gnine

We came, we saw, we ~~devoured obscene amounts of ice cream, whip cream, fruit and lord knows what else~~ conquered!

See, Japan is quite fond of its parfaits, a common dessert in many restaurants and cafés here. But this one place, with over 150 different parfaits to chose from, is in a class all of its own. In the entrance to the restaurant, there are display cases featuring far-too-mouth-watering-considering-they're-made-of-plastic replicas of their entire menu, including their specialty: the very aptly-named Jumbo Parfait. On multiple visits, while standing in line waiting to pay, we've gazed upon it, promising each other "someday...someday". Well, our post-Halloween, look-at-all-the-candy-we-*didn't*-get-cause-Japan-doesn't-really-celebrate-Halloween, dang-it!! party turned out to be that day.

Costing ¥10,000 (roughly $100), with a ¥3,000 deposit required at least a day in advance (yes, a down payment...for a DESSERT), meant for 6-10 people, with I don't know how many flavors of ice cream, and a tremendous variety of fruits including strawberries, raspberries, other berries I'm not sure the name of, cherries, kiwi, pineapple, whole slices of melon, mango, and banana(also, usually, oranges, but we had to very carefully explain, repeatedly, that those would kill one of our group if consumed, an extra fun challenge when doing so not in your native language :-p), I give you the Jumbo Parfait:

More pictures, documenting the slow decimation of this amazing, INSANE, dessert below the cut.

Nov 1st, 7:35 pm: The nice little Japanese boy, presenting us with our parfait:

7:48 pm: Just getting started. Having gotten through a lot of the major fruit and whipped cream, we make the discovery that apart from an amazing variety of delicious ice cream flavors, there are also these wedges of brownie/cake propping up the peak of this monstrosity:

8:02 pm: We cleared the top...already feeling quite full, we rally and press on. Notice the pieces of waffle, along with the fallen piece of brownie/cake:

8:48 pm: Almost there. We've slowed down a LOT by this point. Occasional bites, here and there, a LOT of groans and patting of bellies....and discussion of how we're going to burn all of this off. A suggestion of a karaoke is made.

9:26 pm: Success!

Over the course of the night, we got a LOT of hilarious looks from the restaurant's other patrons. A group of eight gaijin (foreign) girls, half of them blond, is ALWAYS gonna get some turned heads in Japan, but add in a giant parfait? They *really* couldn't resist. (There was even some not-so-covert snapping of pictures when the thing was first brought out! ^_-)

Following our accomplishment, most of the group carried out the karaoke plan. Our first song of the night? "We are the Champions." ^_-