avs Online

I just came back from Japan, where I've been for two weeks. It was really exciting and interesting - the stuff we saw ranged from cyberpunkish city scenes to calm bamboo groves, and from a-bombed buildings to JPOP music video filming. Speaking of cyberpunk, this video clip (AVI, 14 MB) shot in rainy Shinjuku evening cannot get much closer to Blade Runner's opening scene.

Amid light-sabre-wielding traffic wardens and rentacops, carefully manicured gardens, totally silent vehicles and television phones, there was one thing that really bugged me. Japan wins the Most Overkill Retail Packaging award hands down. A CD I bought was wrapped in two layers of clear plastic (the outer layer apparently protecting the stickers glued to the inner layer) and of course sold in a small plastic bag. Bread and pastries I bought from a bakery were individually wrapped in cellophane, taped shut, put into a plastic bag, which was then again taped shut. Bits of chewing gum were individually wrapped in aluminium. A bunch of chopsticks was taped over, wrapped in paper, wrapped in plastic, and put in a paper bag (however, they asked whether I wanted them wrapped even more). And to top all this, there are virtually no trash cans ("dust boxes", as they often call them) in the whole megacity. Probably they have been removed due to War on Terror.

Ok, enough of that. If you've been searching for a café anywhere else in the world than Finland (apparently), the chances are that you've visited Starbucks. Now, as Japan is completely infested with Starbucks branches, I decided to participate in the Starbucks Challenge. Basically it means that punters walk into a Starbucks, ask for Fair Trade coffee, and get blank stares back, and report their experiences in their blog.

I did not have too great expectations as I and most customer interface people I had met lacked a common language. Of course this is my fault: I should be able to speak the language of the host country, but I had only a ten-hour crash course in Japanese under my belt. Hence, I cannot really say whether I could have been successful the first time. However, I started the voice recorder of my mobile phone, and entered Shibuya Tsutaya Starbucks near the Centre Gai shopping street (21 Udagawachō, Shibuya). Our dialogue (transcribing from the audio file) went as follows:

ME

Ohayō gozaimasu.

BARISTA

Ohayō gozaimasu...

ME

Do you have Fair Trade coffee?

BARISTA

(Reaching forward to hear better) Aaa, Caffè Latte?

ME

Erm... Like, you have this Café Estima blend, are you brewing that now?

BARISTA

(Blank stare)

ME

Ok. (Deciding that the language barrier is too high to climb) Caffè Latte is ok.

BARISTA

Ok!

I got my unfair latte and cinnamon roll, and proceeded to walk upstairs. I noticed that this branch did not have packs of Café Estima on display even though I had seen it at another branch at Narita. However, they had a Japanese leaflet titled "Coffee CSR" which I picked up. And sure enough, there was the FLO Fairtrade logo, and a lot of kanji that of course made no sense to me.

A couple of days later, I decided to have another go. For reasons unknown I had ended up on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. The island ("reclaimed land") boasted a mind-numbing faux-Italian shopping complex complete with a ceiling that was painted to look like Mediterranean sky. Near the entrance was a Starbucks branch. So I entered Starbucks Palette Town Sun Walk (1 Aomi, Port of Tokyo), and what I saw was astonishing.

Not one, but two Starbucks Fairtrade labelled coffees! I had never before heard of Timor Lorosa'e, but Google tells me it's been originally an APAC thing (launched in Australia), and available in Europe as well. The coffee is coming from East Timor. If anyone can read Japanese, I would be interested to hear what the sign says.

Armed with the CSR leaflet I picked up earlier, I walked up to the counter.

ME

Can I have a cup of this Fairtrade coffee (pointing at the CSR leaflet) that you have?

BARISTA

(Reaching forward)

ME

Fair Trade Coffee. This one. Can I have a cup of that?

BARISTA

Just a second. (Runs off to fetch a laminated paper of some sort, which turns out to be a list of all the different coffee drinks and blends they have, complete with Fairtrade blends.)

ME

(At this time I notice that a pack of Timor Lorosa'e is being prominently displayed on the counter. Is that their Coffee of the Day/Week? Cannot tell. Too much kanji, too little English.)

BARISTA

(Pointing at the picture of the basic coffee drink) This coffee...

ME

(At this time I venture a guess that they really don't brew FT coffees, and she wants to sell me just regular coffee, so I ask) So you don't sell this by the cup, do you? You only sell the packs of coffee, or...?

BARISTA

Yes. Aa. Yes. Ok. (Pointing at both the regular coffee drink picture and the Café Estima picture.)

ME

Ok, you have it?

BARISTA

Ok.

ME

(Pointing at the pictures in succession) So this is made of this?

BARISTA

(Nods)

ME

So this one. I'll take that please.

BARISTA

Ok. Which size?

ME

Small, please.

I see her picking up a bag of coffee, and hear whirring sounds. She is probably going to french press me a cup! Or, wait... is she actually filling the whole drip coffee filter with Estima? Looks like it. And some minutes later, the barista arrives to my table with a steaming hot cup of coffee, saying "Café Estima blend, here you are".

Success!

Later on I visit a Starbucks branch in Roppongi, to see a large blackboard with hand-drawn FLO logos and a lot of text (again, in kanji and kana, so the content is beyond my comprehension). There was a large pile of packs of both Estima and Timor Lorosa'e, and I bought the latter just to give it a go back at home. I must admit that the Estima blend I drank was not very good; probably it is because I normally drink espresso-based coffees and drip coffee is just too bland and/or bitter to my taste nowadays.

Anyway, if you're going to Japan, I should mention that there is a good alternative to the Mermaid. There are a lot of bakery cafés, where you can first select from dozens of varieties of bread, buns and pastry, and then buy coffee at the back counter and sit down at the far end to dive into the weird bread you've found. (And notice that the green colour is actually green tea and all the pastries have been filled with red bean curd. This is Japan, after all.) Remember not to order take-away, or otherwise you will get each small bun individually suffocated in plastic.

(Footnote: I have cancelled my trip's carbon dioxide emissions through Climate Care.)