Le Jardin, Yoga

Setagaya Art Museum is good for a visit. It’s a healthy walk away from Yoga, and that healthy walk, if done properly on the smaller streets and not on the 6-lane monsters that cut through the area, will be almost unconscionably pleasant. It will include cobbled streets with architectural details at every corner, water features, […]

Cafe Life, Azabu Juban

In Japan, your apartment is probably small. And that means a significant part of your social life takes place outside it. For some people, their personal life may take place outside the home as well – your apartment is so small that you don’t feel like being there, and it’s hard to cook, so why […]

Asso, Shimo Kitazawa

This place looks sorta nice, and has the great advantage of outdoor seating, though it lost out and wasn’t selected for lunch. But I only ate a grainy matcha-vanilla softcream on the way back to the station, so the real reason for this post is as an excuse for the picture. I’m not sure if […]

Tant Pour Tant, Tsukishima

Nothing follows monja like cake (?), so after lunching at Bambi and strolling around a bit more, it was time to enjoy a quiet coffee and a piece of cake in my maiden aunt’s living room. Not really, of course, but this cute cake shop has a second floor that features the owner’s landscape paintings […]

Hap, Kagurazaka

After being a bit disappointed with the Artist Cafe, I wanted to redeem the evening by walking around somewhere nice – and thought that Kagurazaka was close. Y’know, it’s hard to find stuff there when walking around at random. Hap, I think I had seen before on a random expedition. It’s kinda neat and modern-looking […]

Derriere, Nishi Azabu

After a large pizza lunch, what do you need? Coffee and cake! Derriere is a cute little cafe, ideal for ladies who lunch with their kids and bankers who don’t work on Tuesday afternoons. They have a big cooler full of beautiful, traditional-style cakes (4 types of chiffon! see the web site) and serve coffee […]

Huit, Nakameguro

Cafe Life (in capitals) appeals to me, but I’ve never been able to relax for hours in cafes. It’s always something – the chairs are too hard, or too soft, or there’s not enough to read…and I can’t just sit and stare. The police told me that if I get picked up for that again, […]

Dolce MariRisa, Denen Chofu

Denen Chofu is what’s properly termed a ‘Garden Suburb’. The whole area was bought up by a developer named Eichi Shibusawa around the turn of the (last) century with the intention of turning it into a cleaner, greener planned suburb (and anyone who’s been to Japan will attest that urban planning is not a deeply-held […]