The Mighty Green Falls in Oz

So news so far at home is that Starbucks will close 61 stores in Australia,with 85 stores nationally,it would be a huge dent on the market.

Although Im not sad to see them pull up stumps and go.
I remember the early days in Sydney When they first came into town and opened up near the cafe i was working at in Chatswood and the staff at Starbucks Would walk around to our place and harrass the customers with their versions of a short black served in a plastic cup,and our customers would just look at the guys and look at me to see if that was cool to do and i would say go ahead put it up against the one i made you and see which one you like.The look on the faces was just priceless.

I was probably a little sadistic at that point,so instead of letting the pain continue i had to ask the starbucks staff not to harass my customers again.

With the Australian espresso culture being so strong i am surprised that they managed to have survived so long,but then again what would the international students drink?

deVille

After two weeks in Calgary helping Paul Brassard and Mark Nolan with their cafe,im feeling some what re energised being home and relaxing with a day of canoeing in deep cove and sunshine under my belt.
deVille coffee will be the the swankiest sexiest cafe in canada,period.I havnt seen a cafe set up like this since being home in oz.deVille will be a healthy addition to the Calgary coffee scene,while still in construction mode interested on lookers were peeking in and commenting on the construction and asking on the opening date,to which Paul replied….soon,would you like a coffee?
So we gave away a lot of coffees to onlookers while i was training the guys,not a bad way for word to get around and free press,the word got around so fast that a food critic came by to check out deVille.I also dropped by Phil and Sebastians and checked out their new set up as they now have a synesso and an fb80 on the go,also i dropped by cafe beano while i was there and had a coffee,i didnt get a chance to drop into bumpys but the next trip to Calgary ill make sure ill check them out.A big disappointment on the crawl was cafe Artigiano,we ordered 4 lattes and mine had to be the super hot one and i wasnt able to drink it,although the cafe was busy it seems the consistency was out.
Unfortunately i wasnt around long enough to attend Calgary’s barista jam which was held a few days after i left,it wouldve been fun to hang out with the local talent,Calgary will be hosting their first regional competition for the upcoming canadians.
I will post photos of deVille when Paul sends me some pics so stay tuned,and if your in Calgary drop in on the guys,they’re located in the arts central building downtown

Off the beaten track part 2

After lunch i decided to do more walking and came across this wonderful vending machine owned by suntory

Tommy Lee Jones looked pissed off,and you would be too if you tasted the canned iced coffee out of this machine,but it had to be done so i can now cross it off my list of to do’s.
Im back in Asakusa after an adventure on the subway in peak hour,it felt like i was playing rugby again stuck in a scrum but instead of big men pushing against you it was a bunch of old nannas as strong as an ox and it was quite hilarious.
As im walking around trying to find the asahi brewery and kannon temple,i found this coffee training centre from the bach coffee company,but it was closed for the day,so i had a little peek in the window,looked really cool with the roasters and lab.

After that i decided to jump back on the subway and head to Ginza for a quick look and see what happens and found this cool place which wouldve been an awesome little cocktail bar

This place was pretty cozy and had lots of cool old equipment on display,a nice little get away from the hustle and bustle of the side walk,nice atmosphere and no english menus so i grabbed an iced coffee again,the best find of the day was again in Asakusa i wish i had made it back in time to eat here……….

Off the Beaten track part 1

So im looking through photos on the computer and came across my tokyo pics that i totally forgot about.
I found a few interesting cafes in tokyo off the beaten track while i was wandering the back streets of Ginza,Akihabara and Asakusa.

I found this place in Asakusa but it wasnt open at the time as it was too early in the morning.

Cafe Paulista I was told was one of the oldest cafes in tokyo,and was the first to bring coffee to japan.
It was quite interesting to have a coffee in there,it was very quiet in atmosphere full of business men with gorgeous girls,almost seems like a scene out of a movie,the tables and chairs were quite short,i felt like a giant walking in,with my shorts and t shirt and heavily tattooed self,the whole room stopped and looked,as thoughts of previous movies as old boy run through my head i was sure as shit i was going to get jumped and every one in suits will be on me like no ones business,but unfortunately that wasnt the case,just my over active imagination and the heat getting the better of me.So i ordered a nice iced coffee to cool me down for the next half hour as i get ready to hit the road.

As i was walking round Akihabara looking for a bite too eat, i came across this cool billboard amongst all the electronic advertisements for cameras,sex shops and icecream,after taking it i wander off around the corner and found this little gem

The Pole Shop Cafe in the backstreets of Akihabara was a cool little find so i found an excuse to pop in there and get out of the heat while i had another iced coffee,maybe the coffee will make me forget that im hungry i dont know.
there was a few people in the booths talking amongst themselves chain smoking malboros and laughing,im starting to enjoy a bit of people watching and trying to capture the whole essence of the conversation without knowing a lick of japanese was quite entertaining.
After watching the guy use the air roaster and do a roast i set off to find lunch as i couldnt put off the cravings for ramen.

After slurping my way through the ramen off i go

Techno Geeks Wet Dream

What a day…..
i spent most of today in akihibara,now this place is totally nuts,if your a tech geek then akihibara is your wet dream.
i went to check it out to see what it was like,seeing as this was my 4th day in tokyo i might as well.
i arrived at the station in akihibara and it was opening times for the shops.9 am and there were line ups at the door and so i decided to join in and it was like the running of the bulls as everyone rushed in,my bet was to escape the heat,but i could be wrong,as there was a huge sale on in town and everything had to go.
so what greets me as i stepped into akiba complex was electricals,you name it this whole building was just that.the ground floor was dedicated to mobile phones,nothing else,and there are so many companies inviting you to check out the phones.
holy shit there were some choices of what phone to buy,ones that pick up tv,movies,music,camera phone,you name it it was there.if you were after a phone it would take you a bloody long time to decide on one and when you do its already out of date.next floor was laptops,next was cameras and so on and so on.
so after all of that i decided to leave that building and grab a drink.
so at the bottom of this building there was a dude rocking it out on air guitar promoting a product which lets you play air guitar,when i get back to vancouver i will post pics of this dude.anyway he was holding this thing which was the head and part of a neck of a guitar,what i didnt know was it was hooked to a lil guitar amp and has a laser thingy that beams where the rest of the guitar should be,and every time he strums the laser it disturbs it and then i creates the sounds.you’ll understand when you see the pics.
so after having lunch with a few locals at a stand up ramen bar i decided to hoof it to roppongi,i spent an hour looking around but got bored quite easily as it was ultra hip and new that it kinda lacked character so of i go to harajuku.
now for people who dont know about harajuku,you need to check out the books fruits to fully understand what its about.its so cool with so many characters,japanese rockabillies,punks,girls who dress like strawberry short cake,mods and so on and so on.as it was getting towards peak hour in the afternoon and im getting quite hungry and tired so i decide to hike it home.when i got home the police were blocking of the streets so people can sit and set up chairs on the road to watch tonights fireworks.our hotel decided to throw a party and get everyone on the roof to watch the show.i have loads of pics to upload when i get home and put it in here for you guys to check out.

air guitar

no its not a vending machine for dirty knickers but…..

you do get some cool toys in there.

and what i really liked was this,my first ever encounter with a square watermelon,only in japan…..

and also this for that special someone…

Tokyo

So im sitting here in a hotel in asakusara,wondering when in hell it will ever drop in temperature.
since i have arrived into tokyo i have consumed a lot of liquids,mostly what i initially thought of as disgusting when i first saw it in a vending machine in takashimadaira station.the machine had a huge sign called pocari sweat.so i was a little intimidated when i looked at it in the vending machine.
what the hell were they selling here?
thoughts of sumo wrestlers harvesting their sweat after a hard days wrestling and manhandling each other in the heat and then bottling the sweat to sell to everyone to drink kinda got me on guard.
but being so parched and dry as a nun,i took the plunge and dropped in 120 yen and the machine quietly dispensed my sumo sweat.
so upon opening the bottle and taking a huge swig,to my surpise all it tasted of was lemon.so i read a little more of the lable and the whole thing was explained to me.
it was like gatorade or any of the other electrolyte drinks on the market which was a huge relief.
i also noticed a lot of canned coffee that all the kids are drinking,mind you i tried it but it wasnt something i liked.

canned coffee….

this is what i loved the most…150 yen for 200mls of sake goodness

and i also liked this….
270 yen for half a litre can of asahi