Went to Shirokiya’s new “Japan Village Walk” in Ala Moana Shopping Center along with my friends and half the entire island population or at least it SEEMED that way! The Restaurant village had its Grand Opening this weekend and the air was full of excitement with giveaways and lots of loud taiko-drum infused entertainment as the masses perused the new shops and stores!
The new place seems to have it all: restaurants from Japanese to Vietnamese to traditional and even American stuff of the Cheeseburger variety, Bakeries and pastry shops and even gift stores welling Japanese wares that reminded me not a little of good old Iida’s back in the day!
One of the perks of dropping in on opening day was that they were giving out free gifts for the first 12,000 visitors: cute little amulets with your “Guardian Spirit” animal which you received and then were invited to read up on what your character meant in the neighboring exhibit!
And after spending the day having lunch and drinks, we couldn’t leave without topping it off with an assortment of those famous Hello Kitty Waffles for dessert! Mmmm...Got the custard, chocolate and regular ones, maybe next time we’ll get the Cream Cheese, Strawberry and Red Bean ones!
So much to see and I’m still not sure we saw all of it- we kept walking past alleys that we’d missed in the initial walkabout, but we’ll definitely be coming back for more! I gotta say, when we first showed up, the line to get in was so long and had snaked from Shirokiya around the corner and almost all the way back to Old Navy, and I thought we'd perhaps made a mistake coming so early, but one inside it was all worth it!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
