How easy is it to get ice cream?

Can anyone tell me how readily available ice cream is and how it tastes?

You can get ice cream at any convenience store or supermarket. It tastes like ice cream anywhere else in the world - except perhaps for the azuki bean varieties.

In case you are an ice cream addict, you may want to try out the Ice Cream City in Ikebukuro:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3035.html

Godiva icecream is available in Japan year-round, unlike in the US, where they only sell them in the summer.

Haagen Datz is available at almost every convenience store and supermarket. There are a lot of Hobsons and Baskin Robin shops. Italian gelato is available as well as some of those extending Turkish ice cream that got popular since Turkey did well in the 2002 World Cup Soccer held in Japan. There are also a variety of Japanese brands and they generally taste much lighter than the American ones.

i went to japan 2 years ago and eyecream is absolutely everywhere, and this was in winter! On thursday's hargen-dadz has 7 scoops of any flavour for 500yen which is $7.50 (AUS)Also in Osaka i tasted purple potato ice-cream, very original. But ice-cream is everywhere and more inventive and tasteful than anywhere i have ever been!!

Ice Cream City?? Where's my passport and plane ticket? Here I come!!

ME TOO

Hobson's ice cream shops indicate on their exteriors the words Santa Barbara. Their bland and unexciting ice cream has niothing to do with anything American, except for a minimal payment they made decades ago to use a logo a defunct company once used in...yeah! Santa Barbara.


Dean and Delucca is Itochu - nothing Ameruican about it except the logos and packaging, which Itochu bought for very little gievn the size of the japanese market. Cold Stone Ice Cream isn't American owned either, nor is Tully's, nor is Krispy Kreme in Japan, that's another purchase of the logo, recipes and packaging, this one by Lotteria. Denny's hasn't anything to do with the US here, either.

In case you wonder why the tastes are odd, the above will shed some light on things. Don't be decieved by the japanese approach to reality management in marketing!!

It is called licensing.

Usully the product in the Japanese incarnation is vastly improved taste-wise.

usually

. . . are just talking ice cream cones, you can get them everywhere there are tourist attractions. In certain areas of Japan they have flavors such as sweet potato, wasabi, cherry blossom, melon, chestnut, etc.

Many of the animal farms throughout Japan sell the really heavy duty stuff: too much of a cream taste for me. Like it's right out of the cow.

You can usually find an ice cream place within 5 minutes of walking in a city or walking into a convenience store.

I really recommend trying the red bean ice cream, its crazy good.

The name Santa Barbara would conjure up ideas of a Spanish ice cream!!!! ..... after all, it is a Spanish name, not an American name!!!! ;)

Hobson's Ice Cream was ORIGINALLY a SANTA BARBARA Ice Cream in the 80's...By 1987, there were more than 30 Hobson's in Japan. The ice cream came directly from the formulas of the SANTA BARBARA, CA company....I should know, I started the company and establised the first store in TOKYO at NISHI AZUBU

I am a big sucker for the Soft Cream cones that are sold at many famous sites, often with flavours more or less exclusive to the site (lavender at Lake Kawaguchi; Schimi pepper in Kyoto's Nishiki food market; sweet potato in Hokkaido etc etc ad infinitum).

My most unusual was Ikasumi (squid ink) flavour, sampled at Onuma, Hokkaido a month ago.

Not bad. Not bad at all ...!

Anyone found any Out There others out there?

I think no one has mentioned green tea ice cream - I had some in Kamakura a few years ago - since have seen it available here in Canada- it is delicious!!

Hey Alan, I was born in Santa Barbara in 1980 and lived there until coming to Japan a few years ago. I can't remember if I ever tried Hobson's when I was growing up there. McConnell's and Swensen's were what I remember eating. Where was Hobson's? Is it still around in SB? Actually, what's the closest store to Ikebukuro in Tokyo? I'd love to try a taste of home (for the first time at that).

Ice cream is sold almost everywehre and it's the same stuff you get wherever you are. Even Haagen Daz & Baskin & Robbins are the same.

What's hard to find are frozen yogurt outlets. They're here but you have to hunt for them. Gelato places are more common.

Hey Alan, if you started Hobson's, you must be Sri Lankan. I remember your clever marketing trick, paying students to stand in line to give the impression of heavy demand. Thanks for escorting me and my family past the line.