HANABAR, a floral themed cafe and bar in Koenji, Tokyo, released two breathtaking new cream sodas on Friday which capture the sentimental feeling of summer transitioning to autumn. HANABAR opened in September 2017 as Japan's "first dried flower cafe." A sister store, gmgm, opened last year selling gorgeously gourmet doughnuts topped with dried flowers. Both stores as produced by Nana Yui, a dried flower artist.

Lavendel | ¥1,100

Coloured an eye-catching purple, this autumn-time cream soda is made with lavender, butterfly pea, and lime.

Aimatsurika | ¥1,100

A refreshing mix of jasmine, grapefruit, and lemon topped with sweet ice cream that has a citrus fruit aftertaste.   The flowers draped inside the ice are all elderflower which has high nutritional value.   Beat the Japanese heat this summer in Tokyo with one of these tantalising cream sodas.

gmgm released a new collection of "Cold Flower Doughnuts" on July 17 for the summer season which you need to scoop up to eat.

 

gmgm is a cosy cafe and doughnut shop in Koenji, Tokyo which serves beautiful doughnuts topped with edible flowers.

Scoopable "Cold Flower Doughnuts" - ¥450 (Before Tax)

Combined with refreshing summertime lemon jelly is a creamy panna cotta filled with lumps of fresh fruit. On the surface of the jelly is colourful and elegant seasonal edible flowers. The bottom layer is the super soft panna cotta which enjoys the richness of the fresh cream and the juiciness of the fruits.

SHARI is a restaurant located on the second floor of Mitsui Garden Hotel Ginza-gochome, a new hotel that opened on September 26 located within walking distance from Ginza Station and Higashi-Ginza Station. This restaurant serves authentic and fancy Japanese-style food as well as luxurious Kobe beef, gozen set meals, and much more. Ginza is known as the expensive, upmarket part of Tokyo, and when talking about small local restaurants there the pricing threshold tends to be rather high, but at SHARI customers can enjoy proper Japanese cuisine in a more casual manner and at a much more affordable price, with the typical set lunches starting at just ¥1,200. Sophisticated is the word that springs to mind upon entering this restaurant, as your eyes meet the gorgeous mix of wood on black. As well as table seats, they also have counter seats too, allowing for you to enjoy a little luxury on your own if you so wish. There is an additional restaurant inside the main restaurant itself that goes by the name Teppanyaki Mitaki, a tiny six-seater restaurant that serves Kobe beef, a type of wagyu beef and one of the top three beefs in Japan.

SHARI Gozen - ¥3,000 (Before Tax)

I ordered the SHARI Gozen which is served during lunchtime. This set comes with six small bowls, each filled with different colourful foods. It's a cute-looking set♡ There's lots of meat and fish included in the set. For meat, they have steak made with domestic beef. It's succulent and drizzled in a rich sauce that fills your mouth deliciously with a single bite. With the sashimi, the restaurant makes sure to serve fish that's in reason. There were 3 types of fish so it was a very satisfying meal. The set can also be served with a variety of deep-fried foods, stewed foods, and cold fishes, as well as rice, miso soup, desserts and more. No matter what you order you can rest assured you'll be full afterwards.   SHARI is a chic and stylish restaurant with great food, plus it's located in Ginza. And you can enjoy all of this at a super low price!

Lady's Gozen - ¥2,600 (Before Tax)

I have to recommend the Lady's Gozen if you're looking to enjoy fish and vegetables. It comes with two varieties of sashimi and one fried fish, all in season, as well as an assortment of fried food, savoury egg custard, and four side dishes. It also comes with rice and sushi rolls as well as a dessert like the SHARI Gozen. The whole dinner menu is lined with Japanese food, including sashimi, tempura, fried food and more. There's also various courses, including the Teppanyaki Mitaki course which is priced from ¥12,000. It comes with Kobe beef of course in addition to various other high quality ingredients.

Shu - ¥1,000 (Before Tax)

I also recommend this Japanese-style cocktail for those thinking of staying late. It's inspired by the colours used in kabuki theatre―a Bloody Mary combining shichimi, nihonshu, and tomato juice. The rim of the glass is lined with more shichmi for a spicy and refreshing kick when you sip. Check out the cute glass it comes in too.   From affordable lunches to dinner courses made with top quality ingredients, SHARI can be enjoyed throughout the entire day with its diverse menu line-up. Be sure to pay a visit to tuck into authentic Japanese cuisine in the luxury district of Ginza.     Writer: Sayuri Mizuno (MOSHI MOSHI NIPPON)Translator: Joshua Kitosi-Isanga

Rinko Murata loves all types of curry. In this edition of Tokyo Dinner, she invites the person she wants to meet up with the most to eat the curry she’s been wanting to eat the most.   This month’s notable restaurant she stopped by was HEIJITSU HIRU DAKE in Kōenji, Tokyo. Their curry portions are generous and are good for the stomach and satiety center. They serve a curry flavoured with Japanese dashi, or ‘stock.’   How do you spend your early afternoons when you have time off? Lounging around at home with quality time to yourself sounds like a good plan. Definitely appealing.   But this is a rare opportunity. How about going on a little adventure to try something you can get a kick out of because it’s midday and a weekday?   I know the perfect curry house for your hungry selves. HEIJITSU HIRU DAKE.   As the Japanese name suggests, it’s a curry that can only be eaten at lunchtime, a mysterious dish that doesn’t appear on regular days off.   I land in Kōenji, a place I love the most. Even though iKōenji is Kōenji, the closest station to the restaurant is Higashi-Kōenji Station. My vision is filled with all kinds of sights. It’s like being lost in a treasure chest. This place is actually normally a café and goes by the name Schwarze Katze. It’s open mainly on Friday night, weekends and holidays. “HEIJITSU HIRU DAKE” runs in a rented room in the café and and is open when the café is. It’s kind of luxurious to have the chance to eat my favourite food (curry!) in a place like this. My heart desires the Wadashi Soboro Curry (¥980) that I mentioned earlier. It also comes with self-service coffee for after your meal. For toppings you can choose whatever you like. Since I was there and didn’t want to get lost on what to pick, I went for all the toppings (¥300). The water I ordered comes in a plastic bottle. The tables have antique displays. Everything on them was wonderful. The air was clad in that rich, familiar scent of curry, a special one that I would never get to eat had I not come here. The instant I hold the curry in my mouth the delicious flavour of the dashi sparks in my mouth like fireworks. The broth has a slight thickness to it and a strong, deep flavour that fades into a soft aftertaste on the tip of your tongue. It’s not at all spicy, and the goodness of the dashi is luxurious like being escorted by a gentleman. And I can’t forget the smell. My taste buds throb at this new sensation. Like its name suggests, this is a dish where the Japanese dashi stands out above the ingredient crowd. The restaurant owner has gathered much experience in the kitchen from traditional Japanese cuisine to sushi, ramen, yakiniku, izakaya style and so on. He encountered this place by chance, and with one look he said to himself, “I want to try doing curry.” The Wadashi Soboro Curry came about through his gained culinary experience combined with the aesthetics of the café. To bring out the full flavour of the dashi so it isn’t drowned out by the curry spices, the owner uses two types of skipjack tuna, kombu, dark sleeper, and dried sea slug, as well as a type of soy sauce called Kaeshi. 15 more ingredients are blended together to create the spices, creating deep and delicate flavours. Now it’s time for a session with the mountain of ingredients I greedily asked for. It’s enshrined with classics like meat soboro, beefsteak, agedama, bonito flakes, and dried plum in addition to pickled daikon radish, crushed natto, Japanese ginger, and okra. The spinach and onsen tamago egg sit at the foot of the mountain and create a new culinary sight. The base of the dashi is mobilized with a force of Japanese ingredients with a smell and flavour and that comes together harmoniously in your mouth. I’m spellbound by the flavours that stand out coupled with the pleasant textures of the agedama, daikon and ginger. Hey, I must have hit every ingredient in there. All correct.   I added a sprinkle of pepper that was on the table and create yet another refreshing aromatic veil. The compatibility of the pepper with the dish works so well precisely because it uses a Japanese dashi. Wadashi, or Japanese broth, is a staple of Japanese cuisine. The curry and Japanese soul carved into this dish resonates with me. It’s my first time eating it, yet I’m still filled with a sort of nostalgia―a warm embrace. I also understand why when the shop opens, the customers in the café stand up and change with the next line of customers. The owner has a wonderful sensitivity, and has worked out a way to put his own matchless warmth into each and every bowl. I caught sight of his gentle smile as he was cooking in the kitchen. It left an impression on me. What a delicious curry to enjoy in such a wonderful place. All five of my senses have reached peak happiness. I grab my post-meal coffee and head onto the streets of Kōenji. What a wonderful weekday afternoon.   Text:Rinko Murata Photo:Kayo Sekiguchi Edit:Miiki Sugita Translator: Joshua Kitosi-Isanga

“A café that has continued to be loved for 60 years”   In this entry to my café series, I visited the familiar Yurakucho, the center of modern Tokyo culture. This year, long-standing café Benisica turned 61-years-old. I stopped by to have my fill of their amazing pizza toast. The café is a 2-minute walk from Hibiya Station via Tokyo Metro lines, and 4-minutes on foot from Yurakucho Station via JR lines, making it an easy place to get to.   The café opened all those years ago in response to the large number of cinemas and theatres dotted around Yurakucho. They wanted to create place where people could relax on their way back from seeing a show.   Upon arrival, you can still observe stylish older ladies strolling into the café. The scene hasn’t changed one bit which I found to be wonderful.   Café Benisica is famous for being the birthplace of original pizza toast. They even have a sign at the entrance telling you that! Eye-catching!!!   Without further ado, let’s head on in♪   I take one step into the café, and... Huh? What’s this?!   That’s right. At Benisica, you can enjoy vacuum brewed coffee. This was the first time I had seen a vacuum coffee maker up close, so I gazed at them with a keen interest.   Inside, I gazed at the café décor and objects scattered around of Hibiya, a town which changes with the times. You can feel the weight of the times instore – all the wonderful items look stylish simply by being placed in there! The café interior is a collection of warm colours. It’s a place where you can relax and feel comfortable.   This is Benisica’s famous pizza toast, costing ￥950 (tax included). They have plenty of set menus, and drink menus are ￥1,350. The story behind the pizza toast was how if you didn’t go to an Italian restaurant back then, you couldn’t eat pizza. So, they took pizza and turned it into something you can eat casually – toast. Since then, it has continued to be a much-loved menu item with customers for almost half a century.     After hearing the story, I took no time at all ordering my own pizza toast! To drink, I chose a strawberry shake. Just so you know, the shake doesn’t come in set orders, so be careful.   Thick servings of cheese and put onto chunky slices of toast. “The soul of the pizza toast is in the cheese!” is what you’ll be saying at its presence on the toast. Its generous serving makes this pizza toast suitable not just as a light meal, but even a whole lunch. As well as the standard ingredients like salami, onion and bell peppers, I was happy that there were mushrooms too.   The bread’s texture is fluffy! I was hungry, so I made short work of it. Thank you for the meal.   This is the owner of Benisica, Setsuko Murakami, who told me the story of the café. She’s a very wonderful person who loves her husband very much. Not only did she tell me about the café – I got to hear about her husband’s way of living and thoughts too. The words of people that have walked the road of life longer than me are deep and enlightening.   I stored the owner’s story safely onto the shelves in my heart. The next time something happens, I’ll rely on those special words she graciously taught me and work hard.      

"Good service, a jolly owner and cute cats – this café is sure to heal you!"   I’m Ema Tanioku and today I’ll be introducing you to yet another café in Tokyo as the fourth edition of my series "The café that you want to visit to see someone". Today I’ll be reporting about my visit to Café Arles which can be found at Shinjuku-sanchome. Ever since hearing that there were cats at this café, I’ve been set on going 〜♪♪   The café is very easy to access. To get to there, you can take the Toei Shinjuku line to Shinjuku-sanchome. From here, you can get to the café within a five-minute walk. Walking around the Shinjuku Suehirote theatre, the café soon came into sight. Somehow, I could sense the presence of cats just from the atmosphere... There it was! The entrance to the café was decorated with many ornaments of cats and dogs. I don’ know why but I was filled with excitement before even having entered. As soon as I entered, I immediately spotted a cat. I was then greeted by the cat’s master who had a sweeping grin across his face and was wearing a hat with a cat broach. I could really feel his love for cats ♪♪ I took a sweeping glance over the café – cats, cats and more cats - there were so many cat-themed goods everywhere! Apart from cats goods, the master also collects clown goods and displayed everything all huddled together to decorate the café. Although this was my first time at Café Arles, I immediately felt right at home as a warm feeling grew within me. I asked the master what got him into the café business and I was surprised by his response. It all started when the master was working at a mahjong parlour, where a person they knew asked them to start up a café. The master then thought about the numerous paintings he had collected and how he was in search of a place to display them. The idea of choosing his own music, menu and decorating a café interior to his own taste really struck a chord with him. There are many paintings displayed in the café. Amongst these are some by modern artist Tomomi Kondo, who made the paintings “please your master” and “cool your thighs”, which feature the kaban neko (café cats) Ishimatsu and Jirocho, who are “working hard” by lazing around. Café Arles is fun and draws in even more fun. The atmosphere is filled with the love and enjoyment of the customers. That’s why I immediately felt so at home as soon as I entered. You can easily spend a long time here. I asked the master what he recommends from his menu. His response? “My recommendation is what you want to eat the most!” he said wisely. I felt like eating Napolitan spaghetti and so that is what I ordered! (Price: ￥720 including tax) It came with banana and giant corn ❤ – this excellent service made me so happy! The gentle flavour of this homemade dish was delicious and I could really taste the Showa-retro Napolitan flavour to it. The drink, soup and salad services available gives this meal a perfect score for portion size satisfaction! The master allowed me to take his café cat Jirocho-kun out for a walk. This was the first time I'd ever walked a cat – a new, fresh experience! Jirocho-kun is a very calm and obedient cat, so we had a lovely stroll together. Speaking of which, Jirocho-kun loves his owner so much that he runs to meet him whenever he hears his car pull up at the shop. This year marks the 40^th anniversary of the café. “I enjoyed every minute of it” explained the master happily. The master created a place where everyone can be happy and in return everyone supports him. Perhaps this cycle is the motivational force that has kept and will continue to push this café to live and thrive.   I’m glad I came to this café today and met such a special person. I want to come here again and have another chat with the master!