Caffeine is my Idea of Fun, Now

Hey everyone. I just realized it has been about two weeks since I've last written--sorry about that. Allow me to present the usual excuse: I was busy. In the last week of August I had what was called "Follow-Up Training," which was three days of training that focused on Nitori's elaborate system of ordering custom curtains, a refresher course on the cash register (albeit one that did include some useful tricks I didn't know), and a crash course about Nitori's furniture offerings, namely what the furniture is made of (hint: the answer 90% of the time is "medium-density fiberboard"). From that training I went into five straight days of work, including the weekend which means the store is always packed to the point of insanity; I haven't had that many consecutive days of work in a long while so, to be perfectly honest, they wore me out. 

I have managed to slip a FEW fun things into the mix, albeit a mix that is leans heavily on the coffee end of the scale. 

On the 28th I popped over to Turret Coffee, near the Tsukiji fish market, where I got to drink lattes, talk about what being "outrageous" in the world of coffee means, and eat dorayaki (super sweet, buttery pancakes filled with red bean paste; it's like a pancake sandwich). Turret Coffee was (and still is in many regards) a pioneer in Tokyo's espresso scene. Not only was it one of the first places that even offered espresso in Tokyo when it opened in 2013 (Tokyo has always had a strong pour-over scene, a remnant from the plethora of kissaten but not much in the way of espresso until recently), its owner, Kiyoshi Kawasaki, is a former Latte-Art Champion. 

Here's the Time Out Tokyo staff photographer doing his thing while I waited. It's amusing to me that every time I order a coffee I have to wait at least five minutes for them to take ~artsy photos~before I can even take a sip. So I'm just standing there, waiting, and the person who made my coffee is standing there, waiting, and silently fretting that the coffee is getting cold. 

Here's the sign outside Turret Coffee. Fun fact: the shop is named after the "turret" trucks that zip around the Tsukiji fish market. There's actually a full-sized turret in the coffee shop that you can sit on and use as either seating and/or a table. 

After finishing up my Turret Latte (which is a double-shot monster), I walked to the nearby Tsukiji Honganji--AKA the main Buddhist temple at Tsukiji. I was greeted by a very kind and enthusiastic volunteer who explained to me in an interesting mix of Japanese and English about the temple's founder, the symbolism of lotus blossoms (they bloom out of murky pond mud so they're a symbol of purity that rises from the muck), and how in our next lives we will all be reborn in Amida Buddha's "pure land" from a lotus blossom ourselves, just like Thumbelina.

I also found the exterior architecture to be quite unique for a Japanese Buddhist temple...

I also found myself in the area nearby Tokyo Tower (the Eiffel Tower of Japan complete with evening lights and a too-expensive elevator you can ride up for the views). Needless to say I only gazed at it from below, albeit from up-close.

Then this week, on my birthday, I made my way to another quirky coffee shop called Good Coffee & Good People. The owner is really chatty and welcoming and he makes lots of American pop-culture references. For instance, the name of the shop is a reference to the movie Taxi Driver while the name of his two coffee blends are Johnny B Goode and Tomando, respectively.

To close, here's a miscellaneous garden that I think screams for some inspirational phrase to be attached to it...I'm open to suggestions.