Jidohanbaiki Cheeky

Japan is bustling. Everyone is moving every which way. The fact that everyone is going to and from work is so apparent. Men in suits. Briefcases. Exhausted faces. Train cars that are dead silent as everyone unwinds. For some, that means being slumped over in an after-work cat nap on the commute home (how do people always wake up right before the train hits their stop??). 

Midst this chaos, Japan is genius with its coffee. Sometimes you just don't have the 10 minutes to stop in to a coffee shop and have your handmade latte thrown into your hand (and then your face). And conveniently situated shops don't possibly have the capacity to handle the volume that Tokyo's work life provides. 

Down the street from our house and very tempting.

My favorite drink is offered in the center one for ¥110.

What a steal!

Enter the best vending machines you will ever know. In Japan, they are jidohanbaiki. They are everywhere (highest per capita, in fact), promising that you can get the soda, water, juice, or coffee you're needing for ¥150 or less.

The convenience, variety and accessibility aren't even the best parts. Oh, how I wish the US would adopt vending machines like these! Most jidohanbaiki offer drinks hot. Yeah, you heard me right. Any drink with a red price label will come out in a warm aluminum can. Makes winters more bearable, that's for sure.

I've lived in Japan for two and a half years, and there are still varieties of vending machine coffees and teas that I haven't tried. When trying something new from a can you can't fully read, you'll find yourself reacting anywhere from wow, that's freaking delicious! to huh, not so bad to ugh, I think my body might reject this one. But once you find that favorite, it's glorious! Mine, like pretty much every other American here, is the hot Georgia's Original coffee. I can't possibly describe it in words that are worthy. But let's just say it's perfectly warm coffee that's dressed to impress (cream? Sugar? I really have no idea). I guess you'll just have to come over here and try it for yourself.

Sarutahiko Coffee

We have been quite busy. Clearly. Since our last post was umpteen years ago. Besides, oh - having a kid - we have had frequent goodbye and hello adjustments, as deployments have been about every other month. 

But today our new life as parents met our former life of coffee shop explorers and our future aspiration of owning our own. Whenever we're in a shop, I always tell our four-month-old to get comfortable, because hopefully part of his childhood will be more or less lived in one. But usually that occurs in a Starbucks or Tully's. 

But today. Oh, today. We ventured back onto the old road and sought out a little indie. We trekked up to a district in Tokyo we've rarely been and spent some time in Sarutahiko Coffee. When I first laid eyes on this little shop, I felt equal delight and dismay. Delight, because it was so adorably cute and small. Tiny as a shop can be, and cute as a button. Dismay, because it was so challengingly cute and small. We're parents. We come with a diaper bag stuffed with space-consuming cloth diapers, a soft carrier than can make agility more complex, and - oh, right - a kid. So when we first showed up with our appropriately hungry and tired infant hoping to settle in for a cup of joe, a hearty Breastfeeding session, and an ample nap, we took one look at the seat's-taken scenario before us and started weighing our options.

This gave Sarutahiko a chance to shine. A barista was instantly at our side to not only open the door for us, but offer us standing room, if we would take it. We walked away hoping to check again in an hour and that same barista chased after us to offer freshly open seats. Now that's good hospitality. 

We were able to squirm our way into 2 of the 14 seats in the place and check out the offerings. Their menus are in both Japanese and English (accommodating yet again, yeah!), so we were able to order easily. My caffe mocha was delicious and not overpowered by syrup, and Curt's single origin Burundi coffee was prepared via slow pour, resulting in a clean and citrusy taste. Nice and smooth.

The beans used to make his cup were extracted from the cherry using the natural washing process (cherry is pulped, soaked, fermented, washed, and dried). And you know, it made for a great cup of coffee. 

Sarutahiko Coffee gets an A+ from the Gaynors, according to their brew and their good hospitality. Overall, we had a good experience there, save for the screaming episode in their little bathroom (wait, infants don't appreciate things being dropped on their heads during a diaper change? Weird.), but I imagine if their staff are this accommodating for a ragamuffin bunch like ours, they must do everything they can to create a good atmosphere all the time.

If you're interested in visiting this shop, take the east exit out of Ebisu Station. We took the JR Yamanote Line. Sarutahiko is only a few blocks walk, and is easy to find on Google Maps.