On Cafe Experience: WABI SABI

If there’s any place that I wish I can go every day, a cafe it is. When I passed one with unique interior or another one with a tempting pancake poster in its entrance, I will mark the location in my mind, remind myself to browse about it later. Someday in a late afternoon, I will pay a visit to those cafes – enjoying a sip of coffee or a bite of sweets.

It was started when I was having my bachelor degree in Bandung. Lived in a city with lots of cute cafes and unique restaurants, I always happy to explored new food and new places. I even made a special excel sheet to recap all Bandung’s restaurants: those that I have visited and those that I wanted to visit, complete with the star ranking. I shared the excel with a friend who also loves to eat so that we could update each other. During my last year in college, I found myself often lingering in one particular cafe around my dorm, just because I like to work on my thesis with the existence of people around me. I especially love to work in a seat on the corner by the window. When I work I need to see some greeneries, if not a wide view of the room.

When I flew to Japan, I didn’t have any plan to hop on any particular cafe. Unlike one of my friend who loves to update anything that he eats as well as to browse any trending food around the world, I did not know what snacks is ‘in’ in Japan, which cafe selling what, and so forth. However, when I arrived in Kyoto, I fell in love with the city instantly. It’s like a Japanese version of Bandung – a compact city with lots of small cafes to be explored! However, unlike cafes in Bandung, most cafes in Kyoto have an exterior design that somehow makes me feel hesitant to enter. It looks like the place is closed, even tough it is actually open. Maybe it’s because they use a dim light, so the place looks dark. Maybe because the Japanese closed exterior design. Whatever it is, it made me decide that when I try a cafe I should bring friends with me.

Having friends who love to eat as much as I do is my definition of happiness. In my second year in Kyoto, I found that Rika, Wina, and Muthi eat as much as I am, and they fancy eating in a cafe once in a while. Lucky me, I also have a boyfriend who loves to explore food and places, who share the love of the experience working on your thesis in a fancy and comfortable cafe. Of all my friends that love to eat, Muthi is the one with the most similar interest – we love to eat milky-chocolaty sweets, we love to explore food, we love cafes with a fancy interior. Do not want our money wasted only for a short happiness, I and Muthi then decided to join forces created something useful from our cafe experience. Taking my excel sheet to the next level, this time in Kyoto I do not only share a list of cafes and restaurants with friends: we blog about it.

WABI SABI born out of our willing to share our experience with other people – especially foreigners who either pay a short visit to Japan or living here for study or work – who want to try the experience of cafes and restaurants in Japan. Personally, I am tempted to inform a comfortable cafe where one can linger as long as they want – which often means there’s a need for good ambiance, good Wi-fi connection, and some electrical outlets. I believe there are people out there who sometimes wants to read, study, or work in a crowd like me. Other than the purpose of informing people, I guess I and Muthi are doing this food blogging because it combines things that we love: eating, exploring, and creating.

When writing this, I just came home from another new cafe that I visited. The same pattern repeated: the collided sounds of people chatting, the smell of coffee from the bar, the view of greeneries by the window. It was always a pleasure: to stay, to enjoy, to be in the moment. When the world seems like having a chaos, why don’t stop for a while? I think there’s a cafe around you should pay a visit. Why don’t check which one to go in WABI SABI? Have a nice cafe experience!

Love,