Serani Poji -- Yoru no Kissaten（夜の喫茶店）

 

I don't know of many cafés that were open late into the night during my time in the Tokyo area. Often was the case when some of those coffee shops made the transition past 5 or 6 pm into full-fledged bars.

For those anime fans, one good example is Rabbit House from the oh-so-moe franchise "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか）with the girls' hangout and part-time workplace which is folksy café by day and moody bar at night. The only place that I've been to in Japan that is like that is the Café de Crie chain although I'm sure that there are likely mom-and-pop shops that have that double role. Another place that I frequented in Ichigaya, Tokyo was the Museum Tea Room (unfortunately, closed down now) but that always stayed a tea room into the evenings. Mind you, the waitresses all dressed up like maids, years before the maid café became a huge pop cultural thing in Akihabara (and no, I didn't go all moe there).

This is just the thing to introduce pop unit Serani Poji's（セラニポージ）"Yoru no Kissaten" (Night Café). A track from their June 2004 album "Ochamekan"（オチャメカン）, it's got that shaki-shaki Latin feeling infused into some light Shibuya-kei, and perhaps there's even a hint of the City Pop of the 1970s thanks to one particular keyboard. "Yoru no Kissaten" may sound a little too fast-paced for the evening soundtrack within a coffeehouse, but it does come across as perfectly fine during a hot cuppa in the afternoon. I do miss those places from time to time because it's been quite a few years since I've been in one.