Hatena Coffee continues to make customers smile as they scratch their heads.

The line that separates cafes from regular restaurants can be a hazy one, but most people would say that cafes generally have a more relaxed vibe that encourages you to linger over your drink or meal. And it’s definitely true that Hatena Coffee, which just arrived in Osaka’s Namba neighborhood, isn’t going to pressure you to hurry up and leave. As a matter of fact, Hatena Coffee has a policy in which they won’t even let you go home until you’ve proved your smarts.

The cafe’s name is a tipoff to this unique rule, as “hatena marks” are what question marks are called in Japanese. In addition to beverages and light fare, Hatena Coffee also serves up brain-teasing puzzles. There’s a selection to choose from, with varying difficulties, and solving the puzzle is an official requirement in order to be allowed to leave.

That might sound like the place is an escape room that you can eat and drink in, but Hatena Coffee takes the opposite approach to time. In an escape room you’re given a certain amount of time in which to try to solve the mystery, and when time’s up, you’re let out regardless of whether or not you succeeded. At Hatena Coffee, though there’s no time limit, so you can approach the puzzle at whatever pace feels fun and enjoyable to you…or to you and your date or friends, since the Namba cafe has three types of seating: counters for solo customers, two-chair tables for pairs, or four-chair tables for larger groups.

All of the cafe’s puzzles are produced by Tokyo-based puzzle/mystery design company Experiful. The estimated time needed to solve most of them is in the range of 30 to 60 minutes, but if you want even more mental stimulation, the tougher ones will take up to 90 minutes, the company says (and while not explicitly stated, we’re sure that if you’re really stumped, they’ll let you go home without solving the puzzle, if you ask nicely).

Each guest pays a 1,500-yen (US$9.70) “puzzle fee” and is asked to also order at least one drink, but there’s no timed seat/table charge at Hatena Coffee, so you don’t need to worry about running up a more expensive tab if it takes you an extra-long time to solve your puzzle. Drinks are all priced at 500 yen (whether soft drinks or alcoholic), while snacks start at 500 yen, sandwiches and pasta plates at 700 yen, and desserts at 1,000 yen.

The Namba Hatena Coffee’s grand opening is scheduled for June 1, when it will become the chain’s sixth branch, joining the three locations in Tokyo (in the Ginza, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro neighborhoods), one in Yokohama, and one already open in Osaka’s Umeda neighborhood. With barely more than a year having passed since the initial branch opened in Yokohama, the fast expansion seems to show that there’s an eager market of fans for puzzles in relaxing spaces, and the new branch should make a great place to visit for a coffee after trying the neighborhood’s innovative sushi pizza.

Cafe information
Hatena Coffee (Osaka Namba branch)/ はてな珈琲店（大阪なんば店）
Address: Osaka-fu, Osaka-shi, Chuo-ku, Dotonbori 2-3-23, Hermanos Building 2nd floor
大阪府大阪市中央区道頓堀２丁目３−２３ エルマーノスビル２階
Open 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. (no new seating between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.)
Website

Related: Hatena Coffee
Source: PR Times, Hatena Coffee
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Hatena Coffee
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Gelato Pique’s spinoff cafes pique our interest with adorable ice cream and mochi treats.

From its name, you might assume that Gelato Pique is an ice cream brand, but it’s actually a Japanese apparel company that specializes in cute and cozy roomwear (including Pokémon designs). The company describes its aesthetic as being “inspired by sweet indulgences,” hence the “Gelato” part of its name.

However, there’s a lot of crossover between fans of comfy pajamas and relaxing cafes, so while it wasn’t Gelato Pique’s original plan, the brand has also been spun off into a Gelato Pique Cafe chain. This is where the brand’s linguistic atmosphere starts wrapping back on itself. Gelato Pique’s clothing has to be extra-cute in order to match the sweetness of its name, but that then means Gelato Pique Cafe’s customers are going to expect food and drinks on a higher level of photogenic cuteness than at other restaurants.

That’s a bar Gelato Pique Cafe is easily clearing, though with its Sea Animals sweets series.

Leading the way in this fresh wave of adorable eats is Gelato Pique’s original marine mammal crepe, the Mochimochi (“Chewy”) Seal Crepe, returning following its initial stint on the menu last summer. Wrapped inside the crepe are whipped cream, tiramisu cream, sliced mango, sliced almonds, and caramel sauce, and sitting atop it is a scoop of black sesame ice cream wrapped in mochi, with chocolate pieces to make the adorable seal’s facial features.

Joining the seal is the new Pukapuka (“Floating”) Otter Gelato, looking like a sea otter happily drifting about in the waves. Here too you get black sesame ice cream with chocolate pieces, and the critter’s hands are formed from black sesame-infused whipped cream.

There’s also the new Hinyari (“Chilly”) Walrus Crepe. Instead of black sesame, the ice cream topping here is a chocolate banana flavor, with chocolate for the eyes, nose and whiskers, and marshmallows serving as the tusks. Inside the crepe are tiramisu cream, sliced bananas, and caramel sauce.

And last, if you’re thirsty but still want something sweet, there’s the Purupuru (“Jiggly”) Penguin Soda Float. The base here is Ramune (an apple/citrus cider that’s a perennial summertime favorite in Japan) with fish-shaped pineapple gelatin pieces added. Floating atop the drink is a scoop of milk gelato, and standing on top of that is a penguin-shaped monaka wafer.

The Pukapuka Otter gelato cone is priced at 840 yen (US$5.40), the Purupuru Penguin soda at 890, and the crepes 1,290 yen each. They’ll all be available at Gelato Pique Cafe branches between now and July 1.

Related: Gelato Pique Cafe location list
Source, images: PR Times
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Tokyo’s new video game/anime eatery has a lot to love (and eat).

June 12 is the grand opening of the brand-new Square Enix Cafe in downtown Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood, and the eatery has released a sneak peek at what’s going to be on the menu. As you might expect, food and beverages inspired by the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises will be on offer, but there’s one other dark-horse candidate for your dining and drinking attention, and an anime/manga mega-hit too.

Beginning with Final Fantasy, the entrée options are the Chocobo and Moogle Spice Curry, milder Moogle Kids Curry…

…Chocobo and Friends Burger Plate (with a special appearance by Cactuar on one of its mini buns), and Chocobo Balanced Salad, designed as a for-humans equivalent of the Gysahl Greens so loved by the avian steeds.

And for dessert, Final Fantasy fans can look forward to the FF Version Purin Parfait, a Japanese-style custard pudding served in a classy cocktail glass with toppings including a marshmallow Chocobo and ice cream.

The “FF Version” part of the name suggests the existence of other pudding parfaits as well, and the DQ Version, of course, stars Dragon Quest’s adorable Slime.

The DQ mascot monster also appears in the Slimes Draw Near Jiggly Sweets Plate…

…and there are savory Slime plates too, such as the Healslime Burger Basket, in which the restorative creature’s tentacles are represented by a sliced sausage, and the Taco Rice-Style Hamburger Plate with Bubble Slime On Top.

Getting back to that third video game inspiration we mentioned, it’s none other than Nier: Automata, whose version of the purin parfait gives you a triple dose of Emil marshmallows…

…and his smiling (?) face is also present in the Lunar Tear Milk Tea Float plate.

Things get a little abstract with the 2B YoRHa Skirt-style Crepe Salad (with edible bamboo charcoal the most likely ingredient giving it its color), and things get really abstract with the On-Site Procurement Bullet Hell Pasta, meant to evoke memories of the enemy bullet barrages in the game’s shooting segments.

Now we come to the anime/manga part of the menu, which is saluting Fullmetal Alchemist.

Though Square Enix is most famous for video games, the company is also a major manga publisher, and within Japan handles the tale of brothers Al and Ed Elric, who are featured in a purin parfait, plus steamed buns with sweet custard and savory stew fillings. Fellow alchemist Roy Mustang also contributes to the menu with a Flame Alchemist shrimp pasta topped with shredded chili for extra heat.

Drinks come in two tiers, with the fancier ones consisting of a Final Fantasy Potion, Dragon Quest Traveler’s Healing Herb Set, and Fullmetal Alchemist Dwarf in the Flask.

The lower drink tier is made up of standard soft drinks such as coffee, tea, cola, orange juice, and melon soda. The cold drinks come with your choice of illustrated cup sleeve…

…while hot drinks let you pick one of two latte art designs per series.

The Square Enix Cafe has a service charge of 1,200 yen (US$7.60) per person, but that price does include one lower-tier drink of your choice, plus an illustrated placemat (you can pick which title you want, but the exact design is random).

▼ In keeping with Nier’s unabashed weirdness, its placemats are vertically oriented.

And as anyone who’s been to one knows, you can’t have a proper themed cafe in Japan without art coasters, and you’ll receive one at random when ordering any of a series’ associated food items or premium drinks.

Prices for the premium drinks and desserts are generally in the 1,000-1,500 yen range, with most of the main dishes priced between 1,500 and 2,200 yen (though the Fullmetal Alchemist steamed buns are just 770 yen each).

Again, the Square Enix Cafe’s grand opening takes place on June 12, and while walk-ins are allowed if space is available, reservations can be made through the restaurant’s website.

Restaurant information
Officially Licensed Square Enix Cafe & Shop Shinjuku
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 3-36-1
東京都新宿区新宿3丁目36-1
Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Website

Source, images: Officially Licensed Square Enix Cafe & Shop Shinjuku official website
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Firefly-viewing season provides the inspiration for breathtaking Japanese confectionaries.

Japan loves to celebrate the changing of the seasons, and Japan loves sweets, so Japan really loves seasonal sweets. Sometimes, finding those crossover opportunities is easy, like releasing sakura-flavored confectionaries as the cherry blossoms come into bloom, or using premium matcha just as the first batch of green tea for the year is being harvested.

Things get a little trickier, though, if you’re looking for a way to mark the arrival of firefly-viewing season with special sweets, but Hikawa Satei has found a way.

In early June, Hikawa Shrine in Saitama City’s Omiya Ward stays open after sundown so that visitors can see the fireflies, called hotaru in Japanese, that gather on the shrine’s grounds. This year those dates were June 6 and 7, and since Hikawa Satei, the shrine’s cafe and refreshment stand (pictured above), stayed open late on those nights too, they wanted to offer something special, which led to the creation of the Tsukikage Hotaru, or “Moonshadow Firefly.”

This beautiful dessert has a base of smooth koshi an mizu yokan (sweet red bean gelatin). Placed atop it is a slab of kanten (agar) with a dark blue color representing he night sky, with little bursts of color evocative of fireflies dancing through the darkness. These are actually bits of ginger, not so strong as to create an overtly sharp or spicy flavor, but to add a softly echoing elegant accent point within the sweetness of the mizu yokan and kanten.

The Tsukikage Hotaru is offered in a box of three pieces priced at 1,500 yen (US$9.50), and supplies are limited. Thankfully, though, even if you can’t make it to Hikawa Satei before they run out…

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…they have plenty of other breathtaking, mouthwatering sweets too, as you can see in the above post from their official Instagram account, to make the trip worth it.

Cafe information
Hikawa Satei / 氷川茶庭
Address: Saitama-ken, Saitama-shi, Omiya-ku, Takahanacho 4-1, located inside Musashi Ichinomiya Hikaya Shrine
埼玉県さいたま市大宮区高鼻町 4 丁目 1 番地　武蔵一宮氷川神社境内
Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Website

Source: PR Times
Top image: Hikawa Satei official website
Insert images: PR Times
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