Chinese or Taiwanese Foods
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Chinese or Taiwanese Foods
By Cornelia on Friday, March 5, 2004 - 5:11 pm:updated: 15 Feb 2006: There's a tiny Chinatown in Ikebukuro (Tokyo) out the Tobu Department store side (west) and north (3 blocks from the station). Maybe 3 or 4 buildings are involved so quite tiny. Anyway, I often nose around there just in case I can find this great dried seasoned ginger that I fell in love with years ago in Hong Kong. I never do, but I always find other things. Here's the phone number and address of one small food store downstairs in the basement. There is always someone outside on the sidewalk with a folding table and chair selling international phone cards. They've got frozen dumplings, teas, liquor, etc. They even have some fish tanks filled with fresh fish. But I'm more interested in the sauce bases and the snacks and dried fruits and shelled nuts. Chiyon Chugoku Shokuhin tel: 03-5951-0433, 03-5951-8188, Fax: 5951-8188 1-24-1-B1 Nishi (west) Ikebukuro Toshima-ku, Tokyo On the second floor of the same building (or maybe it is the building right next door) they have a video rental shop. You can rent for less if you become a member and pay a security deposit. They have all the soap operas and Chinese and Taiwanese TV programs and also a few Disney movies in Mandarin, Cantonese, etc. I think the security deposit is around Y20,000 but you rent with no time limit on the return. I've seen people stock up with 20-30 videos per trip. Also they have a video player hooked up to a TV so you can test the videos, but this is very time consuming and sometimes you have to wait in line. It can get very crowded. It looks like a new grocery store opened up on the 4th? floor above the video rental place. Then across the street there is a narrow building that has about 4 stories of Chinese food, music, dvds/videos and maybe a travel agency on yet another floor. This place is called Yokotonan Asia, tel: 03-5960-9188 1-25-2 Nishi Ikebukuro http://www.yokou.co.jp/summary_5.htm They've also got a few non-Chinese/Taiwanese things like tapioca pearls from Thailand, etc. A hint: Look for the color read with yellow lettering! The prices between the shops can be either vastly different, or exactly the same. I got a half kg of beans for Y210 in Yokotonan and then crossed the street and saw 1 kg of the same beans for Y210. Do not expect any ENGLISH here. Well, I have been lucky once or twice.
By Wendy Chan on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 10:55 pm:Cornelia, do these two video shops have HK soap operas? Are they in Cantonese? By Wendy Chan on Sunday, January 8, 2006 - 05:15 pm: Does anyone know where to buy Chinese/Cantonese food and other stuff, like renting TV soap dramas/VCDs/DVDs? Best if the stuff are from Hong Kong.
By Cornelia on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - 1:04 pm: Dear Wendy, I don't know. I go there for some food items (such as frozen dumplings). I don't speak any variation of Chinese myself. I posted the information as a service to those who might find it useful, since a lot of people don't realize that Yokohama is not the only place where Chinese stores can be found.
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