Red Soles

A Tokyo Cafe, Saturday night, and I can’t help but noticing her striking red soles. It’s always the little details. Omotesando.

Shop Decoration – Cats

I love these statues of three cats with chop sticks outside a (you guessed it!) chop stick (in Japanese: ohashi) shop in Tokyo’s Omotesando district. The sign says “eigyouchuu” which means open for business. A good little set of characters to learn to recognize while traveling in Japan.

Sweet Sweet Omotesando

Last week was one of relaxation all over Japan. We had something called “Silver Week”, which is a name recently taken up to describe the second week of national holidays the government has bunched together to make sure we actually get some time out from the offices and factories in this crowded country. “Golden Week” is in early May and the longer of the two, hence the name Golden. It is annual whereas “Silver Week” only comes around once every seven years. As in most things, Japanese love to do the same thing as all other Japanese are doing, prefferably at the same place and at the same time. Hence domestic traveling is expensive and difficult, planes out of Japan are fully booked months in advance and even super markets raise their prices. Still, I love this country.

My Silver Week was all but restful. Only on my last day I had a chance to indulge in my favorite Tokyo pastime, long long walks. I spent most of Wednesday in Omotesando and came across this gorgeous fresh fruit bakery called Berry Cafe, run by the (now) global fashion company Comme Ca. If you have a lot of spare cash and are in dire need of sweet relief, do not hesitate to give it a try. I think there are also branches in Shinjuku, Shibuya and Kyoto.

Bretagnese Cooking

I have never been a huge fan of mussels, but I recently discovered a bretagnese restaurant in Tokyo’s Omotesando that served the most heavenly mussels I have ever tasted. On top of that me and my friend has some excellent crepes. Tokyo is one place on Earth where you will never run out of restaurants or places to eat, but if you feel like trying something different I recommend these cider cooked mussels. The owner is a very nice man who is perfectly trilingual in French, Japanese and English.

Details: Cafe-Creperie Le Bretagne ル・ブルターニュ　渋谷区神宮前３−５−４