As we welcomed the new year, I decided to have a coffee the Japanese way to celebrate the start of 2010.
We have several coffee shops in my city that include Starbucks, Tully's, Doutor, and Bad Ass Coffee, which I introduced last month, but this "Karakuan" offers very "Japanese-styled" coffee and sweets. This shop in my city opened a year or so ago.
What do you think of this outside look? In my opinion, this shop's structure looks like houses that existed back in the Edo period(1603-1868), and I think this old-styled look draws people who are nostalgic for old days.
There was a coffee roaster. Though I'm a coffee maniac I'm not familiar with coffee machines.
Many kinds of coffee beans were available. They seemed expensive to me, and for example the coffee beans named "Sarashina" cost about 4.6 us dollars/100g. All the coffee beans you are seeing have Japanese names.
Some people would say this shop's interior resembles the ones that popped up in the '60s. So those who aged over 60 would feel at home in this shop.
Japanese gardens make me feel at peace. You can see this garden through the windows of the shop. Ordinary Japanese houses sometimes have this kind of garden. But ones that are well-kept like this can't be easily seen in our neighborhood.
I ordered an iced coffee named "Ookagami", which means "Big mirror" and sweets named "Anmitsu pudding". "Anmitsu" was mainly had during the summer, but it is now available all through the year. I don't want to exaggerate, but this sweets tasted superb.
A close-up pic of the Anmitsu pudding. Would you like to try this? Come to Japan and see how good it is.
Some Japanese people like to have a dish called "Osechi" during New Years, but some like to have western foods like fried chicken, pizza. But during this time of a year most of us like to spend the time the Japanese way. This is because New Year's is the time when we recognize we are Japanese after all.
