Cafe Mozart

Like most things from the West, Japan's relationship to coffee is extremely complicated. To judge by advertisements of a depressed and exhausted Tommy Lee Jones backed up against a wall and cajoled into holding a can of "Boss" coffee and the iconic jar of "Creap" coffee creamer in every staffroom, it would be easy to assume that Japan's approach to coffee consumption is as twisted and misguided as the seaweed-corn-mayonaise-hotdog pizza from our neighborhood Dominos.




Unlike Korea or China, there are no "tea houses" for socializing on this island, no one brings their ipod or homework to a tea cermoney. Drinking matcha is a solitary and silent experience. In other words, for the coffee house experience in Sendai, you have to suck up your misgivings about corporate ethics and go inside a Starbucks.
Unless you know about Cafe Mozart, which makes Seattle's collection of self conscious hipster cafes look as authentic and pretentious as a Leonard Cohen cover sung by on American Idol.