So, one of the MUSTs I have set out for this Tokyo trip is to go to the Hello Kitty Bakery. It's really called Promenade de Kitty. This is the only Hello Kitty Bakery that they have in the entire country. =^.^= Their website is all in Japanese and not updated very frequently. They did say that they recently renovated in preparation of Kitty's birthday, which was Nov 1st. So, I know that by the time I get there they'll be open.
Getting there, however, was not fun. When we asked the front desk of the hotel, the lady with her very broken English was trying to tell me how far it is. Which, I do know about that, just didn't really know how far it really is. The front desk lady was very nice and picked up the phone and called the place. The lady that was at the place had some very screwy instructions to get there. Frankly, their Yahoo directions was no better than the ones I got from Google. There's never been English instructions to get there, and I think I'm going do this for my own memory and if there are other non-Japanese speakers that wanted to make that pilgrimage to see the big kahuna, this is it!
Now, I stayed in Central Tokyo, so getting there wasn't exactly a piece of cake. We stayed along the Hanzomon Line (半蔵門), they do have a train that takes you straight to Chūō-Rinkan Station (中央林間). If the train you took dead ends to Shibuya (涉谷), that's ok, you can switch to Tōkyū Den-en-toshi Line (東急田園都市線) and you can straight there. Once you get to the station, you exit and head South towards a major roadway. Oh yeah, by the way, good luck in finding the name of the street... it wasn't easy. The way you know it's South, is that you have 7-11 behind you, and a parking lot w/ 2 wood board map of the surrounding area to mark. If you head down the street of where that parking lot is, and keep going, you'll deadend to the major street. And if you happened to see a taxi, grab it, because it is a very long walk. No lie! *If you do take a taxi, print out the Japanese address, since most of them don't do English very well.*
What we did was that we walked down that main through-fair till we saw Nissan, and turn left. That is the section of Komatsubara (小松原), 1st Section. You head straight down, and this is the not so pretty part. You have alot of warehouses, factory-like places. Tons of small homes but alot of industrious places where truckers pull in.
We walked alot of the pieces that doesn't have sidewalks and that's the not-so-pretty part. And again, since it's mostly residential and w/ some warehouses and factory, people and normal cars are scarce. When you get close, you do see a flag type sign on your left, and the right side is another factory/warehouse. That sign will take you to the back of the building. So, you do have to walk past this back of a warehouse and parking lot to get to the 'front' of the building. By the way, dead giveaway, the columns of the place are painted pink. And here's why, turns out, that is one of the distribution points for Japan, Hello Kitty merchandise. They get any irregulars, discontinued stuff. So, I guess as the new stuff comes in, get processed here and distributed, the returned stuff comes in and they sell them at hugh discount... and I'll tell you why I know this shortly.
Let me tell you, when I saw this place I was absolutely estatic, of course this is after walking over an hour, I was thrilled to see anything that resemble life. That said, the bakery itself is very small, but you can definitely smell it. I bought everything Hello Kitty edible possible. The rest are really just a bakery shop w/ nice and pretty bread. I knew they just recently renovated and everything is new. Since we walked for over an hour to get there, we were more than pleased to see cafe-like table and chairs.
The staff doesn't speak any English and our pointing and smiling can only take you so far. That said, they are uber friendly and you can't hate the situation because they're so kind and polite about everything.
I ended up buying these bread-products. The 2 that are bread, actually has custard cream inside. The cookie-like thing is actually toast, in the shape of HK, and coated w/ sugar. And here I thought it was cookie, it was just toast.
When I tried to buy some of their Hello Kitty's in Bakery outfit, the staff pain-stakingly tried to communicate that they are not for sale. With big disappointment on my face, the guy w/ the most English (which is not very much) pointing and jesturing to follow him. Hmm... follow stranger???
Well, he took me to the back of the building where the pink columns are. There, they have a tiny aisle of Hello Kitty products. That's how I found out the leftovers from all over are located there. They have a sticker system like 2 for $1000yen and what not type menu. I actually don't need anything they have to offer and they don't have the HK Bakery to offer, but since he took me there, I felt bad and bought something.
To get back, you can try to wait for the bus, they don't run very often, so you may have to wait a bit. All you have to do is head South to the other major street and you'll see another 7-11 and you turn left that's the main street. We ended up taking a bus to Minami Rinkan Station (南林間) by luck that it came right by, which belongs to Odakyū Enoshima Line (小田急江ノ島線) towards Shinjuku direction (新宿行) and switched train at Shin-Yurigaoka (新百合ケ丘)and headed up to Puroland at Tama Plaza ((小田急多摩センター).
If you're going, good luck... have someone local call for you in case you need more help. But the level of English in a non-commerical area is very slim, so be prepared.
キティのパン屋さん【キティの散歩道】
神奈川県座間市小松原2-23-30
TEL 046-298-1800
営業時間 9:00～18:00
Promenade de Kitty (bakery)
Kanagawa-ken Zama-shi小松原２丁目２３−３０
Tel: 046-298-1800
Hours: 9a-6p
*this is the only Hello Kitty Bakery in the entire country of Japan*
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