Monday 23 March 2009

Shinjuku's jazz coffee shops (cont.)

Most coffee shops close at 11 p.m. but the Village Gate stays open until 4 a.m., with coffee costing 200 yen after midnight. More informal than some of the others, with both an upstairs and downstairs, the Village Gate actually shelters some talkers as well as listeners and denotes a trend to take jazz without the same kind of reverence that exists in some of the earlier places. There's also a small food menu: roast beef sandwich, beef curry, toast or onigiri (a rice dish), each for 200 yen.
Village Gate has pretty chicks in polo sweaters, guys with their feet up, and others sprawled around. Also has big photomurals, including one of Jack Kennedy, in shorts and open knecked shirt sitting by an admiring Jackie beside the sea.
From Japan and Hong Kong on Five Dollars a Day (1965-66 Edition)

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 103.2km
Days left until departure: 55

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