I am finally in Japan! I’ve got my to-do list and the first item was ‘Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory’! Like ZUC.CCH.ERO I found out about this lovely cafe through instagram. I was quite intrigued by it and did some more research. I found some articles claiming that it was owned by member of the Miyazaki family, and some said not but- what they all on agreed upon was how good the cream puffs tasted. The cafe is located about a 5-7 minute walk from Setagaya Daita Station. It’s hidden in a quiet suburban neighbourhood, with lots of tree lined alleyways, all reminders of typical Miyazaki films.
The cafe has two floors, the first is small take-away/ gift shop where you can buy biscuits, and takeaway cream puffs. The second floor is the proper cafe. The cafe opens at about 10:30am every day, and is only closed on Tuesdays. I arrived at about 11:30, and it was moderately busy. I was asked to sit outside to cafe as the upstairs room was getting too packed. The flavours of the cream puffs change but when I visited they had chocolate, peach, matcha & azuki bean and mocha. I ended up choosing the chocolate flavoured Totoro, and also ordering some pineapple juice! To be honest, my expectations for the cream puff were pretty low. I figured it would just be cute but not taste good – boy was I wrong. This was absolutely delicious! It was quite a hot day and the chocolate inside was perfectly cooled, with a nice crisp outside. I wanted to buy another one but wasn’t sure if I could finish it! Overall it ended up costing about $8 AU – an incredibly decent price!
The staff at Shirohige are incredibly friendly, and enjoy the visitors they get. For me, I didn’t find it a big problem to get to the cafe, however if you are rushing for time, it is a bit out of the way. If you’re a Miyazaki fan it is definitely a must see, but not something for everyone’s travel list!
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