Tokyo Coffee

02009-11-17 | Uncategorized

Terry sent me this link and we might try to go there today.

Fresh or aged, the coffee is kicking at Satei Hato | The Japan Times Online
Willingly, you take a seat at the 12-meter-long Oregon pine counter, where you are greeted with all the deference due visiting royalty by manager Toyoshi Taguchi. Spirited away in 1989 from a Shinjuku kissaten by Satei Hato’s owner and namesake, Taguchi has since been diligently helping to redefine what coffee should be in today’s world of designer froths and foams.

And

The most obvious would be the collection of over 300 dazzling coffee and tea cups, including Wedgewood, Herend (from Hungary) and Meissen (from Germany), as well as some choice beauties from the kilns of the Arita masters.

No two are alike, giving Taguchi ample opportunity to choose cups he feels best suit the customers. All of them are pricey, so while you might be flattered by what Taguchi feels “matches” your personality, it’s best not to ask what they’re worth until you’ve successfully placed your cup in its saucer for the last time. Taguchi claims he keeps a stiff upper lip when someone drops a 190,000 yen Arita-yaki original. While they are in the room, he utters a polite shoganai.

“When they leave,” he says, deadly serious, “I cry.”

Sunday Night in Shibuya

02009-11-15 | Photos

Shibuya at night. Very Blade Runner. Click on he full-screen symbol, and also check out the sounds:



Christmas is serious business in Tokyo. Two cherry-pickers and 6 or 7 men per tree, carefully and precisely added Christmas lights to every branch. Two crews worked, one on each side of the street. At the rate they were going, it would be December before they would be done with all of the lighting, but it will look perfect, of course! I took the photo from a restaurant where we had dinner. Worst food of the trip, but the great noddle-shops around the corner were jam-packed and had throngs of people waiting in line. At least we had a great vantage point for observing the lighting crew from the second floor!