RAPPORTO/ Gundam Square

After I visited all the Gundam Cafe of Tokyo, the only one left was the one in Osaka, part of Gundam Square. Since during my last trip I was staying in Kansai, I guessed that it was the time to venture there! The Gundam Square, hosting a cafe, a shop, an event area and the 1/3 scale statues of a Gundam and Char's Zaku busy with kicking each other's arse, is located in the EXPO CITY area.

Getting there reminded me of the bother to reach the cafe in Odaiba. They do share many similarities. To get there in fact you have to deal with private railways not covered by your glorious JR Pass, the Osaka Monorail is quite similar to the Yurikamome Line due to its "toy-like" vibe, and once you got out of the station you have this "Now where do I have to go?!" feel that just lasts the space of a second because, yes, the spot is right there, less than five minutes from the station!

On the way to there I was greeted by the Tower of the Sun that scared me to death!! How unexpected and disturbing!!
So, the first spot of attraction was of course the statue group. It was quite amazing! I think I prefer these statues to the one in Odaiba... The interior of the cafe was nice and comfy, and I was glad to see that at least here the staff was wearing the famous Federal uniforms!





On the walls, promotional posters, the signatures of seiyuu and reference to food in Gundam!

During my visit, there was a fair dedicated to Gundam Wing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Gundam W Endless Waltz, so I opted for a themed meal!

I picked the "The Return of the Wings", a delicious soboro don with boiled chicken, and a soft drink dedicated to Lucrezia Noin!

I took anyway my time to look at the regular menu and I was really amused by the various choices! There were themed dishes for pretty much every Gundam series... Here are the pictures of those set in the "Expanded Universe":





The menu of Gundam Build Fighters Try was peculiarly fun: there were the "options parts" that you could add to the other dishes so to make your "custom meal", ahah!
Next to the cafe, was the shop area... And it was quite awesome:


Besides the usual merchandising it included some really nice bits, like this "Gashapon Combat" videogame:

You got the "cards" to play from the gashapon machine, and then you enjoy the virtual fight on the arcade!

Then it was all about gunpla and related materials:



Some promotional stands were quite smart!

As for the merchandising, there were the usual Gundam Cafe goods, most of them "Osaka Custom", and lots of limited edition stuff, besides tones and tones of gunpla:















Special mention to the limited edition gunpla available only during certain events, here sold as common kits: --Even if the Petitg'guy that I was longing for was already sold out even here!

Long story short, awesome place and delicious food. If you happen in Osaka make sure to pay a visit even if it's in the middle of nowhere!

/PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS

Entrance fee: None
Reservation: Not required
Operating Hours: 1100-2200
Website: http://gundam-square.jp/

And that's all, I hope that you found this article exhaustive! If you have other questions about it, feel free to drop me a line here, I'll reply promptly ^_^

Daeva.