A Japanese Wonderland for Non-Japanese Called Mitsuwa Marketplace

Yesterday was a very good day for me. I was in a good mood because I got complimented for the good work I presented in class and found money on the ground. That was the luckiest day I've had so far this year. After my class ended at noon, I ran to catch a train. I planned a get together with a friend and we were going to catch a bus to get to Mitsuwa Marketplace. This is pretty much a special bus taking you straight to the Japanese market and what makes this market so enticing is that it has a lot of authentic Japanese products. The things at the market are definitely overpriced and I wouldn't come all the way to New Jersey when I can get my basic stuff back at home. I ain't here to buy overpriced groceries. Of course, go for the things that you can't find elsewhere. 


My friend and I were seriously hungry and were very eager to rush to the food court first. Mitsuwa has a very nice food court. The seating space is very open and there's a lot of places to get food. We ordered our hamburg steak with rice and a seafood mix with fried rice at Tokyo Hanten. Tokyo hanten basically takes Chinese styled dishes and adds the Japanese twist to it. Last time we ate at Tokyo Hanten, we were very pleased. The prices were very reasonable roughly $8 each give or take. While our food was cooking, we went to the sushi aisle in the market to get an eel combo (California rolls and unagi) and seaweed salad. Meals alone at Tokyo Hanten would not fill us up so I also suggest to other people that you buy some other foods to accompany the meal. I love the shredded daikon meals always come with. It's raw shredded daikon topped with a bit of seaweed salad and some dressing. As a big fan of daikon, shredded raw daikon with dressing is a favorite of mine. The soup that we got this time was overly salted however. Way too much soy sauce. I'm glad I had rice to balance it out and water in my own canteen. I haven't had unagi in ages and I was so happy with it. The bone in the unagi is practically edible and it's no big deal if you come across it. The eel anatomy is full of bones anyway. If they had hot piping unagi rice on the menu, I would have ordered it. There was a lot of cornstarch mixture in our seafood combo which really put us off and they definitely could have put a lot less. Next time, we'll order something else. For a food court however, I think it's very good food compared to food courts in the city.

Every time that I go to Mitsuwa, I have to visit Sanseido. That's where I get my SHOXX magazine. Unfortunately Sanseido pulled out of United States entirely and my Sanseido card will never be filled. I will never get that 10% discount. T_T Now it's called Books Mitsuwa or something like that. They combined it with a video rental place and docomo. $15.85 for a copy of SHOXX magazine. It's more expensive online and even though it's less on jptou.com, I think tax and shipping will add up. This is air mailed after all. I was happy to see that Sanseido had it. I searched at Kinokuniya and Book Off in the city and they didn't supply it. They even have Kera, AnAn, Young Guitar, and a couple of more familiar titles. For the April 2014 issue, Nightmare was on the cover and it came with a photo card. I was hoping for a poster since the photoshoot for Nightmare looked so nice, but I suppose a photo card is cool too. The one I got had Ni~ya and Ruka on it. Ni~ya I suppose is my favorite member of Nightmare next to Yomi. SHOXX will be on my to-buy list when I go back to Mitsuwa next time, but I think I'll try an issue of Kera too. If only B-PASS and Fool's Mate were still in print, that would be awesome, but they are now defunct. Three copies of SHOXX in my collection. I hope I have enough room in my drawers to hide future copies from my parents.

Always buy things you really can't find elsewhere. Many people on yelp would agree with me, the prices add up and you don't your wallet to cry. Especially in the snack aisle, you need to control yourself. My friend and I found the matcha KitKat that people were raving about online and in person. I personally don't see what's so special about it, but they were really cheap. Like $4 a bag practically. A couple of items were less expensive and worth buying. If they have other snack toys I would have bought one, but there was a bunch of One Piece which I have no interest in. They had one candy kit similar to the stuff RRcherrypie on Youtube does. Basically come to Mitsuwa with a full wallet. I still need to practice saying "arigatou gozaimasu". I get tongue tied and just saying "arigatou" feels informal.