The Coffee Shops of Tokyo
The Coffee Shops of Tokyo I love coffee and, not to gloat or anything, I like to think that I have a pretty good handle on it. I ran a third wave coffeeshop for years, I learned the barista craft through Counter Culture Coffee’s partner training program, and I’ve been to many, many cuppings put […]
The Parks and Gardens of Tokyo
One of my favorite movies is Akira Kurosawa’s film Ikiru—“to live.” It’s a gripping, deeply emotional film about a man at the end of his life. A government bureaucrat, he has lived frugally, nearly to the point of asceticism, but a terminal stomach cancer diagnosis spurs him to live more expansively and ambitiously. The film […]
But first, a word on Italo Calvino’s novel
As a young reader in the early 21st century, I first encountered Italo Calvino as a consequence of that kind of good luck that is brought about by having good friends. A former romantic partner reached out and informed me that they had a book recommendation—later that same day I had purchased a copy of […]
