Pancake Days in Harajuku

It’s another pancake place in Harajuku! I’ve been to Pancake Days twice, and it’s one of the more relaxed places in the area because if you go to the more popular places like Eggs n’ Things or Rainbow Pancakes you could end up queueing several hours just for a plate of pancakes. I mean, I still will do that. Just when I have more time.

It takes forever to even get into the other pancake places, but both times I’ve been here it was virtually empty; it was just us and the staff chilling in the kitchen.

But this is one of my favourite places just because the pancakes are always smiling. Wouldn’t you feel happy if your food looked happy too? They’re so generous with the smiles

Anyway, get this matcha pancake stack if you’re looking for something special. It’s not just matcha cream, but there’s also kuromitsu syrup and crunchy kinako (and a black bean or two) scattered around. So Japanese

Caramélisées banana chocolate pancake (the name is as much a mouthful as the dish), complete with a tower of chocolate whipped cream that’s even taller than the pancake stack itself.

They really seem to like their cream as thick as it can get. I had yogurt cream pancakes surrounded by a ring of berry jam.

Eggs benedict for when you’re tired of sweetsMy friend got this just because we’d already had a whole tower of pancakes. (In my menu savoury food aren’t the mains…they’re the side dishes to the dessert)

Hazelnut milk in hot and cold! Why don’t restaurants serve hazelnut milk more often? They’re amazing and taste like nutella.

When we got the bill our check came back with a mini message! All it takes is one doodle and I’ll gladly give them all my money. It’s such a small gesture but it’s what makes me wants to come back to this place. For pancakes in Harajuku, don’t miss out this one!

My First Birthday (in Japan)

Hello! I’m sorry I took another break in posting…there’ve been about a hundred reports due these few weeks and the only time I stopped doing (procrastinating, more accurately) them was to turn 21.

It was my birthday on on ThursdayI’m most definitely past being a teenager now, which is still kind of sad but also weirdly satisfying. The number only gets higher from here on so I’m just going to embrace the whole adulthood thing, whatever that means

It’s the first time I’m having a birthday in a foreign country (and right in the middle of midterms, no less), but having friends around me more than made up for it. They went out of their way to make it a happy day for me, and it was the best way I could’ve spent my birthday away from homeIt’s a good thing that I’m in Japan after all!

I mean, where else would I get a cake that looks like ramen? (If you think that looks real wait till you see their pork cutlet bowl cake)

Or a surprise at the end of dinner in a small cafe perched on a building overlooking Shibuya? They turned off the lights and played the song Happy (“it’s so nice to be happy SHALALALA”) while my birthday cake came out in this entire procession. I loved it all and I love my friends

So I really am 21 now…but I don’t feel it yet so I’ll talk about being 21 some other time haha. But I’d just like to mention what an aesthetically pleasing number my birthday was. I’ll never get another 6.16.16 again

Cute Cakes in Omotesando

Just when you think there can’t be more cafes serving cute desserts than there already are, another appears around the corner.

I had this ladybird cake at GlacielIt’s a cafe hidden away in a quiet lane in Omotesando near the main street, and it has fancy gelato and pastries like these ladybirds. The red one has vanilla ice cream and strawberry sherbet on an almond cake covered with shiny berry jelly.

The yellow ladybird is pretty much the same, but a cream cheese version. Both of them came with a little financier and shortbread with sherbet on the sideWhich I appreciated a lot, because initially I’d expected just a single cake on the plate. Don’t you love sides?!

And this is what the cake looked like inside! Basically a mini ice cream cake with a chocolate face.

There was also a hedgehog cake, appropriately chocolatey and with sherbet inside too. This was my favourite oneNow that summer’s coming and it’s getting warmer I’m really getting in the mood for anything ice cream.

They had other cakes too, like these caramel and mango tarts. Their menu lets you have a set of two or three cakes and they’re all small enough to let you try a bunch and not get full (I mean, just look at how many cakes have already appeared in this post)

And this one takes the cake (pun intended; I’ll see myself out). It’s so bright and decorative it’d make an excellent birthday cake if it weren’t for the fact that a candle would probably melt all that colourful sherbet right off the top. I wanted to to eat this but they didn’t have it when I went

And a lego cake too! They’re so cute.

This was a good place for teatimeThe cake sets are reasonable enough and the place doesn’t usually seem to be crowded at all. I’ve already been there twice, and I feel like I’d go again just because I want to eat that intense rainbow cake I missed out on. Next time!