Lies Cream 'festival', Ikebukuro

 

Check out this short write up on Time Out Tokyo:

 http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/event/9462/Ice-Cream-Collection

It is a beautiful example of how one can create spectacular imagery with the English language. I don't want to fault the writer because their beautiful way with words convinced the cat and I to go to Ikebukuro and experience "minefield for brain freeze".

All one can ever really want as a writer is to have your words spur readers to action... The trouble is there is a line where creative embellishment goes so far that it illustrates an image so disconnected with reality, that it becomes a downright lie.

The "enormous ice cream festival" barely covered 5 square meters. It was a bunch of freezers shoved in a corner of what is effectively the entrance thoroughfare to the Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands store. Which had a whole selection of other promotions that got in the way of the Ice Cream and effectively destroyed the ambiance so much that I didn't even want to see what all the flavours were nor read all the tiny info written on tiny cards.

The companies from "across Japan" were mostly clustered on Honshu and the "local ingredients" were very general and not necessarily specific to the locations.The biggest let down however was the fact that when they said "Fans can sample flavours from all over the country" they meant fans can pay stupid prices for samples of the flavours from all around the country without being able to try them out for free... You know because insult is never good without injury.

"I felt like an asshole because I was the one who read about it and convinced her to go"

The cat LOVES ice cream. And the look of disappointment on her face was painful. I felt like an asshole because I was the one who read about it and convinced her to go to Ikebukuro to check it out (she hates crowded places).

Thankfully, there was an Okinawan Ice Cream shop in Sunshine City next door so we could have a delicious frozen treat from somewhere much further away than the overpriced mouthfuls on show at the festival.

Truthfully, if they told it like it was, I probably would have gone with plan-B and all the cool stuff that we saw AFTER the ice cream disappointment wouldn't have happened. so in the end I suppose I am happy that I went...

But I am still pissed off that I was effectively trolled into going.

That said, If anyone of you were planning to check it out... Don't. it's not worth it.