Cheap Culinary Adventure in Tokyo? Have Taiyaki! (Part 3 - Final)

I finished the day with a stop in Azabu Juban for taiyaki.  It's a pastry made of waffle or pancake batter filled with azuki (red) bean paste.  It's made in a special waffle iron.

Seems that this treat was invented in this very shop, Naniwaya, back in 1909!  There's a good review on foodjapan.net.

The taiyaki treat was only ¥150.  That brings my grand total for a crepe, curry rice lunch (with coffee) and taiyaki to ¥1050.  Who would have thought that such fun food could be a bargain in Tokyo.  If you add transportation on the JR from Harajuku to Shinjuku, and the Oedo subway line from Shinjuku to Azabu Juban, that would set you back another ¥340.

Cheap Culinary Adventure in Tokyo? Have Mushroom Chicken Curry! (Part 2)

After a long walk from Nogizaka Station to Harajuku Station, I took the train to Shinjuku for some shopping at Yodobashi Camera and some photography in the skyscraper district.

The Cocoon Tower in Shinjuku is one of the more visually interesting buildings to have been erected in recent years.

After sufficiently building up my appetite, I stopped at the Blue Square Cafe in the Cocoon Tower for a meal.

I had a delicious mushroom chicken curry bowl for ¥600 with coffee! I don't know of many places that you can have lunch for less.

The cafe was well thought out, and no design element was left out. The paper cups even had an attractive graphic design.

It's too bad that the Blue Square Cafe (English translation via google) will be closing on 28 February 2011.  Oh well, all good things must pass.

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.