Visited 14.10.2015 (Wed)
Slot in. Returned to Sendai city from Akayu Onsen 赤湯温泉 in the morning to collect our luggage (safe kept at Toyoko Inn Sendai Higashi Guchi 2). Had some time to spare before making our way to Aomori Prefecture via Tohoku Shinkansen, where we would be visiting Oirase Keiryu 奥入瀬渓流. Decided to check out whether there are any places of interest near the hotel which we could visit during this interval and Sendai Anpanman Children’s Museum & Mall surfaced during the search. Was a bit skeptical when I realised that it is labeled as a children’s museum (different from another Anpanman Museum アンパンマンミュージアム which we have visited before in Kami city 香美市 of Kochi Prefecture) which gave the strong impression that the museum is catered to kids only. Nevertheless, we still proceeded to see what is in store there.
Heart shaped bread? What appealed to me the most was their unique heart shaped loaf of bread! As there is crust on its circumference, I deciphered it is not created using a heart shaped cutter on a regular slice of bread and the loaf is directly taken out from a heart shaped bread mould. Quite a novel idea isn't it? Ordered both the savoury and sweet food items from their menu to try. Taste wise, both were decent but not mind blowing and I felt that their aesthetic value are way higher than being mouth-tasty dishes.
- Savory: Pastrami Jack パストラミジャック, comprised of two slices of heart shaped bread sandwiched with scrambled egg, pastrami (a type of smoked meat) and pickles, served with potato chips.
- Sweet: Dokin's French Toast ドキンズフレンチトースト, comprised of three slices of heart shaped french toast dusted with icing sugar on top, accompanied with a scoop of ice cream, whipped cream and maple syrup.
Legit. The Japanese children's anime series is made up of characters which are actually bread themselves. For example, Anpanman アンパンマン is a red bean filled bun, Shokupanman しょくぱんまん is a loaf of bread and Melonpanna メロンパンナ, like the name suggests is a melon bun. Therefore, having a bakery producing bread depicting the characters of Anpanman is definitely the most legit thing to do here. After lunch, we visited Uncle Jam's Bakery (ジャムおじさんのパン工場) and were again spoilt for choice by the wide array of character inspired bread. Chose a bread for each of us; bought Anpanman, Uncle Jam and Cheese (a dog character), and we ate them during our break in the afternoon. The bread tasted as good as they looked; soft and fluffy with generous filling - looks like I have found a good reason to revisit Uncle Jam's bakery in any of Anpanman Shopping Mall in future.
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Sendai Anpanman Children's Museum & Mall 仙台アンパンマンこどもミュージアム＆モール, Dokin's Heart Shape Cafe ドキンズハートシェイプカフェ, Uncle Jam's Bakery ジャムおじさんのパン工場
宮城県仙台市宮城野区小田原山本丁101-14
Operating hours:
- Museum: 1000 - 1700 hrs (last entry at 1600 hrs)
- Shopping Mall: 1000 - 1800 hrs
- Anpanman & Peko's Kitchen: 1000 - 1900 hrs (last order at 1800 hrs)
Admission fee (for museum) = 1,600 yen (before tax)
http://www.sendai-anpanman.jp/index.html
How to get there?
(1) By foot. About 9 minutes walk from Sendai JR Station East Exit / Higashi Guchi 仙台駅東口.
Slot in. Returned to Sendai city from Akayu Onsen 赤湯温泉 in the morning to collect our luggage (safe kept at Toyoko Inn Sendai Higashi Guchi 2). Had some time to spare before making our way to Aomori Prefecture via Tohoku Shinkansen, where we would be visiting Oirase Keiryu 奥入瀬渓流. Decided to check out whether there are any places of interest near the hotel which we could visit during this interval and Sendai Anpanman Children’s Museum & Mall surfaced during the search. Was a bit skeptical when I realised that it is labeled as a children’s museum (different from another Anpanman Museum アンパンマンミュージアム which we have visited before in Kami city 香美市 of Kochi Prefecture) which gave the strong impression that the museum is catered to kids only. Nevertheless, we still proceeded to see what is in store there.
Kids friendly. Currently, there are a total of five Anpanman Children's Museum, including this one in Sendai, in Japan (Kobe, Fukuoka, Yokohama and Nagoya). Decided to give the museum a miss after checking its facilities in the layout map and affirming that it is designed for a younger audience indeed. The shopping mall contains a good variety of stores and restaurants, and was much larger and extensive than we thought. There are various shops, each specialising in a certain kind of Anpanman related merchandise, such as bookshop (Mori no Honya san 森の本屋さん), stationery shop (Anpanman Friends アンパンマンフレンズ), clothing and goods store (Anpanman Kids Collection アンパンマンキッズコレクション), enough to keep fans of this popular anime series exclaiming in delight continuously. In addition to that, there is a kids hair salon (アンパンマンヘアサロン) and a photography studio (アンパンマンにこにこ写真館) housed within the same shopping mall.
Plethora of food. There is also plenty of food choices in the shopping mall as well. From local fare to western cuisine; from a complete meal to light snacks; we were indeed spoilt for choice! Eventually, we chose Dokin's Heart Shape Cafe ドキンズハートシェイプカフェ which is designed to look like an American diner (distinct red leather seats, black & white checkered floor pattern and open concept kitchen) with Dokin chan ドキンちゃん being the lead mascot representing this kitchen.
Plethora of food. There is also plenty of food choices in the shopping mall as well. From local fare to western cuisine; from a complete meal to light snacks; we were indeed spoilt for choice! Eventually, we chose Dokin's Heart Shape Cafe ドキンズハートシェイプカフェ which is designed to look like an American diner (distinct red leather seats, black & white checkered floor pattern and open concept kitchen) with Dokin chan ドキンちゃん being the lead mascot representing this kitchen.
Heart shaped bread? What appealed to me the most was their unique heart shaped loaf of bread! As there is crust on its circumference, I deciphered it is not created using a heart shaped cutter on a regular slice of bread and the loaf is directly taken out from a heart shaped bread mould. Quite a novel idea isn't it? Ordered both the savoury and sweet food items from their menu to try. Taste wise, both were decent but not mind blowing and I felt that their aesthetic value are way higher than being mouth-tasty dishes.
- Savory: Pastrami Jack パストラミジャック, comprised of two slices of heart shaped bread sandwiched with scrambled egg, pastrami (a type of smoked meat) and pickles, served with potato chips.
- Sweet: Dokin's French Toast ドキンズフレンチトースト, comprised of three slices of heart shaped french toast dusted with icing sugar on top, accompanied with a scoop of ice cream, whipped cream and maple syrup.
Legit. The Japanese children's anime series is made up of characters which are actually bread themselves. For example, Anpanman アンパンマン is a red bean filled bun, Shokupanman しょくぱんまん is a loaf of bread and Melonpanna メロンパンナ, like the name suggests is a melon bun. Therefore, having a bakery producing bread depicting the characters of Anpanman is definitely the most legit thing to do here. After lunch, we visited Uncle Jam's Bakery (ジャムおじさんのパン工場) and were again spoilt for choice by the wide array of character inspired bread. Chose a bread for each of us; bought Anpanman, Uncle Jam and Cheese (a dog character), and we ate them during our break in the afternoon. The bread tasted as good as they looked; soft and fluffy with generous filling - looks like I have found a good reason to revisit Uncle Jam's bakery in any of Anpanman Shopping Mall in future.
======
Sendai Anpanman Children's Museum & Mall 仙台アンパンマンこどもミュージアム＆モール, Dokin's Heart Shape Cafe ドキンズハートシェイプカフェ, Uncle Jam's Bakery ジャムおじさんのパン工場
宮城県仙台市宮城野区小田原山本丁101-14
Operating hours:
- Museum: 1000 - 1700 hrs (last entry at 1600 hrs)
- Shopping Mall: 1000 - 1800 hrs
- Anpanman & Peko's Kitchen: 1000 - 1900 hrs (last order at 1800 hrs)
Admission fee (for museum) = 1,600 yen (before tax)
http://www.sendai-anpanman.jp/index.html
How to get there?
(1) By foot. About 9 minutes walk from Sendai JR Station East Exit / Higashi Guchi 仙台駅東口.
