Continued from Anime Contents Expo 2012 Event Report.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the party ends really really early at Japanese cons — none of the 10PM BS you sometimes get at local cons when the stage manager loses control of the program and everything gets pushed back three or four hours.

We had a bit of time to kill, and the weather was much much better than five or six hours prior, so we decided it was our one chance to grab a cup (or two) of coffee at the Akihabara Gundam Cafe. Much to our surprise, some of our fellow ACE attendees were also in the neighborhood — queuing at the AKB48 Cafe next door.

After waiting for about half an hour outside where the wind chill brought already low temperatures by another five degrees (but still noticeably shorter than the queue times at AKB48 Cafe), we were ushered in by the mostly female staff. The Cafe is a casual affair — you went to the counter to place your order and pick up your drinks, while your entrees and desserts were brought to your table.

The food and drink items on the menu were fairly standard cafe fare, but given really funny Gundam-related names that I’m sure many fans will enjoy. We decided to get a Haro Latte, an iced oolong tea in a cup that parodied Starbucks’ cups, and a choco lava cake called “Battle Triple Chocolate Cake” which came with three M&Ms pieces that looked like Haro.

If you haven’t had your fill of all the model and toy shops in Akihabara, the Cafe also has a gift shop where you can pick up additional Gundam merch — including some Cafe-only exclusives. Their best-seller was a Gundam-shaped ningyo-yaki that was called — what else? — Gundam-yaki, which had traditional red bean fillings as well as more exotic ones like bacon (?!?!).

It’s a lot of fun, but I’d caution you against some of the more anti-social patrons >.> I nearly got called out by some local who was insisting to the staff that I not be allowed to dine at the cafe, because I had walked in with a large canvas tote that said NERV in big block letters. Uhm yeah — so I guess I am not allowed to like Gundam and Evangelion at the same time? 😐

Continued in Day 13: Tsukiji