Japanese restaurant Akomeya Shokudo rolls out a healthy and enticing autumn sweets lineup

The sweltering heat of late summer will soon give way to the cooler winds of autumn, and with it, thoughts of chestnuts, mushrooms and other wonderful fall foods. Indeed, autumn is associated with good eating in Japan, as reflected in the popular saying 食欲の秋 shokuyoku no aki, literally "autumn of (increased) appetites."

Akomeya Shokudo Fall Sweets

If you're interested in sampling Japanese fall sweets, you can visit one of Akomeya Shokudo's two locations in Kagurazaka or Shibuya to try something from their healthy and enticing new menu featuring sweets made with rice, Japanese chestnuts, tofu, sesame and other Japanese ingredients.

Akomeya Shokudo Kagurazaka

Homemade tofu chiffon cake with Japanese chestnuts

A soft and moist chiffon cake using homemade tofu made the traditional way with only soy milk and nigari (bittern) is enhanced with piped Japanese chestnut cream and whipped cream, then decorated with sweet chestnut, roasted almonds and Japanese sweet potato chips for extra flavor.

Price: 880 JPY

Black sesame soft serve ice cream parfait

This parfait combines black sesame cream with Akomeya's homemade tofu chiffon cake and a dollop of soft serve ice cream. Akomeya's famous homemade rice bran cookies, with their simple yet deep flavor that comes out the more you chew them, are the perfect accent.

Price: 880 JPY

Akomeya Shokudo Tokyu Plaza Shibuya

Dorayaki pancake with Japanese chestnut and red bean paste

In this interpretation of a Japanese pancake, Akomeya takes their chewy dorayaki cakes made with rice flour and freshly baked on-premises and fills them with sweet Japanese chestnut, chestnut paste, Ogura-an 小倉あん (a sweet adzuki red bean paste with sweetened red beans inside), vanilla ice cream and soft, chewy shiratama dumplings made by Shiratama Shinsaburo in Kumamoto Prefecture.

Price: 880 JPY

Daruma Monaka ice cream sandwich

These Daruma doll shaped monaka ice cream sandwiches are filled with vanilla ice cream and shibukawa-guri, Japanese chestnuts with their astringent inner skin added. It may sound odd, but this creates a less sweet, more subtle chestnut flavor that contrasts well with the sweet ice cream and monaka sandwich.

Price: 680 JPY