I had some errands to run this morning up in Cedar Park.  On my way back, I decided to stop at Lakeline Mall to see what they had to offer.  I was not disappointed.

However, I was indeed disappointed by their “Japanese” fast food restaurant in the food court.  It was kinda sorta Japanese food, but just barely.  I had a chicken bento, and while nothing in it was particularly bad, it was just not of any quality at all.  Basically, Japanese food of mall quality.  I’ll pass.

So after that, I decided to take a walk through the concourses.  I found a “pokemaniac” store, with lots and lots of pokemon paraphernalia.  I bought a little pokeball plush. I found a store called “Cool and Eclectic” – which lived up to its name.  Very few specifically asian items, but there were a few racks of plushes, where I’m sure you could find something of interest if you looked.

But the mother lode was a store on the other side of the mall, on the first level, called “Gift World“.  There were figurines – actual anime figurines.  There were plushes – whole racks of plushes.  Shelves of Japanese gifts.  And a couple of racks of kimono-style robes that were quite beautiful, I thought.  There were so many kawaii things that I could barely choose which one I wanted – I finally settled on a hamster holding a little waffle.  And I bought a royal blue kimono-style robe.

This is a place that never showed up on any google searches, and I would have walked right past it if they hadn’t had the kanji in the window.  If you are at all a fan of Japanese gifts and trinkets, this is a must-see stop in Austin.