This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
These days, you can get coffee to go anywhere in Japan. All of the convenience stores, from 7/11 to Daily Mart have machines that will grind you one cup worth of beans and brew you a fresh cup of coffee, hot or iced. Is it the best coffee? No. But it isn’t bad either.
In addition to convenience stores, coffee can be bought all across the country at Starbucks Coffee and other chain coffee stores like Tully's and Doutour as well.
With all this coffee available to you, why then should you want to go to a kissaten (Japanese coffee and tea house)?
One thing that makes going anywhere in Japan special is the level of high-quality service you are almost guaranteed to get wherever you go. Another thing that makes visiting Japan unique is the multitude of uniforms that so many people wear to work. And one more thing that makes Japan different from many places is the depth and degree to which people go to create a specific mood or atmosphere for a specific place. It often borders on fetishism.
Water slowly dripping through tablespoons of espresso over the course of a few hours.
If you go to a convenience store, yes, you can get a somewhat decent cup of coffee for under 200 円. At a Starbucks, you can spend anywhere from 300円 to 700円 and get the same quality coffee that you are used to getting in your hometown.
But for the same amount of money you would spend at a Starbucks, and sometimes less, you can immerse yourself in the dark, moody corners of a kissaten where you will have access to a full menu of coffee drinks and coffee varieties. Not only that, but you will most likely be waited on by a very professional and knowledgeable coffee barista in a smart uniform of some kind—possibly a black vest over a white collared shirt with black slacks and a good pair of shoes.
That's not all. If you choose your kissaten wisely, you will also have the privilege of watching the barista make your coffee with a siphon brewing machine. If you aren't familiar with the siphon coffee technique, it can be quite magical to watch.
Water is boiled in a balloon shaped flask. As it boils, it lifts its way upward into a second chamber. When the water reaches a specific temperature, coffee grounds are added to it. After a short period of time, the water suddenly sucks back down through a filter into the base chamber and you are left with a deeply flavored, delicious cup of coffee to enjoy as you take in the quirky characters around you.
You can see the process in the video below.
People say that the old kissatens are disappearing across Japan. So, if you find yourself here, I highly recommend that you put having a cup of coffee in an old, dark, and possibly dirty kissaten on your list of must-dos.
Image Credits: The images in this post are original. The video in this post was found on YouTube.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
Ahhh, Japanese cafes changed my life. There is so much variety among them. I really discovered my passion for community when I discovered that even in a cold, numb city like Tokyo, even with a culture where talking to strangers is almost unheard of in most situations, somehow a strong sense of community develops in the local shops, especially cafes.
I found cafes for almost every subculture I could imagine. Most of my favorite were for younger crowds but there was one jazz cafe where the owner would burn me jazz CDs and try to teach me about jazz because I was still new to the genre. She burned a CD every single time I came and half the time she wouldn't let me pay for my meals. I had 2 huge stacks of maybe 100 CDs....it was so hard to part with them when I left Japan but they took up too much space to carry all of them.
Wow! It sounds like you had a great experience. That barista reminds me of a bar tender I met in Fukuoka. I haven't seen much of the Tokyo coffee shop scene, just a couple places here and there.
I wish I had been able to take all those CDs off your hands. A collection of jazz would be great to have.
great post @boxcarblue very interesting process of making coffee to watch. have a nice weekend!
Glad you liked it. You enjoy your weekend too.
That is cool. Looks almost more like a laboratory that a coffee shop lol
Doesn't it? These things are really cool. They make you want to put on a lab coat and brew cup after cup of coffee.
Excellent post! The coffee making technique with the glass bubble is amazing.
Now following you.
I'm glad to hear it. Thank you! I love this coffee making technique. It's so fun to watch.
While we are using keurig. Beautiful, simple, precise. It's just one of the things i admire in the Japanese culture
They don't use these at all kissaten. At many of them, baristas slowly pour water over coffee grounds by hand. Keurig-like machines are also becoming popular over here. Unfortunately.
Good post, follow...
Thanks! I appreciate it.
Fascinating post - Japan has such an idiosyncratic culture. I plan to visit in the near future, and having read this, I'll definitely seek out a kissaten.
I'm glad to hear it. Where do want to visit while you're here?
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