My Next Trip Abroad Is To Ice Cream City
You may be surprised by this, but something is going on in the Land of the Rising Everything that will inevitably reach popularity here. You heard it here first: food theme parks. We're not talking about an amusement park that has some churros for sale in tin pushcarts. We're talking about a place that's whole raison d'etre is one type of food. What I'm about to list are all real places: Ramen Museum, Curry Museum, Sweets Forest, Ice Cream City and finally, Gyoza Stadium.
That's right--Gyoza Stadium. Brought to you by Namco, the same company that brought you Xenosaga, Katamari Damacy and Klonoa, the company has apparently gone into further avenues of the entertainment industry in Tokyo. Can you comprehend how amazing it is that you can go to one place and eat as many different kinds of plump potstickers by different renowned chefs as you want? And did I tell you that the whole place has a 1950's Japan look, complete with little rooms in complete replica of the living rooms of that time? And that there are haunted-looking areas that are full of folklore, like kabuki ogress masks on crab legs guiding you through a dark maze? I know, don't wet yourself with excitement.
I haven't been myself, but fellow blogger Cabel Sasser has, and he has a well written account of his experience there, complete with a multitude of snapshots, short movies showing a walk through the strange little indoor streets and full menu scans from both Gyoza Stadium and Ice Cream City.
If you ask me, this is what travel is really about. Sure, you can spend $10,000 to have a National Geographic sponsored guide walk you by the hand through the safe parts of Tokyo with a bunch of grandparents. And maybe you really won't understand any of the cultural references in a place like Gyoza Stadium. But then you'd be missing out on the sizzling, fried and oily center of a place that makes it what it is.
So who wants to help me make Grilled Cheese Land?
Japan Story: Gyoza Stadium [cabel.name]
Pirate Prince
Posted to Miscellany on 7 February 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: food, gyoza, japan, namco, theme parks, totally awesome
Holy jeez, I'm so going to Gyoza Stadium whenever I go back to Japan! Travel's all about the eating (and maybe one or two museums)!
Why is there a cat ghost coming out of the bathrooms?
Living 45 minutes from Hershey Park in PA, I am unimpressed.