Thank you, Starbucks

I really like coffee. Most of you can probably come to that conclusion after reading blog after blog about a trip to the city. Every single day starts with a trip to Starbucks, and typically a mid-day visit later on. Unfortunately there are no coffee shops like Starbucks (or Seattle's Best or Doutor or any of those other chain brands) within a 30 mile radius of where we live. The closest thing that will give you coffee in a takeaway cup is McDonald's, and no offense, but McDonald's coffee is only good in an emergency. This is great for my wallet, but bad for my coffee cravings!

Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those people who needs coffee to fuction on a daily basis (although Bryn would probably argue otherwise!). I just really, really enjoy it and am a much happier person if I can have a nice cup of coffee at some point during my day. Of course they sell coffee in the grocery stores here, but it is either a no-name brand that tastes more like dirty water than anything else, or instant coffee which is pretty much the same times 500. It's okay in an emergency, but it doesn't satisfy my craving for something that smells and tastes nice and comforting.

If you look really closely, you can see that I am, in fact, standing in front of a Starbucks. It happens to also be my favorite Starbucks in the whole world (so far) with a prime location on the Kamo River in Kyoto.

My solution to the lack of quality coffee in Tango is to stock up on bags of beans from Starbucks whenever we go to the city. It is always our last quick stop before hopping on the train home - a quick pop into the Starbucks under Kyoto Station where I buy a couple bags and have them grind the beans since I don't have a grinder at home. This works great, and provides me with all the coffee I need until my next venture into the city.

At the Starbucks in Yokohama's China Town patiently waiting for Bryn to take the picture so I can start on my latte...

However occasionally there are weeks like this when I have run out of all of my Starbucks and don't have a trip planned in the foreseeable future. Oh my gawd, what am I going to do?!? I tried just drinking tea for a few days, and it's nice and all, but it's not the same as a nice, hot cup of yummy coffee. So, the other dayI broke down and got a bag of "Yokohama Bay Blend" from the "gourmet" foods shop in Omiya. I had really high hopes as I measured it out into the french press the other morning and patiently waited four minutes for it to brew. The damn stuff tasted like mud. Ugh. So NOT the way to start a Monday morning! I tried it again on Tuesday morning - much the same, and there is nothing worse than a bad cup of coffee if you ask me.

Yesterday was Tofu Tuesday, a silly thing Bryn and I are doing to mix things up every week. Since the start of the new year we have been trying to incorporate tofu into our dinner every Tuesday and have so far done pretty well (and even had some yummy meals!). I needed to stop at the store on my way home to get some tofu to put into the Korean soup mix we had bought over the weekend. Mine (the department store between where I work in Amino and our house in Nodagawa) has good tofu, so I stopped off there. As I walked into the supermarket section, out of the corner of my eye I spotted that familiar green mermaid logo I love so much. No way! I thought...there is no way on earth they would sell anything Starbucks way up here in the middle of nowhere. I looked again and sure enough there it was, my beloved Starbucks! It was only a small display, so not wanting to take any chances I threw a couple boxes into my basket...there's no telling how long they will continue to stock it.

I was SO excited to try my new found Starbucks this morning. It's not the regular bags, it's in Japan's form of semi-instant coffee. They use a cardboard apparatus to hold a makeshift filter filled with coffee grounds over your mug. Then, you pour hot water over it and it filters through making you one cup of coffee. I will admit that it isn't the same as brewing a cup of fresh coffee from a real bag of beans, but it is WAY better than the crap they call coffee otherwise.

Tah-dah!

So, long story short, I may have found a solution to my coffee-less time between city trips! I am thinking I will stop and stock up on some more soon before Mine stops selling it just to be sure. I don't want to find myself coffee-less on a Monday morning again!