Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.
Last week, we finally finished exploring the famous Kamakura Hasedera Temple, checking out the temple structures and even a cave dedicated to Benten, the Japanese goddess of eloquence, good fortune, and knowledge.
Having explored numerous temples across various countries, I can confidently say I've never encountered one with a hidden cave until now! This discovery turned our visit into an extraordinary adventure, marking this temple as truly one-of-a-kind.
We're only halfway through this day so let's continue!
3 Feb 2023. Friday.
After we finished exploring the temple, we headed back to the train station and took the train to Yokohama so we could visit one of our favourite stores!
Here's a little preview of the store in question if you can spot it.
But first, we went to go look for some lunch! We were pretty hungry after walking through two temples with hardly much of a breakfast.
I was craving something crispy and warm and the only shop we found that fit that criteria was this one that looked like they specialised in karaage, or Japanese fried chicken!
There were quite a few customers since it was lunch time but thankfully we still managed to get a table.
They definitely specialise in karaage, with their menu featuring different seasonings and sauces with their signature fried chicken.
Here's the rough translation of the different kinds of karaage they had:
They also had a few special bowl sets that looked pretty good as well.
We were quite torn on which flavour karaage to try, and Sean ordered their signature karaage set which comes with 5 pieces of your choice of karaage, rice and vegetables. I think he chose the Garlic Steak Sauce chicken.
I ordered the bowl instead which comes with 5 pieces of karaage, rice, spring onions and a soft boiled egg. Both our meals also came with a bowl of miso soup.
Whenever I have Japanese rice bowls I always like to get the ones that come with a soft boiled egg just so I can break it on top of the rice and mix it together.
The karaage was delicious! I don't remember what my karaage was but I guess it must be their signature sauce. It was crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and seasoned perfectly. It may be because I was really hungry but I really enjoyed that meal.
The restaurant itself is pretty simple-looking with some wacky art in a retro style. But I love karaage and I was satisfied after the meal. We had a nice lunch while resting our feet after walking so much.
After we left the restaurant we headed back upstairs to go to our favourite store - the Snoopy Town Shop!
I've been a longtime fan of the PEANUTS comic series since my childhood, and even owned quite a few books back in the day. We even visited the Snoopy Museum right here in Tokyo back in 2016!
I didn't expect Snoopy to be such a big hit here in Japan when we first visited but now every time we travel here we always stop by a Snoopy Town Shop if we see it.
There are quite many characters in the Peanuts gang, and Sean's favourite is this silly-looking one of Snoopy's brothers, named Olaf.
Mine is Snoopy of course, but he always jokes that Snoopy is a villain just to tease me.
Another reason I like visiting all the Snoopy Town Shops is because each one has its own unique design. The one had huge stained glass portrait lights of each of the characters that looked really nice!
And of course they had plenty of merchandise for sale from locally-themed souvenirs to general products like stationery, snacks, plushies, lifestyle goods and apparel.
This store is definitely one of the bigger Snoopy Town Shops we've seen, probably because it's outside of the main Tokyo so there's more space.
There's definitely more goods to find here than at Character Street in Tokyo Station which is quite small.
I was so tempted to buy one of the many Snoopy plushies, and I remember my mum bought me one a long time ago that sat beside my childhood bed.
Sean found a very interesting Olaf plushie that was in black and white and was kind of wearing denim.
They had some very nice glasses, cups and tumblers with different Snoopy designs as well that looked tempting.
There was even Snoopy bags and purses that looked quite nice as well. We already had a coin pouch though.
There was just so much to look at!
At the time when we visited, they seemed to be having some special event featuring Olaf, Sean's favourite derpy character! There was even a whole section with special limited edition Olaf merchandise! I joked that he must've planned that for when we visited.
Sean wanted to check out the apparel and see if he could get a hoodie since he lost his previous one.
Eventually we settled on this one with looked quite subtle with a nice pleasing colour.
I wanted a lot of things but then again we didn't really have much use for them but I did let myself get one thing from the gachapon machines, and I got this colourful pouch.
There was a nice sitting area nearby too.
It was almost Valentines Day and the store window was fully decked out with plenty of hearts!
Even silly Olaf was wearing a pink hat for the occasion.
The front of the shop even had special posters for their events like the upcoming Valentines one featuring different berry-themed products. And they also had a silly poster for Olaf and all his goods!
Outside the store they had something similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame but with imprints of the different Peanuts characters, so of course Sean had to get a photo with Olaf's paw prints.
If you're a big Snoopy fan like I am, I highly recommend checking out this shop! Although I'm pretty sure the Snoopy Museum probably has more stuff now especially after they revamped it and moved to a bigger area.
After that we were done shopping! There isn't much else that interested us in this mall so went out into the street to go for a walk.
There was a park nearby that we also like to visit whenever we're in the area, but we needed to take a break so we decided to head to a cafe.
It was pretty cloudy so the weather was quite cold then, not really the best time for a walk if you're sensitive to cold.
We headed to this cafe called Saint Marc Cafe, which has one of the best chocolate croissants we've had.
They were having a special Valentines promotion and Sean bought a set with two pastries and a hot chocolate drink.
Their chocolate croissant is one of the best I've ever had. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside with actual flowing chocolate. It's like a chocolate lava cave but a croissant!
It's one of my favourite cafe pastries for sure, and we always make a point to get one every time we visit Japan.
After I took a short nap on the first floor, we only realised the cafe was quite big with multiple floors upstairs and plenty of more comfortable seating.
It was a shame since the first floor was both cold and quite noisy for a nap, so it wasn't the most comfortable but I was quite exhausted after so much walking.
After that we left so we could go visit one more place nearby! But we did pass by this very regal and oriental-looking gate leading to the Chinatown.
But I think that's going to be it for today! Tune in next time for a very special post featuring a place that has since shut down, unfortunately. We were lucky enough to visit it one month before they closed it. Here's a sneak peek:
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #266 (Tokyo): Exploring Secret Caves in Hasedera Temple! ⛰