Cheap Culinary Adventure in Tokyo? Have a Crepe! (Part 1)

Although I live in Japan, I work for the US Army as a civilian employee and Monday was a US Federal holiday, Washington’s Birthday (or President's Day).  I had the day off while the wife and kids were at school and I was able to take a long walk through some of my favorite places in the city.

My first stop was Harajuku.  I walked along the main street Omotesando and noted how much things have changes since my first visit in 1998.  The Kenzo Tange's Hanae Mori building was demolished recently.  The Gap (included the Elephant Cafe and Pizza Express) across from the Laforet came down as scheduled last year.  The Dojunkai Aoyama Apartments which had plenty of character (for a 1927 vintage housing project), but looked like they were going to fall down were replaced by Omotesando Hills in 2006.

In all that time, I never ate a crepe from one of the many restaurants or popular crepe stands in Harajuku.  Anyway, I finally took the plunge and ... tried some on Takeshita Dori. Delicious!

The first crepe stand that I passed and gave a pass was Cafe Crepe. For some reason, I was put off by the pictures of the young girls. Not sure if it was some sort of promotion, but it just seemed a little odd to me.

The next crepe stand was Angel Heart. It was a little too pink and there wasn't a line. Seemed a little like the North Shore version of Matsumoto versus Aoki Shaved ice.

I went on to the Marion Crepes stand, which had a line and a sign that boasted that they had been in Harajuku since 1976. They must be doing something right.

So many choices. I chose 37 - apple cinnamon. Only ¥300!

The crepe guy was efficient. I was chowing down on a delicious crepe in no time at all.