Mitsuwa Marketplace is a Japanese supermarket chain in America. The one I went to was in Costa Mesa, close to San Diego. The restaurant in the marketplace boasts the “#1 Ramen shop in Southern California”. While that’s a bold statement to make, I won’t disagree with them. Their ramen is AMA-zing! The udon is delicious as well. Besides the restaurant, you will find the book store, where manga, magazines, and other Japanese books are sold. There are tasty Japanese treats like Ramune, Hello Panda, Hi-Chew and Pocky (Oh Gawd, I love the green tea flavor). At the back of the market, there is a store that sells anime key chains, wallets, bags, DVDs, shirts, wall scrolls, and figurines. There’s a lot of merchandise for the recent popular anime like Attack on Titan and Sword Art Online. Some of the lanyards are only $3 and I’ve built up a collection of them, haha. I saw some DVDs of the Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films in Japanese.
Close by Mitsuwa is Book-Off (I guess I’m reviewing the plaza, lol), which is a store that sells used CDs, magazines, video games, DVDs, books, and comics. They sell both American and Japanese products. You can usually find used video games here noticeably cheaper than GameStop. I bought The Last of Us for $51 when it was released a week or so at the time. I was pretty psyched to find BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend Limited Edition (PS3) used, but it had everything!! The box came with the game, a calendar, an art book, and the soundtrack for $15. There are some anime DVDs that are only $15 for one season. I bought UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie Season 1 with OVAs and Shakugan no Shana Season 1 for $15 each.
Rating: 5/5
I have lost a lot of money to this place (Shut up and take my money!). My friend and I have this joke where we say “Everytime we go to Mitsuwa, someone ends up buying something.” It’s true, xD. Highly recommended if you’re in the San Diego area.
Do you have a favorite Asian marketplace you like to go to? If so, what’s the name? Comment below :)
