TomTom (Coffee shop)

I don't know when I'll get tired of coffee, but I'm still a great fan of coffee. I've introduced coffee chains like Doutor, Veloce and etc so far, but the one I visited last weekend was a local one that is called "TomTom".

 Can you read Hiragana? It reads, "TomTom". We sometimes repeat the same word twice like "dandan", which means "gradually".

 I really like this outside look. This isn't really "Japanese", but coffee shops like Karakuan, which I introduced in this post, aren't seen so often.

 I don't know what you'd call this style of the interior, but we call this "log house-styled". I could relax to my heart's content in the afternoon. And what's more an English newspaper called "The Daily Yomiuri" was available. You can read the newspaper online by clicking this link.

 My friend ordered coffee called "soft blend". I took a sip and it had a good aroma that went well with milk. 

And as usual I had an iced coffee, but I wouldn't have to show it to you, as it looked like an ordinary one. What you're looking at is a side dish "Kani-tamago sandwiches". "Kani" and "tamago" each means "crab" and "egg" . Those did have pieces of crab.

I'd like to ask you if our country seems like one that has too many western-styled things. But Japan is a developed country to say the very least. Just our country has been recently replaced by China as the second biggest economy.

Sushi for lunch

It's Sunday evening in Japan, and today I went to a sushi bar to have lunch. I tend to have lunch at home over the weekend these days, but since an ad said this sushi bar would serve a sushi set for about 780 yen, I called up my friends and went there.

 This sushi bar was in the countryside of my city. The name was "Sushi Ryuu". As I explained before, Ryuu or Ryu means "dragon". So the fighter named "Ryu" in the game "Street Fighter 2" is the same as this Ryuu.  

 Saw this flower at the bay window. When we put flowers in a jar, we say "ikeru". Ikeru means something like "let it live", so we basically put flowers in a jar to keep them alive for a while.

 And saw this crane. Cranes are designated as a protected species in Japan.

I thought this sushi tasted good in proportion to the price. As you can see, every sushi on the plate wasn't expensive, and tuna sushi isn't basically supposed to be so red as this. Tuna sushi looks really good when it is a bit pink. 

You couldn't always have good sushi at a sushi bar. Kaiten-zushi might be sometimes better.

Shinkiba Studio Coast

I went to "Shinkiba Studio Coast" to see a Korn concert. It is one of the clubs with live music in Tokyo, but since it is located at a place where there are so many warehouses, there aren't many things you can do here except for waiting for the show to begin. "Kiba" literally means "a wood place", and trucks that came here all the way unload the lumbers they've carried.

There were some ads of Japanese musical groups, and I just recognized the one on the right. The group "EXILE" is now the most popular dance group in Japan.

People were waiting until they were allowed to get inside. The lines on the right were people who were going to buy Korn T-shirts and other stuff that had the logos of Korn. We call such stuff "merchandise". And this is the same place where I saw "Slipknot" two years ago.

Upon seeing this you must have noticed the show took place last Friday night. Sorry, my photos are not always new, as I do all pic-taking during the weekend and upload them weekdays. 

I often upload pics related to anime, but it's just because it shows one side of Japan. But basically I'm a great fan of music, and heavy metal is the genre that I like so much. 

Walk in Akihabara -12-

I've been a bit busy due to some things that should definitely be done last week. But I was finally liberated on Saturday and came to this geeky area "Akihabara".

I always take pics of this street of Akihabara. You'd never enjoy here without walking down this street. The pedestrian paradise wasn't reinstated yet.

This side of the Akihabara station was under construction for a long time, but it finally had this renewed look.

Got inside of the station and saw this digital panel ad. This is an anime that started to be broadcast this month. If I were to translate the title, it would be "My sis couldn't be this pretty" or something. I don't like weird anime, but I'm totally against people who discriminate against every anime.

"Baka to Test" coasters. I think it's not so widely recognized by people around the world. I personally think it's for those who go to school as they'd easily relate to the story. 

An ad of one of the past prime ministers called "Taro Aso". He was a strong advocate of manga, and was popular among people of Akihabara. But the political party he belongs to was ousted by the current ruling party DPJ.

The cheapest coffee was 20 yen cheaper than the Veloce in my city. Every shop has to strive hard to cut the prices in Tokyo, as there are so many places where people could have food cheaply.

I don't remember correctly, but this should have been a "cafe au lait". I think there were both this and "cafe latte". Not too sure about the difference between the two.

I was wearing a T-shirt only on this day. It is warm throughout the year in Japan except for January and February. This is why Japan's climate is called "extratropical".