Tour of Japanese Cafe-- witnessing the Real charm of Japanese Native Coffee Culture

When it comes to Japanese coffee culture, most of the people who occupy our attention are the big-name chains sought after by everyone in Tokyo, such as Blue Bottle, Flglen, KITSYNE. Although the foreign blood flowing from them is foreign, it is difficult to replace the warmth of sitting in the corner coffee shop. Japan's native coffee culture has a long history, but it is often engulfed in the metropolis, and they are more hidden in some relatively "non-mainstream" literary towns. Akiko and Akiko are far away from Tokyo and embark on a three-day and two-night beauty-seeking trip. Here is the real charm of Japanese native coffee culture.

One day: [Osaka] TAKAMURA WINE & COFFEE ROASTERS

Pluralistic Cafe under the impact of Foreign Culture

Osaka has been at the forefront of fashion in the Kansai region. It's a 20-minute drive from Ishidan Airport to "TAKAMURA WINE & COFFEE ROASTERS". You can see it just by looking at the name of the store and the poster. What we believe in here is that if one kind of forcing is not enough, then there are two.

TAKAMURA, which gathers coffee and wine under the same roof, opened only in 2013, but it is already one of the few imported wine retailers in Kansai. Just looking at these full wine racks in the store makes some people feel excited.

However, just looking at the bar area of the main body, the most eye-catching is the huge coffee bean roaster.

In order to make coffee as mellow and fresh as red wine. All coffee beans in "TAKAMURA" have their own exclusive roasting methods to stimulate the most primitive taste of the beans. The coffee beans in this store are also one of the Osaka handletters that must be defeated by coffee fans all over Japan.

Osaka Prefecture Osaka City West District Ebuhori 2-2-18

Http://takamuranet.com

"2nd item": [Kyoto] Takagi Coffee

The sentiment of the tea shop in the ancient capital

It was night after leaving Osaka, and the next day we took a JR to Kyoto Station. Everyone knows the prosperity of Kyoto coffee culture circle. Although modern new cafes have sprung up everywhere in recent years, the people of Kyoto have not forgotten the memory of the Showa-style tea shop. If you come here in the morning, you seldom see office workers who are in a hurry. Most of them sit in the tea shop, holding the newspaper in one hand and the breakfast in the bowl in the other, and then slowly go to work after eating. This enviable slow-paced tea culture is deeply rooted in the daily life of Kyoto people.

Note: "tea shop" is the most traditional Japanese cafe style from Europe and the United States, such as "Cafe" and "Coffee Shop". It serves more coffee and Japanese food. Nowadays, most of the tea shops on the streets of Japan have a long history and will not change their furnishings and menus for decades, retaining a strong Showa atmosphere.

Takagi Coffee, which we are going to visit today, is one of the most representative tea shops in Kyoto. Breakfast in high-end hotels is good, but people in Kyoto go to these old tea shops hidden in the shopping street most often. The warmth of Kyoto warms the humanity of Shimachi.

Most of the regulars of Takagi Coffee are aimed at breakfast. The scorched soft toast is sandwiched with fresh ham from the butcher shop next door, and the mashed potatoes on the side are made of onions and potatoes.

Many people come to Kyoto because of its places of interest, but the charm of the ancient capital is more than that. The "ancient" in Kyoto is alive, and people here love to enjoy life. Kyoto has one of the highest consumption of bread and coffee in Japan. Asako recommends that you can safely follow the local flow of people (or the smell of food), walk into a corner coffee shop and have an authentic Showa breakfast. This is also one of the secrets of feeling the charm of Kyoto.

Domicile: 175 Takamomo Takahashi in the lower district of the capital capital 175

Www.oc-shop.co.jp

[Fukuoka]

The design town is really very fashionable, even coffee.

In the afternoon we flew from Kansai to Fukuoka, the heart of Kyushu. Although Fukuoka is the most livable city in Japan (and Akiko can assure you that Fukuoka's accent is one of the softest in Japan), tourism has been tepid. In recent years, however, with the gradual rise of design culture, it has become popular. Many people in Tokyo also come here specially to visit the elegant shops opened by young people. The cafe we are going to visit in Fukuoka today is one of the representatives of this new generation of design culture.

Casual shopkeeper Hashimuchi designed TAGST with a very personal style. There are light industrial concrete walls on all sides, and even if you go to the bar, there are only five tables, and the guests are used to drinking coffee standing up. No BGM is played in the background, and only the sound of brewing coffee and the aroma of the coffee itself fill the space.

The Japanese people like to drink cold drinks, but the contradiction of coffee lies here. It is difficult for cooled coffee to maintain its original aroma and freshness. Hashimuchi wants to solve this problem. The unique formula of four kinds of coffee beans in TAGST tastes refreshing and recognizable.

Of course, living up to Fukuoka's reputation as the "city of design", TAGST has set up an art gallery in addition to selling coffee. Qiaokou regularly invites artists from home and abroad to run salons.

The design of the salon space is also bold, removing the partition between the coffee area and the coffee area, and there are no chairs. Qiaogui said that his ideal is that people can naturally carry coffee, gather around, appreciate art and communicate freely at the same time.

TAGST is a place of cultural communication, and a small community has been formed here before you know it. This desire of the local community in Qiaokou is probably the best part of the local coffee culture.

Chunji 1-7-11, Central District, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture

Http://www.tagsta.in

"3 days": [Tokushima] clear Coffee

Be close to nature and to people

On the third day, the last stop of the coffee tour, we came to Tokushima, the heart of Shikoku Island. Drive from Songshan Airport to today's destination, Sanhao City, and you can see the clear Zugu Creek along the way. Across Yoshino River, climb up the thin mountain path, there is a small highland, the first to see is a very inconspicuous gymnasium. This is the "Old birth and Cooperation Primary School", our destination today.

This is an abandoned gymnasium with a two-story school building passing through the middle. There are often children running around in front of the door, and people who don't know will think that this is still a primary school. But the courtyard in front of the school building (playground? There are several coffee tables, surrounded by the greenery of the mountains.

Sunny Coffee is renovated from the abandoned school buildings of the local primary school. Its owner, Mr. Ishimoto, once worked as a designer in Tokyo. Once the company wanted to do a project to renovate an abandoned school, so he visited several abandoned primary schools. Among them, he fell in love with the "old school" at first sight.

The "Old birth and Cooperation Primary School" was built in Showa in 24 years (1929) and abandoned in 2005. With the aging of the population, there are still many abandoned primary schools in Sanhao City. In order to make use of them again, the government has openly solicited proposals from the public.

He had never encountered the sound of Tokushima, the sound of birds, and the clear air in Tokyo. In short, Mr. Ishimoto thought, let's open a cafe and create a place where people in this area can come together. Three months later, the family moved to Tokushima from Tokyo with simple luggage, and as time went by, the bond between them and the people of the land became deeper and deeper.

All the coffee beans in the store are purchased from a special store directly delivered from Ehime County. Every morning, Mr. Ishimoto begins to select raw beans by hand, and then choose different baking methods according to different producing areas such as Nicaragua, Peru and Ethiopia, using the most primitive manual roaster. In the eyes of the serious Mr. Shibamoto, such tedious steps are taken for granted. "Coffee beans are also a kind of crops, so the state of each kind of beans is of course different. When baking, you have to change flexibly according to the temperature and humidity. "

Of course, sunny coffee not only sells coffee, but also has a rich menu of staple foods such as pizza and curry.

Mr. Shibamoto's wife, Xiuzi, also runs a coffee shop in her hometown, and her mother is a dim sum researcher. Therefore, the research and development of the dim sum in the store was handed over to Xiuzi and his sister Ayako. From this point of view, clear-soluble coffee is also a continuation of the family business.

There are eight rooms in the old school building, and now four have been put back into use. In addition to the coffee space transformed from the canteen, the busiest place here is this children's activity room. Its predecessor was the library in primary school, and they still kept a lot of children's books when they first moved here.

'This is really like a school, 'Mr. Ishimoto said. Both adults and children who come over for coffee can relax and chat freely. Compared with the silence that traditional cafes attach importance to creating that does not disturb others, clear-soluble coffee is obviously much more human. The special approachable aura of the school has been solemnly preserved by them up to now. People in Tokushima cherish not only nature but also the relationship between people.

Every Tuesday, Qingrong Coffee holds handicraft workshops, performances or plays. This is no longer just a cafe, but a space for local people to learn and communicate, which does not seem to change much from the original function of the school building. Now there are still four classrooms to be used, and Mr. Ishimoto says they will soon be given a new mission.

As the reputation of this secret coffee becomes more and more famous, besides the locals, a large number of guests from outside the county come here every day. We saw that someone would give the boss a fresh vegetable that had just been picked in his field and give Xiuzi a bag of fruit that might be used for dessert. Qingrong, as they expected when they moved to Germany, is a cafe that brings people closer and seems to be pregnant with something new.

Dali Daishi 15, Ikeda-cho, Sanhao City, Tokushima Prefecture

Author / Asako