Hello folks! Today, I bring you Mitsuwa~!
Image is not mine, I stole it from someone else~ Source : jeburner.com
Mitsuwa Marketplace is a lovely little place is located in Edgewater, NJ just right across NYC~ Mitsuwa imports lots of yummies from Japan so you don't have to go all the way to Japan to buy their stuff! Awesome right? I flipped out the first time being there. The place itself is pretty big: food court on one side and the little grocery on the other. It's also located on a little small strip-mall, Mitsuwa itself being the largest and central store of the strip-mall. Other stores include Books Sanseido, a little Japanese hobby / cultural store, Seishido, etc etc.
I was accompanied by my En En on my trip to Mitsuwa. Made this trip much fun ^^
From what I've heard, the place is packed on Satdays! But, look at this! It's a Monday, yet it's still packed! Thinger is though, it was President's Day, prolly packed thanks to that.
entering Mitsuwa. I love the guy all the way to the right
blurry yes, but this was a line for ordering Creamyaki's
The food court itself was very full. We barely found any seats, but we luckily found some stools and ran to them before anyone else decides to take em.
all seats were taken :(
some fuud on display. Neat thing about their food court is that you get to see neat replica's of any type of meal with a number attached to the replica. Then, once you proceed to the counter, you mention which number meal you would like, and they will make it for you~.
So, what did I exactly get for lunch? A nice hot bowl of yummu Beef Curry Udon :D ! I love the quality of the noodles; it's very chewy, slippery and thick too! This makes it fun to slurp into your mouth then chew chew. The soup was very good too, it wasn't spicy at all! Also, chopsticks only! There are no forks available, and if you want to drink your soup, you drink from the bowl (unless you are in need of a spoon, there's always some there as well)! And as always, my lunch at Mitsuwa is accompanied by a bottle of Pocari Sweat,
Udon + a bottle of Pocari Sweat. Now that's a lunch!
After lunch, the grocery was next on our list! The grocery itself is fairly big, almost comparable to the size of a small Shoprite or Whole Foods. They also carry items that you would most likely see in a Shoprite-- only difference is the fact that the merchandise is Japanese.
the refrigirated section. Lots of goodies here
as always, a picture of the small, yet amazing Pocari Sweat section
We didn't actually go around the grocery, but just passed by a few aisles (candy, snacks, beverages, refrigerated goods). It's always a must to go to those aisles. -Also, paying for your items is a rather interesting process. Since Mitsuwa is indeed a Japanese Marketplace, you must pay in Japanese Yen! Strange I know, but if you fail to do so, they will send killer robots and tons of ramen monsters to chase you out of the Marketplace. The Mitsuwa overlord wants all of your yen, not dollars! Nom Nom Nom
After some nice grocery shopping, we decided to take a break from Mitsuwa and decided to stop by two stores next door : Books Sanisedo and a small hobby / cultural shop. Books Sanseido was our first stop! It has a nice setup : Magazines up first on the left hand size, then books in the further left side, followed by DVD / CD section to the right, and a small stationary section upper right hand side. Of course, knowing me, I first attack the mango section~ In this section, they had a mix of translated and untranslated mango's. What's also neat is that untrans. mango's cost a lot cheaper than translated versions - around $5 difference. Also, untranslated mango's are a lot smaller compared to its translated counterparts. Still, I would very much love to learn Japanese, one reason = Japanese mango's! Speaking of the Japanese language, there is a little 'learn Japanese' section right next to the mango. This section consists of book ranging from dictionaries to Japanese textbooks! You must stop by this section if you would like some textbooks on learning Japanese~
translated mango's. Yes, the picture is sideways, thank you for criticizing ^^
some of the many untranslated mango's. Look at all those One Piece volumes~
En En looking at one of the 'learn Japanese' text books
After buying some goodies from the bookstore, we decide to stop by the hobby / cultural Japanese shop. This store is literealy split in two : the hobby section to the left and the cultural section to the right. However, some a section of the hobby side is overcome by some of the cultural merchandise. We were only interested in checking out the hobby side which had many merchandise such as toys, action figures, plushies, tee shirts, bags, key chains, and etc etc. But, we also checked out the small cultural section which had Japanese apparel, katana's, bokken's, furniture, and etc etc. However, we didn't have much time to look around, so no pictures here :<
Afterwards, we decided to take take a break from shopping and buy some nice treats back in Mitsuwa! We decided to buy some yummu creamyaki's, which are snacks made out of pancake-like substance with a nice cream filling in the middle~. There are also obanyaki's and taiyaki's which have their different flavored centers. Also, each pancake-like snack has their unique shape. Creamyaki's are circular shaped and each piece has one of teh twelve Chinese zodiac animals printed on the piece. Taniyaki's are molded into fishies and obanyaki's are just plain, oval shaped snack. I've never tried either taiyaki's or obanyaki's, but creamyaki's are awesome.
the little shoppe making / selling these pancake goodies~
how these little yums are made~
After buying ourselves a nice set of Creamyaki's, we decide to take a nice stroll along the Hudson River. Right behind Mitsuwa, there is a little pathway which is directly connected to another strip-mall (both Mitsuwa and this other stip-mall are seperated by a small driving range). The Hudson is accompanied by a nice view of NYC directly across from Mitsuwa. Such a combination provided a really great view, however, the cold still bites during this time of year. Still, it's a very nice walk, so the cold doesn't really bother much.
Em Em + The Hudson River and NYC. Nice view~
Mitsuwa is a great place to visit for any Japan fan out there. Great food, awesome merchandise, and a beautiful scenery makes Mitsuwa a must visit! You will have plenty to do in Mitsuwa + you can also enjoy the wonderful scenery with some yum snacks or you can spend your day inside the Japanese bookstore. If you have a empty slot in your week, why not stop by Mitsuwa? I'm sure you will have lots of fun over there, just make sure you bring $$$. I found some items mildly expensive, but I happen to have bought lots of merchandise. For the most part, Mitsuwa is a great place to visit. Thank you for reading my rather long update, and until then, cheers!