Jane K. this is just for you- as a coffee drinker I thought you would appreciate it.
I was a little worried that we might have a hard time finding coffee in Japan. I’d been warned that it isn’t as common, and doesn’t always taste like coffee back home. Over the last year, I’ve become a coffee drinker: at least one cup in the morning, usually two, sometimes one in the middle of the day. I’d gone ten years without it, and thought I would be fine if I had to switch to tea. And then I arrived in Japan and found that they have coffee origami.
Starbucks invaded Japan sometime ago, so coffee is fashionable. In Hamamatsu, the Starbucks at the train station is beyond the barrier to the Shin-kansen lines, the ultra pricy bullet trains that whisk people from one city to the next. Do only people who can afford a ticket drink high priced coffee? I think it is an image thing. There is also a Starbucks in Hama down the street from the station, in a hip shopping district. Sadly, these are far from where we live, a 600 Yen bus ride, too pricy for everyday visits. But like I said, we have coffee origami.
So, what IS coffee origami? John discovered these at the grocery store. They are individual servings of coffee, in a little pouch, that hang from a paper structure over your cup. You pour the water through it. Brilliance! We have found that each brand of coffee has a different structure, some require folding, some hang completely over the cup, some rest inside. We are on a quest for the most functional combined with the best tasting coffee. When we find it, we will bring some back for you!
Here in Japan, they have plug in hot water makers. I think they would be illegal to sell in the US as the water is heated to 98 C (you can change that to 80C or 60 C if you just want warm). It stays in the insulated pot and you push a button to get it to come out. It means that you always have hot water available for coffee, tea, ramen, what ever. You refill it when necessary, and it takes about 5 minutes to heat up from cold. I think we will buy one to bring home. Japan used the same plugs and current that we do in the states.
So, for all you coffee aficionados, this is how they do it in Japan.
