future instead. I will miss the Pon the Lion plushy though.

If you are lucky, they often do 100yen days, when selected doughnuts are only 100yen. If you see the offer, I'd definitely recommend you to go inside and try some out!

★★★★★QUICK REVIEW: Mister Doughnut★★★★★
PLUS:
★It's cheaper than other chains like Starbucks etc.
★It usually has a more playful atmosphere, with their character Pon de Lion displayed around the store.
★It's super affordable on campaign days
★The only place you can Eat "Pon de Ring", it's worth it!
MINUS:
★Depending on the store, the inside can look a little like a posh cafeteria.
★Some drinks are pricy, compared to what they offer
SUMMARY
Mister Doughnut is a nice place to stop if you are desperate for a doughnut and some tea. It lacks the 'family feel' of more intimate and smaller coffee places, and there isn't much room for customization from the staff either. I wouldn't go there on a Loli meet, or to have a nice time out, but it's nice for a snack, a tea, while waiting for someone or when you need a quick study break outside.

Derpy me! I was ill on that day, don't judge meeee!

I will be away from my computer for the next couple of days.
Let's see how I will manage to upload in that time.

Challenge START!

Love
x
Cat

Moekawa Cafe モエカワカフェ ♥ : Cute Girls and Snacks

 On a day of shopping in Harajuku all you wish for is more money and a place to rest your sore feet.
 Now my friend Annabelle and I were looking for such a place to rest and have some food and found Dream Station, which is located at the end of Takeshita Doori.
Inside are several places from the famous Crepe shops to Kebab stalls, and the newly opened MOEKAWA ♥ CAFE.

Moe + Kawai = Moekawa!

On that theme, the waitresses from Moekawa Cafe were dressed up in cute, maid-inspired outfits, even though they are not strictly speaking a maid cafe. The staff was very cute, apparently some of them are idols, and they were really friendly. They even let us take a picture with them.

Moekawa Cafe specialises in little snacks and drinks.

As said, they are not a Maid cafe, so they won't put a "moe moe kyun" spell on your food or dance and sing, but the food definitely shows the cute touch that you'd expect from the name: tiny eggs with mouth and faces on them, heart shaped carrots, potato stars and a ketchup heart are some of the decorations used. My egg yakisoba was layered in a cup to give it a cute yet colourful pattern. I also got an Acerola drink for free as special opening offer.

The staff is extremely friendly and open, they don't expect money for taking pictures and allowed me to share it online - that's a rare luxury in Japan! I was really happy about that and asked if I can take a video next time I visit them and I got a positive response. Lucky!

The Moekawa Cafe has already been to Paris before, and functions as a flexible entertainment cafe, meaning they are at Dream Station for a limited time.

☆REVIEW of MOEKAWA CAFE　モエカワカフェ　原宿☆

☆☆PLUS☆

☆The staff is cute, friendly and moe = Moekawa!

☆You're allowed to take pictures

☆The food is decorated with love and moekawa power.

☆The prices are reasonable (my yakisoba was 400yen) and the portions are perfect.

★★MINUS★★

★No moemoe performance shows, but apparently they might be using the JOL stage for　performances, according to their web page.

★The location is inside Dream Station, so there are no specially designed places for Moekawa guests, as it is all within the food court of Dream Station

★Not really suitable for a fashion meet because of the surroundings, but definitely nice for a break from shopping

☆☆☆☆OVERALL☆☆☆☆

I LOVED Moekawa Cafe, especially because of the staff. They were so kind, cute, friendly and moe, how can you not like them?! No matter how difficult a customer I was, they really took in my requests (especially when I went there filming another day) and remained sweet and charming. Perfect service! I find Moekawa Cafe is the nice alternative to Maid cafes. You still have the cute girls and decorated foods, but you don't have table charges, photo charges and high prices. It's like a maid cafe accessable for girls, in a nice and girly atmosphere, with the staff being like the nice "oneesama" (older sister) type that really cares.

☆ATTENTION!☆ The Moekawa cafe is running from October 2013 till the 31st of January 2014! If you want to get a chance to go to see them you have to hurry!

 Perfect time out for your Harajuku Shopping trip!

 I will definitely, definitely go there again if I get the chance. I hope they continue doing the cafe in other places in Tokyo, or extend their time in Harajuku.

If you are curious, the link to their webpage is HERE ★

There's a cute little short clip on youtube, watch it HERE

Thanks for checking out my blog!

MOEKAWA Moemoe!☆

Love

x

Cat