In the K-pop onslaught at home, I have always enjoyed a band called TVXQ (which stands for Tong Vfang Xien Qi, and roughly translates to ‘rising gods of the east’), primarily because they are older than many of the others, there are only two of them, and because they do this really catchy number that has a kind of big band-jazz feel, and sees them dancing around a giant faux set of horizontal bass strings. I really like it.
Confession: Mary and I drink quite a lot of coffee. Sometimes, it can be difficult to differentiate between the ‘Coffee Tour’ cafes, and the also-rans.
I needed a morning, so, after taking Mary to Fushimi-Inari for her Airbnb sketching experience, I negotiated 3 extra hours at Book & Bed, and settled in there, with a mystery pastry, an in-house coffee with whitener, and some peace and quiet. Did I say how much I liked Book and Bed? Everyone leaves in the morning, leaving you with the whole place to yourself.
Unir was an unexpected surprise.
We found it on the bottom level of a department store, which reminded me a bit of David Jones’ Foodhall. You see, I think Mary have moved beyond liking coffee, to needing it (shhhh!), so when she hasn’t had her daily dose, her eyes start wandering, on the lookout for her next double espresso.
We caught the shinkansen from Osaka to Kyoto and, to be honest, I was a little bummed that it only took 15 minutes, not only because it is impressively fast and smooth, but because you can’t really do anything but sit still, in the same spot, when you’re on a train. We haven’t been doing a lot of that.
When Sayo said she knew just the cafe to take us to, I was unable to form any opinion whatsoever about what it might look like, so was up for anything.
Japan did not get off to an auspicious start.
Our first task, upon exiting the terminal, was to buy ourselves SIM cards. I had pre-ordered them in Seoul, meaning it was just a matter of finding the pick-up location, because I knew it would be the single most important thing to do, if we were going to find our way around. We had a friend in Osaka, so it seemed less urgent, and I guess there may have been some overconfidence at play as well.
Following the great G-Dragon tour of Jeju Island, we visited the cafe he opened before Untitled 2017, the fortuitously-positioned Monsant.
A Fat Purple Fig 