Japanese cafe #1

I came back temporarily to Japan and will be staying here over a month.
One of my hobbies is visiting cafes and I am looking forward to finding some new cafes during this staying.

Thus, I would like to talk about Japanese cafes.

Cafes in Japan have continued to grow in both number and variety.
When I was a child, cafes were not common yet and a place that you could have a cup of coffee was only "kissaten", which is an old-fashioned coffee shop.
My image of kissaten was that most of customers were older men, it smelled tobacco smoke, and darkish.

However, kissaten began to decline and European/American style cafes started to appear in 1990s.
At the beginning of cafe boom, some famous French or Italian restaurants opened cafes as their sister shops, and many women visited there to have delectable desserts.

Cafes that produced by famous designers were in the news as well and they got popular among fashion-conscious people.

Plus, some major apparel companies began to have their own cafes inside or next to their shops and people were getting to feel familiar to cafes.

In addition, I believe that the existence of Starbucks greatly influenced Japanese cafe boom.

I think that Starbucks has made people feel much familiar to cafes.

With the growth of cafes, the role of desserts has changed as well.

It used to be a kind of special event for Japanese people to eat a cake, but it became a common as people, especially women, began to order desserts with a cup of coffee/tea at a cafe.

I think that cafe boom is related to the development of desserts industry in Japan.

Now, European/American style cafes have been popular in Japan.
On the other hand, cafes which are unique in their location, size, and style are becoming mainstream when we call "cafe" recently.

I think that their style is not European nor American but very Japanese one.

Also, targeted people have been changing due to the diversification of style of cafes.

I would like to introduce some current Japanese cafes on next some entries.