Description
Book SynopsisPart ethnography, part memoir, this book traces Japan's vibrant cafe society over one hundred and thirty years. It also traces Japan's coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day, as uniquely Japanese ways with coffee surface in Europe and America.
Trade Review"Required reading for coffee's true believers and industry insiders." -- Oliver Strand T: The New York Times Style Magazine "You'll find your eyes opened beyond the new and storied cafes you've heard of and into regional corners and paradoxical tastes." Serious Eats "A fascinating 130-year illumination of Japan's deeply rooted sipping culture." LA Weekly "This excellent book combines academic rigour with lively descriptions and compelling prose." Times Higher Education "Provides an engaging and often personal account of Japanese coffeehouses... Highly recommended." -- R. R. Wilk, Indiana University Choice "Merry White has whiled away many hours in cafes in Japan in her professional role as an anthropologist, and wishes to communicate the diversity and intimacy one can experience in them." Times Literary Supplement (TLS) "Perhaps this isn't really a review, more a recommendation - all I can really say is that I enjoyed it, and ... you'll probably enjoy this too." Jimseven "This book will certainly give you ... a lot of new knowledge and maybe a whole new perspective on Japanese culture." Yum "Coffee Life in Japan provides a novel and significant study on contemporary Japanese life." -- Willa Zhen, Culinary Institute of America Journal Of American-East Asian Relations "Wake up to the world of Coffee Life in Japan, a book brimming with surprising tidbits, astute observations, and stories from the heart... If you're a [coffee maniac], clearly Coffee Life in Japan is the must-have book for you." -- Kate Heyhoe Caffeine and You
Table of ContentsIllustrations Preface 1. Coffee in Public: Cafe's in Urban Japan 2. Japan's Cafe's: Coffee and the Counterintuitive 3. Modernity and the Passion Factory 4. Masters of Their Universes: Performing Perfection 5. Japan's Liquid Power 6. Making Coffee Japanese: Taste in the Contemporary Cafe' 7. Urban Public Culture: Webs, Grids, and Third Places in Japanese Cities 8. Knowing Your Place Appendix: Visits to Cafe's, an Unreliable Guide Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index
