Hanabatake Bokujo Cafe / 花畑牧場カフェ

After having lunch and still having a couple of hours before the tap show would start, Mikako and I continued are walk around Ginza. We found more antenna shops featuring the Prefectures of Hokkaido, Toyama, Wakayama, and Fukuoka. I had to check out there alcohol corner to see if they had craft beers (which they did). I bought a few from the Hokkaido store (even though I had recently featured Hokkaido microbrews, but I will talk about that another time). And although we had some melon-mix ice cream at the Hokkaido antenna shop, Mikako spotted a bright pink building and wondered if it could be...and yes it was. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. If you've been living in Tokyo (or Japan for that matter) in the last few years, then you would be familiar with Hanabatake Bokujo (Bokujo is a farm by the way). This particular farm started by popular Japanese television star Yoshitake Tanaka, has become a brand name in fresh caramel. Anyway, we couldn't pass up having ice cream topped with hot caramel sauce here. Oh my, it doesn't compare to the caramel ice cream we ate the Hokkaido Fair or the Ice cream with the caramel sauce we had at the Seibu Department store when they were having their Hokkaido Fair. No - this is the real thing.

昼食を澄まして、劇場の開場まで時間があって、銀座探索散歩のつづきを再開。この辺でまたいろんな都道府県のアンテナーショップを発見。今回見つけたのは北海道、富山、若山、と福岡。僕はもちろん酒コーナーをのぞいて地ビールがあるかどうか。あったので、今日は北海道の地ビールを購入。北海道の地ビールネタ書いたばっかりなのに、何故？それは近日の楽しみ。どさんこプラザで一休みシテメロンミクスのアイスを食べた。またまた散歩開始。美香子が遠くのピンク色のビルが気になって、行ってみたら、あの話題の「花畑牧場カフェ」でした。アイスも先食べたけど、やっぱりここのキャラメルソースかけのアイスを食べないっと。やっぱ違うね。代々木公園の北海道フェアで食べたキャラメルアイスや池袋のデパートで食べたキャラメルソースかけのアイスは比べ物になりません。花畑牧場のやつはマジヤバい！超美味しい！

Melon / Vanilla Mix

バニラ・メロン ミクス

The first floor of this cafe is the gift section where you can buy different flavors of caramels and other assorted products from Hanabatake Bokujo. To get to the ice-cream area you must walk through this tunnel and take the stairs to the second floor. There you will be greeted by friendly cashiers to pay for your ice cream with your choice of sauce toppings. There are three types of caramel sauces to choose from. Plain caramel, chocolate caramel, and mango caramel. Mikako and I both chose the plain caramel.

一階は花畑牧場の売り場。アイスを食べたいなら、奥のトンネルまですすんで、二階に上る。そこで元気なスタッフが注文を受け、アイスを渡す列に並ぶ。キャラメルのソースも三種類ありました。生キャラメル、チョコレート生キャラメル、とマンゴ生キャラメル。どれでも美味しそうに見えたが、やっぱり普通の生キャラメルに決定。

The caramel sauces are made fresh daily. With hot caramel sauce topping your cold ice-cream, one bite and you will be in paradise. No joke!! Delicious.

生キャラメルがアイスに乗せ、食べたら自然に笑顔になる。

There really is ice cream under all that caramel.

生キャラメルの下に本当にアイスがありますよ！

Bon Appetit!

いただきます！