Japanese character manufacturing company San-x has teamed up with TYO Group’s animation studio dwarf studios to produce an original Netflix series called Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure.

The series is a follow-up to Rilakkuma’s first ever stop-motion animated series Rilakkuma and Kaoru which premiered worldwide on Netflix in April 2019. The new series is also a stop-motion animation adventure.

The new series features Kaoru (voiced by Mikako Tabe), Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori who are all set for a fun-filled day at an amusement park. Join the gang as they face a number of exciting incidents and make some new encounters at closing time.  There are a total of eight episodes, each of which lasts approximately ten minutes.

The Rilakkuma and Kaoru series ranked at number two on Netflix’s list of top 10 most watched shows of 2019 in Japan. The new series will be available to watch in over 190 countries worldwide.

Rilakkuma’s fun adventures have only just begun so stay tuned!

©2020 SAN-X CO., LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Starbucks Coffee Japan is set to launch the Starbucks holiday season on November 1 with a selection of special drinks and products. The theme this year is ” a Special Holiday with Starbucks Classics.”

With less than two months to go before Christmas, the coffee chain is set to release a variety of seasonal beverages including the Starbucks® Christmas Blend, Gingerbread Latte, and Macadamia Toffee Latte. It will also release the first range of holiday season merchandise on November 6.

Hot and cosy drinks for the holiday season

Macadamia Toffee Latte: Short ¥440 | Tall ¥480 | Grande ¥520 | Venti ® ¥560

Gingerbread Latte: Short ¥420 | Tall ¥460 | Grande ¥500 | Venti ® ¥540

Winter White Chocolate: Short ¥400 | Tall ¥440 | Grande ¥480 | Venti ® ¥520

The spicy Gingerbread Latte is a must-have on the menu during the holiday season at Starbucks, one that latte lovers look forward to every year. And this year, coffee consumers in Japan have two new drinks to look forward to: the Macadamia Toffee Latte which is a crunchy combination of macadamia nuts and sweet toffee, and the snowy powdered sugar-topped Winter White Chocolate.

Starbucks® Christmas Blend and Cranberry Bliss Bar Pairing

From Left: Starbucks® Christmas Blend Espresso Roast | Starbucks® Christmas Blend | Starbucks® Christmas Blonde Roast – ¥1,520 Each (Before Tax)

A cup of Starbucks’s Christmas Blend fills you with that cosy nostalgic feeling of the season. This year’s recipe at Starbucks Japan is inspired by the one first sold in 1984 which has a rich, deep blend. It’s a coffee combination of dark roast Sumatran, Papua New Guinean, Columbian, and Guatemalan coffee beans. There’s also some aged Sumatra coffee in there to elevate the flavour.

Each cup is a complex mix that brings to mind herbs and spices, and hidden within all that a subtle sweetness.

Cranberry Bliss Bar | ¥270 (Before Tax)

Starbucks Japan is bringing back its signature Cranberry Bliss Bar dessert for the holiday season and pairing it with the Christmas Blend. The cake has orange in it which brings a tangy but fresh kick that matches heavenly with the spicy notes.

The First Merchandise Batch

The first batch of holiday season merchandise to drop at Starbucks Japan incorporates Christmas motifs like ribbons, candy canes, and reds and white colouring. The line-up includes a stainless steel bottle with a gingham checked pattern and gold dots to a stainless TOGO cup with a classic design reminiscent of a candy cane, notebooks, and more.

The holiday season is shaping up to be another cosy welcoming again this year at Starbucks Japan.

Q-pot CAFE. in Omotesando, Tokyo, has revealed its upcoming Q-pot CAFE. “KUMA”STMAS MENU which is set to be served from November 1 to December 25.

Happy Merry “KUMA”STMAS！

“KUMA”STMAS is a portmanteau of the Japanese word for bear (kuma) and Christmas. The cafe’s cute menu is here to bring warmth and cosiness this holiday season.

Merry “KUMA”STMAS Plate w/ Drink – ¥2,060 (Tax Included)

A sweet assortment cute enough to tug your heartstrings.

Q-pot CAFE.’s pastry chefs take their time to delicately handmake the adorable bear’s baby face oat milk cookie. The cookie is sat on top of a fluffy duvet of whipped cream, berry jam with fresh berries, and a chocolate génoise cake. It’s a sweet and tangy combination of raspberry and strawberry.

The cookie-topped cake is also served with a rich pistachio cream Christmas tree.

Merry “KUMA”STMAS Bitter Caramel Milk Tea – ¥750 (Tax Included)

A warm and cosy beverage to heal your heart, mind, and soul. This baby bear looks sweet but has delightfully rich notes thanks to the caramel. The tea is one of the cafe’s originals, the “Sweet Weekend,” which has a refreshing after taste and goes perfectly with the caramel cream.

Merry “KUMA”STMAS Afternoon Tea Set | ¥2,400 per person (Tax Included)　*Photo shows a set for two

If you love teddy bears, then this afternoon tea set is a dream come true.

Top Plate

The top plate is a delicate assortment of sweet and crunchy oat milk cookies, a glass dessert of fromage blanc and fresh orange jelly, velvet cupcakes topped with pistachio cream made to look like a Christmas tree, and creamy macarons.

Bottom Plate

The bottom plate is the savoury selection and comes with croissants stuffed with roast beef topped with honey mustard sauce, a rich potato potage, and skewers piercing olives, mini tomatoes, and pickles.

Special Novelty <Teddy Bear Message Card>

Customers who book a table in advance to the cafe will receive a free teddy bear message card. These are limited in stock, so if you’re in Tokyo don’t miss out.

Tokyo’s two cafes Pokémon Cafe and Pikachu Sweets by Pokémon Cafe have announced that they will open online orders for their new ‘Pokémon Cafe Christmas Home Party Set 2020’ on November 17, 2020.

Pokémon Cafe Christmas Home Party Set 2020

The party set comes with a Pikachu-shaped Christmas cake, Christmas tree stand, a set of four wooden chopstick rests shaped like Pikachu’s tail, and a set of four paper Pikachu glasses. If you’ve ever dreamed of a Pokémon Christmas, then who better to spend it with than Pikachu?

Kawaii Pikachu Cake

Pokémon Cafe Christmas Home Party Set 2020 | ¥8,800 (Tax Included)

The cake is a mousse cake made with cream from Hokkaido and sweet white chocolate. Shaped like Pikachu, the cake is made from chocolate and plain sponge which hide secret chocolate chips for added texture and sweetness.

Christmas Merchandise

Decorate for Christmas this year with Pokémon Cafe’s original Christmas tree stand, Pikachu tail chopstick rests, Pokémon Christmas Wonderland wreath, and paper Pikachu cups.

© 2020 Pokémon.©1995-2020 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.
Pokémon, ポケットモンスター, and ポケモン are registered trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures Inc., and GAME FREAK inc.

BOTANIST’s flagship shop BOTANIST Tokyo will be serving up a special Northern European-themed holiday season menu at its second floor BOTANIST Cafe from October 31, 2020. The line-up is made with the wish in mind that everyone can live with hope in mind as we draw closer to the end of 2020 and ready for the start of the New Year.

Holiday Menu

All food on the seasonal holiday menu is vegan and promised to be filling, delicious, and healthy.

White Mushroom & Meatball Pasta | ¥1,250 (Tax Included)

A vegan pasta with must-have meatballs covered in a lip-smacking tomato sauce. The pasta is made from rice flour.

Shiitake Patty & Shimeji Sauce Hamburger | ¥1,500 (Tax Included)

A vegan burger with a patty made from shiitake mushrooms and doused in an aromatic shimeji mushroom sauce. It’s served with hot hasselback potatoes which are seen in the cuisine of North Europe as well as cauliflower.

Five Mushroom Soy Potage | ¥510 (Tax Included)

A rich potage made from five varieties of mushroom including shiitake, eryngii, shimeji, and hen-of-the-wood. It has a full-bodied flavour and is nothing short of delicious.

​

Vegan Doughnut Holiday Cake | ¥600 (Tax Included)

A Christmas cake where you can pick two vegan doughnuts from a selection of flavours. It’s filled with soy cream which goes perfectly with the chewy rice flour doughnuts.

Christmas Set To Go

Christmas Set To Go: ¥2,200 (Tax Included) / Uber Eats: ¥2,600 (Tax Included)

A Christmas set that can be ordered to go or via Uber Eats. Perfect for get-togethers with friends and families.

BOTANIST Botanical Winter Coffret

BOTANIST Botanical Winter Coffret (Premium Hair Care Set) | ¥8,690 (Tax Included)

At BOTANIST Tokyo’s first floor shop, they have announced the release of a new hair care collection called BOTANIST Botanical Winter Coffret which will hit shelves on October 31, 2020.

BOTANIST Tokyo’s vegan winter menu will arrive on October 31, 2020 which is the final day of their vegan autumn menu. Check out their autumn food line-up here.

Ginza Cozy Corner released a new collection of Halloween confections on October 19.

JOYJOY Halloween Party (9 Included) | ¥2,400 (Before Tax) | Available: October 19, 2020 – October 31, 2020

The tasty line-up features a collection of playful ghouls and ghosts partying at a haunted house. Bites include an eyeball tart, orange-flavoured Jack-o’-lantern roll cake, and lots more. Plus, the box they come in can be cut out and used as a photo prop for snapping cute Halloween pictures.

Imp’s Trickster Mont Blanc | ¥580 (Before Tax) | Serving: October 19, 2020 – October 31, 2020

There’s also a colourful mont blanc layered with four different creams: strawberry, lemon, melon, and blueberry, and inside—a mouth-watering tangy orange sauce surprise.

With just a small bit of ingenuity, turn everyday food into something cute using Kaori’s Easy Recipe! With a few simple ideas, an ordinary recipe magically transforms into a cute dish.

I have the perfect Halloween recipe for you this time. If we’re talking Halloween, then who else but Jack Skellington is the man for the job? Here’s my recipe to make Jack Skellington Stained Glass Cookies.

Ingredients

70g unsalted butter
50g icing sugar (or high quality white sugar if you don’t have)
A pinch of salt
30g egg
110g weak flour
10g black cocoa
1 white chocolate pen
Hard candy of your choice crushed into small pieces

*To crush the candy, you can put into a zip lock bag and use a rolling pin

1

Place all ingredients except the egg into a food processor and blitz. After, place the egg into the blitzed mix and blitz once again. Once combined, wrap with cling film and place into the refrigerator for 1+ hours until set.

2

Use a rolling pin to roll out circles of equal thickness for Jack’s head. Use a cutter to cut out the eyes, and place into the refrigerator one more to set.

3

Bake in the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes and take out again.

4

Place your crushed candy into the eye holes and bake for a further 5 minutes.
*The candy will melt into place and even out, so feel free to pile on the pieces

*Be careful not to overcook the candy as it will turn brown

5

Allow to cool. Be very careful handling and placing down the cookies as the eyes will be delicate. Decorate Jack’s nose and mouth with the chocolate pen and he’s ready for your Halloween party!

Kaori invites you into her world of character-themed food dishes in her recipe series. Be sure to check out her Instagram where she has uploaded many pictures of her character dishes!

Asakusa welcomed the newest and third branch of matcha dessert specialist shop Kaminari Issa on October 2, 2020, which opened its doors along Dempoin Street. The shop is just a 3-minute walk from Asakusa Station and 2-minutes from Kaminarimon.

Signature delights on Kaminari Issa’s menu include the Okoicha Warabi Latte and Okoicha Gelato. Everything on the menu is made with rich, high quality matcha, from the matcha tea lattes to the matcha beer, parfaits, ice cream, dacquoise, and more. If you love matcha, and you’re in Tokyo, this place is a must-visit.

There are plenty of items to get your hands on in this newest store, which also has its own eat-in space, tea leaf display, and more.

They even sell kits so you can make your own Okoicha Warabi Latte and Wakocha Brown Sugar Warabi Latte at home.

Sanrio is once again collaborating with the EGG & SPUMA cafe located on the 8th floor of Shinjuku Lumine EST to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Ichigo Shimbun, a monthly magazine published by Sanrio which includes information about the latest character merchandise, the Sanrio Character Awards, and more. The limited-time cafe will run from November 1, 2020 to late January 2021.

Sanrio fans can expect a very special menu line-up of food, drinks, and desserts based on their favourite characters from the Sanrio roster.

There will in fact be two different menus served on separate occasions. The first menu will welcome a soufflé omelette topped with a potato salad Pochacco while the second will see an adorably pink My Melody cream stew.

There will also be an incredibly cute two-tiered afternoon tea set with desserts and savoury items.

For drinks, there is a Hello Kitty strawberry milk, Cinnamoroll milk, and milk caramel pudding Pompompurin.

© 2020 SANRIO CO., LTD. APPROVAL NO. L613344

And everyone who orders from the collaborative menu will receive one of eight possible coasters as thanks for visiting.

GRAPESTONE is releasing a new sweets collection at Disney SWEETS COLLECTION by Tokyo Banana, which is located in Tokyo Station, in collaboration with the Disney classic Fantasia. The confections will be released in limited quantities from October 30, 2020.

© Disney　Disney SWEETS COLLECTION by Tokyo Banana JR Tokyo Station

Disney SWEETS COLLECTION by Tokyo Banana opened on the JR Line side of Tokyo Station in November of last year. The shop is a joint-collaboration with Tokyo Banana—the official souvenir sweet of Tokyo—and Disney. The shop sold over 100,000 products in the first week of its opening, and caught the attention of Disney fans on social media who described the shop and the packaging of their sweets as cute.

Disney Fantasia Chocolate Sandwich (Contains 28) | ¥3,024 (Tax Included)

The cute packaging features Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in the 1940 animated film Fantasia. The light and crunchy cat tongue cookies at filled with chocolate banana milk shake flavoured cream

The confections serve as the perfect gift or souvenir from Japan to yourself or any fan of Disney.

© Disney

Japanese confectionery company KANRO has once again joined pika-paws with Pikachu for the third time to feature the beloved Pokémon on the lemon flavour their Puré gummies. They will be released in Japan from October 27, 2020 in limited quantities.

Pikachu Puré Gummies – Third Collaboration

Following the success of the first two collaborations in June and July this year, with buyers expressing how cute they are in Japanese social media, KANRO is at it again, this time with their lemon flavour. There will be eight different Pikachu packet designs for this third collaboration, each with an attractive neon sign logo. The combination of gelatine and pectin is what gives Puré gummies their chewy texture.

Puré Gummy Lemon Pokémon (56g) | ¥130 (Tax Included)

In a packet of these gummies you’ll find two shapes: the classic Puré heart shape and Pikachu shape, so you’ll always be in for a surprise each time you reach into the bag.

Puré Gummy Pikachu Video

KANRO has released yet another promotional video for this third collaboration. The video for the first collaboration garnered 1 million views in just three days. Check out the adorable video below.

Pika Puré Merchandise Campaign

KANRO is also holding a campaign on their official Twitter page from October 28-30 where you can win a free Pika Puré eco bag.

Additionally, 210 random people who buy Puré gummy products in Japan from October 27 to December 20 will be chosen to win additional merchandise. 10 people will get a big cushion and 200 a big blanket. To enter, purchase select Puré products in Japan and send your receipt to the company via the LINE messaging app.

©2020 Pokémon ©1995-2020 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.
Pokémon, ポケットモンスター, and ポケモン are registered trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures Inc., and GAME FREAK inc..

Pokémon Cafe and Pikachu Sweets by Pokémon Cafe are releasing a new teatime menu at their respective branches on October 24, 2020.

Pokémon Cafe

Polteageist & Sinistea Tea Party! Fruit Tea Set ~Apple Flavoured~ | ¥1,188 (Tax Included)

Polteageist & Sinistea Tea Party! Fruit Tea Set ~Strawberry Flavoured~ | ¥1,188 (Tax Included)

Pokémon Cafe is serving up two different fruit tea sets based on the Ghost-type Pokémon Polteageist and Sinistea. Customers are free to pour in their desired amount of fruit syrup which changes the colour of the tea. The sets come with a cute cookie too.

Pikachu Sweets by Pokémon Cafe

Left: Polteageist’s Tea Party! Fruit Tea ~Mixed Berry Flavour~ / Right: Polteageist’s Tea Party! Fruit Tea ~Peach Orange Flavour~ | ¥700 Each (Before Tax)

Pikachu Sweets by Pokémon Cafe is also going to serve up some Polteageist themed fruit teas as well as a selection of desserts like macarons and financier almond cakes which have Pokémon tail and ear designs.

After ordering one of the Polteageist fruit teas, customers can place their cups under the Polteageist tea pot as pictured above and activate the pot to dispense their drink, so it’s like Polteageist  really pouring tea for you.

Left: Swirlix Strawberry Macaron | Middle: Pikachu Vanilla Macaron | Right: Galarian Ponyta Pistachio Macaron – ¥500 Each (Before Tax)

Treat yourself to one of the super cute Swirlix, Pikachu, or Ponyta macarons each with designs that tell you instantly which Pokémon they’re inspired by.

Polteageist Fruit Tea and & Pikachu Macaron Set

Customers can order a tea and macaron combination set too.

Pikachu Parfaits

Pikachu Glass Parfait Set | ¥1,500 (Before Tax)

An adorable set of Pikachu parfaits, one being caramel banana flavoured and the other chocolate.

Pikachu Tea Party Assortment – Pika Pika Pikavee Set | ¥2,800 (Before Tax)

Another set to share between friends and family, this time with two Pikachu glass desserts as well as Pikachu and Eevee cupcakes.

Pikachu Tea Party Assortment – Ghost Type Set | ¥2,800 (Before Tax)

This set comes with the Pikachu glass desserts as well as Ghost-type Gengar and Litwick mousse cakes.

The Polteageist teapot and Sinistea teacup used at the Pokémon Cafe and Pikachu Sweets by Pokémon Cafe will also be released at Pokémon Center Online in Japan on December 5, 2020.

© 2020 Pokémon.©1995-2020 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.
Pokémon, ポケットモンスター, and ポケモン are registered trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures Inc., and GAME FREAK inc..