Today is Sunday in Japan and our favorite cafe, Cafe Kei, is closed on Sunday. This has often resulted in caffeine withdrawal for us on this day of rest. I had, however, noticed a little cafe that wasn't ever too busy close to the local grocery store. A few Sundays ago, I specifically looked to see if it was open and was happy to see that it was. Perfect! We had a place to get coffee on Sunday. This morning, Russell and I set off to try it out. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was closed. We looked at the times posted and all it said was that it opened at 11:30am and was closed on holidays and Mondays. That meant it should be open at 12:00 on a Sunday, right? No luck. They must have stayed home today.
In the meantime, Russell had assumed that I was talking about a different cafe that he had spotted some time back. We walked around another corner and found Piranha Cafe. it looked cute but small. I wasn't sure if there were any seats inside, but we went in anyway. It turned out there were seats in the back. The host was a bit taken aback to see two foreigners walk in, but he hid it quickly and burst into "gracious host" mode. He had a very cute apron and Pageboy cap on. We took a seat.
Once we sat down, we took in our surroundings a bit. The cafe was cute with lots of sketches of happy piranhas with big teeth, some photography hung on the walls and little knick knacks and funny things to look at. There was a book on people who look like their cats, a sign to the bathroom that read "Ou et le toilet?" followed by directions in Japanese. There was also a random cable poking through the wall about a half inch and a question mark and arrow pointing to it painted on the wall. The place had a lot of character.
So did the host. We ordered a coffee and a latte. We could hear him grinding the beans and, steaming the milk and all the things you would expect to hear from someone who was actually making your cup of coffee from scratch. He came back after a few minutes with little trays. Each tray had a two heart-shaped short break cookies, a smiley-faced spoon and a cup of coffee. My latte had a smiley face design on the top. (See photo). It was adorable. When we left, he was just pulling some fresh-baked cookies out of the oven.
The restaurant also offered a variety of food. There was curry and rice, chicken and cheese bagels, hamburg steak with tomato sauce. In short, we will have to go back to sample the lunch fare before too long. The coffee was excellent and definitely warrants further trips.
We now have a favorite Sunday cafe!
Oh, and the piranha cups are for sale. I really want one. I'm hoping Russell gets me one for my coming birthday, but we established during Christmas that if I ask directly, he won't get it for me. I'm not falling for that again! I will have to be more crafty...
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