Even Without Cute Latte Art

After dropping my daughters off at their nursery school for the adjustment period, I was sipping a Komeda Blend on a plush sofa at Komeda's Coffee. In the shop, I could hear the cheerful conversations of women sitting in the booth seats by the window.

As I listened to their music-like chatter and felt the aroma of coffee drifting through the shop, I was reminded of the time I used to frequent Shin-Okubo over ten years ago.

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If I posted on my phone, 'Is anyone going to Shin-Okubo today??', someone would always reply, 'I'm going!' I would head out to Shin-Okubo with friends who loved K-POP. It was my only joy at the time.

We would meet at the FamilyMart in front of the station and usually head to a cafe where handsome Korean men worked. There was a first branch, a second, a third, and by the end, there was even a fourth branch. Women would go into the shops where their personal favorites worked.

We always just went into whichever shop we could get into at the time. The menu featured bingsu—what we call shaved ice in Japan—as well as waffles and latte art where the handsome staff would draw cute pictures or write messages. The taste was good, but it was more about the fun atmosphere.

It wasn't just a place for women to enjoy coffee. It was a special place where you could gaze at handsome men while drinking coffee. Women who had dressed up more than usual would take photos with the staff, or enjoy desserts while squealing with delight, using the handsome men as eye candy.

Everyone dreamed of becoming a regular and getting to know the staff, because the staff were idols to the female customers. Excuse me, there were also people among them who were simply enjoying the coffee and desserts.

I didn't have a particular favorite, but I couldn't help but be captivated by the smooth, white skin and tall, slender Korean men. I suppose this is what they mean by eye candy.

Once, when I brought a senior colleague from my apparel days, she said to me, 'Hey, you have the most lively look on your face I've ever seen.' The synergistic effect of handsome men and coffee brought even women exhausted from work back to life.

Because I went about once a week, even someone as socially awkward as me managed to get to know the staff. It started when I followed the staff member who seemed the kindest on Twitter at the time.

A message arrived from the staff member right away. 'Oh! You come to the shop a lot, don't you? I know you.' Oh no. I had forgotten that I was using a purikura photo as my icon at the time. Even with heavy, intense editing, I'm surprised he recognized me.

When I asked, he said he remembered me because I looked like a friend of his in Korea. You probably imagined I was a Korean beauty, right?

Let me say this now: I am not that kind of Korean beauty. And to put your mind at ease, I'm not a beauty at all. Because the face of the woman he showed me saying, 'See? You look just like her,' didn't look like me at all.

Still, I was genuinely happy to have made a Korean acquaintance. And at that shop, getting to know the staff and having them write messages on your latte was like a status symbol back then.

It reminded me of the cheerful girls in junior high who would get close to the older boys and giggle. It was a strange sense of superiority, as if I were finally living out the youth I had always admired.

I feel like I could write another whole episode about this Korean guy, so I'll save that for another time.

When the Korean boom had settled down a bit and I walked through Shin-Okubo after a long time, those cafes from the first to the fourth branch had all become different shops. It made me feel quite lonely to see things that were once there disappear.

I'm sure the women who frequented those places have found other fun things and are living their lives there now.

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The scent of coffee reminds me of those heart-fluttering memories and the excitement I felt when I opened the doors to that shop.

I am currently at Komeda's Coffee, drinking black coffee that I couldn't drink back then. There is no cute art, and there are no idols known as handsome staff members in the shop, but I feel comforted right now.

Even if there were a trendy cafe next door, I would still choose this plush red sofa.

For a body exhausted from raising children, these complimentary beans are just right, more so than a cutely decorated waffle.