Adventures of Anette: Tokyocafes

Showing posts with label Tokyocafes. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2019

All you need to know about the Tokyo Robot Cafe "Henn na Cafe"

Anette 9:09:00 PM

Mr. Robot Barista ready to pour some coffee. Kamae!
Photo: Anette

Tokyo is known as a place where you can find both the newest of the newest and the weirdest of the weirdest. A couple of years ago I wrote about Tokyo's first Robot Hotel with the fitting name "Henn na Hotel" which literally means "strange hotel". And yes, the people who are behind this up-and-coming hotel chain are the same as the owners of this cafe, going by the name "Henn na Cafe", which in other words means "Strange Cafe". Without further redo, here is all you need to know!

Monday, June 25, 2018

Travel

Having Coffee with a Monk: The Temple-Themed Tera Cafe in Daikanyama

Anette 10:07:00 PM

A Buddhist altar inside the Tera Cafe
Photo: Anette

Right on Tokyo's posh Komazawa Street between Daikanyama and Ebisu district you can find Tera Cafe, a cafe/restaurant that is themed after a Buddhist temple, or tera (寺) in Japanese. At first glance, this might seem like a regular cafe, but you'll soon notice that there's more to it than meets the eye. This chic temple-themed cafe seems to be the place to go for instance if you want to combine a healthy meal with a consultation session with a Buddhist monk.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Tokyocafes

Tokyo Pet Cafes: Owl Park Ikebukuro (ふくろうカフェ池袋あうるぱーく)

Anette 7:15:00 PM

Ikebukuro is a vibrant area where you in addition to an endless selection of places to shop and dine can find what might be Tokyo's widest selections of pet cafes. I have previously written about my visit to a bunny cafe in the area, and about Tokyo's one and only penguin bar, which also happens to be located in this part of the metropolis. This time I went to check out one of Ikebukuro's Owl Cafes with some of my friends.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Tokyocafes

Tokyo: Penguin Bar Ikebukuro (ペンギンのいるBar)

Anette 10:11:00 PM

Tokyo certainly has its collection of unique bars and cafes, and you can find anything from cat cafes, dog cafes and bunny cafes to reptile, owl and hedgehog cafes in this busy metropolitan if you feel the need to pet a furry friend. If you're however more in search of some rare options when it comes to nightlife you could always pay a visit to the penguin bar in Ikebukuro.

Browse places to stay in Tokyo on Agoda.com. Free cancellation.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Tokyocafes

Tokyo Cafes: The Usabibi Bunny Cafe (うさびび)

Anette 7:27:00 PM

Pet cafes have become quite a common thing in Japan, and in Tokyo you can find cat cafes, dog cafes, owl cafes, goat cafes and even reptile cafes. With a lack of space and strict rules against pet ownership many locals who want a pet but cannot have one choose to visit a cafe with their favourite animal.

Tokyo's Ikebukuro area is one of the places that is most known for its pet cafes, and just recently I visited the Usabibi Bunny Cafe (うさびび - home page here) with one of my friends.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Tokyocafes

Tokyo Cafes: Meiji 100% Chocolate Cafe

Anette 3:37:00 PM

Tokyo has a wide range of exotic cafes for people who like to have their regular cup of coffee in a slightly different environment. For people who prefer to drink chocolate, or just want to enjoy a chocolate dessert along with their coffee, it might be a good alternative to visit Meiji's 100%Chocolate Cafe located in Kyobashi.

Meiji is Japan's largest chocolate manufacturer, and the company opened their first Chocolate Cafe in Kyobashi in 2004 in the same building as their headquarters. The chocolate cafe was designed by the Tokyo-based Wonderwall, a firm that also has designed Uniqlo's huge store in Ginza. A characteristic of the Chocolate Cafe is the wooden ceiling that looks like a gigantic chocolate bar.

Good company

The cafe has all types of chocolate desserts and drinks, and I have added a couple of pictures of the things we ordered below. The place is not surprisingly quite popular so you might have to wait in line in order to get a seat. We ended up by a small counter by the window, as all the tables were taken.

A chocolate sponge cake with some fruit

Close up photo

Chocolate Tiramisu Waffle

You can also buy chocolate to bring with you home, or give to a friend as a gift: By the counter, they sell 56 different varieties of chocolate squares in small colorful packages. In addition to plain chocolates made by Meiji's original receipt from1926 and chocolate made by cocoa beans from a wide range of countries, there is also a range of unique chocolates for the more adventurous tasters out there. Some examples of the exotic varieties you can buy are chocolate with azuki (red bean), basil, yomogi (Japanese mugwort), goma (sesame seeds), ginger, red chili, jasmine, cheese, and maccha (Japanese green tea) flavor.

Chocolate Cafe

Meiji's Chocolate Cafe is located only 5 minutes away from Tokyo Station by foot. The cafe stays open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during weekdays, and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m on weekends.

Address:
〒104-0031 東京都中央区京橋２丁目４−１６
Kyobashi 2-4-16, Meiji Seika Honsha Bldg 1F.

Recommended Hotels in Tokyo

More Tokyo hotels

Robot Hotel - Henn na Hotel Maihama Tokyo Bay

Henn na Hotel
★★★★ → review
.

The Centurion Classic Akasaka
★★★★ → review

Hundred Stay
★★★★ → review
,

Kaisu Hostel
★
.

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Sunday, September 7, 2014

Tokyocafes

Tokyo Cafes: Cafe Fuglen - Norwegian style Coffee & Vintage Furniture

Anette 10:08:00 PM

Fuglen by night

Last weekend the popular Norwegian cafe "Fuglen" ("The Bird") arranged an official launch party for their new Fuglen Coffee Roasters situated around 10 minutes from the original cafe. I went to the event along with some friends, and afterwards, we walked back to Café Fuglen for an evening drink.
For those of you who don't know Fuglen from before the original café opened in Oslo in 1963, and after all these years it is still a popular place that focuses not only on coffee and cocktails but also on Norwegian vintage furniture. What is really unique about Fuglen is that you get the chance to both try out and even buy their furniture during your short coffee break.

Café Fuglen's Japanese branch opened in 2012, and has since then become a trend setter in the pulsating Japanese capital. During my internship at the Norwegian embassy last year one of my daily tasks was to translate Japanese articles from newspapers and magazines into English, and one of the most frequent topics was Fuglen. If I'm not mistaken one of the articles was even entitled something like "Cool girls like free WiFi", and consisted of some hip cafes around town where they provided the opportunity for people to surf online for free on their net. The only relevance to Fuglen was, as you might have guessed already, the free WiFi..

A Fuglen poster inside the cafe

The characteristic Fuglen logo outside the cafe

With the popular Norwegian beer Nøkne Ø (naked island) on the menu (unfortunately it was sold out)

Fuglen and beer

Fuglen is, in other words, a very popular place to hang out. There are usually quite a lot of people who visit the cafe during the weekend, but since we left the launch party relatively early we came just in time to capture the whole row of seats in front of the cafe. The area is rather quiet at night, so hanging out with friends in front of the cafe is quite a nice opportunity to chat and chill out.

Enjoying good company & drinks in front of Cafe Fuglen

For more information about Fuglen, please check out their homepage

Recommended Hotels in Tokyo

More Tokyo hotels

Henn na Hotel
★★★★ → review
.

The Centurion Classic Akasaka
★★★★ → review

Hundred Stay
★★★★ → review
,

Kaisu Hostel
★
.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Tokyocafes

Tokyo Cafés: Rakuten Café in Shibuya

Anette 9:02:00 PM

The new Rakuten Café in Shibuya

It’s been about a month since the new Rakuten Café opened in Shibuya, and last week I finally had the chance to go there with some of my dōkis (coworkers) to check it out. The café is situated about 5 minutes away from Shibuya Station right by the Apple-store, so it was pretty easy to find.

Ordering coffee

You can try out Rakuten's Ebook Reader Kobo for free at the café

A description of the doughnut sold at the Rakuten Café

In the Rakuten Café you can find a selection of some of the best selling food products on Rakuten Ichiba, and the both the English and the Japanese menu comes with the typical “long page” format that includes detailed information about the various products. To be honest it looked a bit unfamiliar and strange to see the long page format in the English menu, but in the Japanese menu it looked quite nice.

Blueberry cake and coffee

Smoothie

As we had the day off we spent most of the day talking and hanging out in the café, and even though it was Monday there was a steady number of visitors to the café during the time we spent there. I'm glad we had the chance to go there outside of the weekend, as it certainly must be quite crowded during the weekend..

Enjoying the day at the Rakuten Café

This is actually already my second time writing about the Rakuten Café, as I also wrote a post a couple of days before the café's grand opening. Recently I’ve also written a number of posts about my work at Rakuten. Maybe you have heard about the Japanese word Shokugyōbyō (職業病)? Although the literal translation is Occupational Disease it can also mean to be crazy about your work (only buying things that your company sells, talking about the company all the time etc), so I have been starting to wonder whether I perhaps might have caught a mild Shokugyōbyō myself… Perhaps it's time to start writing a little bit more about things unrelated to my job.

Address:

〒150-0041
東京都渋谷区神南1-20-6
マ・メゾンしぶや公園通りビル1階・2階・3階
1F-3F RakutenCAFE, 1-20-6 JinnanShibuya-ku, Tokyo

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Tokyocafes

Tokyo Cafes: Aoyama Flower Market Tea House

Anette 11:25:00 AM

The entrance to the tea house at the back of Aoyama Flower Market

It might look like a normal flower store when you enter and the fresh scent of flowers greets you. But at the back of the Aoyama Flower Market in Omotesando there is actually a hidden café waiting to welcome you with its range of herbal teas. The café's theme is greenhouse, and the walls are covered with plants that help to create the right mood.

Browse places to stay in Tokyo on Agoda.com. Free cancellation.

The greenhouse cafe

Great atmosphere and great company

My friend Anna and I stayed quite long in the cafe, and we tried out both their tea, salad, and cake. We picked a tea that was supposed to be quite refreshing, and it was served with a small jar of honey added.

A green tea with various leaves inside

We also had one of their salads. Although it, of course, was very good we had not expected that it would come with sausages. It is somewhat typical in Japan that what you order always comes with a small piece of meat or something even though the menu didn't indicate that there would be any. I guess Japan is not the easiest country to be a vegetarian in.

Our salad, which also turned out to include sausages.

We decided to stay a little longer and try the chocolate cake theirs too. If there is one type of sweets I find hard to resist, it must be chocolate.

Chocolate cake with whipped cream and blueberries

A flower by our table

In addition to the food and drinks that the Tea House has to offer, they also sell a variety of flower-related products such as the fancy vases below.

Fancy flower vase

Some more flowers

The tea shop is quite popular

Tea house 名刺

Today's flower

Flower party coming up!

Got a free rose at the Aoyama Flower Market

During our stay at the tea shop, a Japanese lady came up to our table and asked us to help her correct some of her English sentences. She seemed very happy when she left, but we didn't think much more about it. When we went out of the café to leave one of the florists came up to us with two roses, and explained that a lady had wanted her to give them to us. Such a sweet gesture! So now I have a pretty rose to use for decoration in my room.

The Aoyama Flower Market Tea House is such a cute little cafe! If you have the chance I would definitely recommend visiting. Just be aware that you'll probably have to wait in line for a while to get seated because of its popularity.

■ Basic Info

・Name of Cafe:
Aoyama Flower Market Tea House
(青山フラワーマーケット )
・Address：
〒107-0062 Tokyo, Minato, Minamiaoyama, 5 Chome−1−2,
青山エリービル1F
・Phone: 03-3400-0887
・Opening Hours: 11:00～20:00 (Mon-Sat),
11:00～19:00 (Sundays & official holidays)
・Official Home Page：http://www.afm-teahouse.com/aoyama

Recommended Hotels in Tokyo

More Tokyo hotels

Henn na Hotel
★★★★ → review
.

The Centurion Classic Akasaka
★★★★ → review

Hundred Stay
★★★★ → review
,

Kaisu Hostel
★
.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

All you need to know about the Tokyo Robot Cafe "Henn na Cafe"

Monday, June 25, 2018

Having Coffee with a Monk: The Temple-Themed Tera Cafe in Daikanyama

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Tokyo Pet Cafes: Owl Park Ikebukuro (ふくろうカフェ池袋あうるぱーく)

Monday, May 23, 2016

Tokyo: Penguin Bar Ikebukuro (ペンギンのいるBar)

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Tokyo Cafes: The Usabibi Bunny Cafe (うさびび)

Monday, November 10, 2014

Tokyo Cafes: Meiji 100% Chocolate Cafe

Related blog posts

Recommended Hotels in Tokyo

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Tokyo Cafes: Cafe Fuglen - Norwegian style Coffee & Vintage Furniture

Related blog posts

Recommended Hotels in Tokyo

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Tokyo Cafés: Rakuten Café in Shibuya

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Recommended Hotels in Tokyo

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Tokyo Cafes: Aoyama Flower Market Tea House

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