Café Expedition XII

www.cafenoinah.com 
hamburger steak bagel 700¥

Café Noinah. Interesting place with kind of South American vibe. Nice cozy atmosphere and good food. This place is located in norht west Kyoto, an area I haven't spent so much time in so it was interesting to discover new places in this area.

Café Expedition XI

www.blow-works.com/near 
hazelnut flawored milk 500¥
caramel icecream 350¥
lotus root chips 400¥
salmon avocado salad 650¥


Café dining Near. Cozy underground space with a gallery. Once again we startesd with the sweets, and after few hours continued with a proper lunch. This was also an ideal place for lazy working and just spending the rainy day.

The food here was actually quite nice, and I had plenty since Linn made sad mistake with her order and well, I ended up eating her dish too. But over all nice place near us so maybe we will end up there again.

Sunday Café Expedition X

www.secondhouse.co.jp 
Almond cake 420¥
Mango tapioka pudding 380¥
blueberry creamcheese cake 400¥

Second House café. These Sunday café expeditions are really starting to be more like Wednsdays expeditions. This time the place was all about cakes, and I can still remember the face of the waitress when I ordered three cakes at once. The café also has an open kitchen so you can see when the cakes are being made. With Nina, Linn, Mew and Phu we spent almost six hours in this café so it's kind of a record for us. Well the heavy rain outside also had something to do with it. The mango tapioka pudding was great!

Sunday Café Expedition IX

www.madoi-co.com/food/bon-boncafe 
Beef stake with black pepper 900¥
Lemon squash 350¥

Bon Bon café. This was the first time we tried this café located very near to us. Great "old days" atmosphere and nice furnishing. Once again we went to the café a bit late so we ordered some dinner. The dishes were a bit small to be a proper dinner but the taste was good and simple. The drink list was actually very cheap which means this would be an ideal place for a cup of coffee (or in my case something else) and just enjoy the nice atmosphere with a good book or a friend. Also the girl working there was really cute.  

Sunday Café Expedition VIII

www.tamayuran.jp 
Hot chocolate 500¥
parfait with berries 450¥

Tamayuran cat café. Busy times with a lot of school work, so last weeks "Sunday" café actually happened on this Wednsday. We went to a small cat café, or more like a café with cats, since in this place there is no enterance fee and the cats are more relaxed.

This was my first time to visit a café with cats. It is funny to drink and eat while having a huge orange cat on your lap. The place had a home made atmosphere, good parfaits and cocoa and we saw four different cats, even though most of them were kind of hiding upstairs, where the owner might be living. Nice experience.

Sunday Café Expedition VII

www.sarasan2.exblog.jp 
Ginger ale with mango syrup 550¥
Caramel cheese cake 470¥

Sarasa Nishijin. For me this place isn't a new discovery, but still on top of my lists. The place used to be a public bath house, but it has been renovated to serve as a café. The original tiling and other elements left from the previous purpose makes the atmosphere really strong and interesting. Their cake and drink selection is quite wide (and good!) and the prices aren't that high. Perfct combination of interesting surroundings, delicious cakes and good atmosphere.

This place goes well with the Funaoka bath house near by. This Sunday we walked more than 13km at Kurama and Kibune and after that nothing felt more relaxing than good bath and café.  

Sunday Café Expedition VI

www.traction-bookcafe.com
Citrus and yougurt parfrait 800¥
Caramel milk 530¥

Traction - Book Café. This place is one of the popular book cafés in Kyoto, and since we wanted to do some studying we went there. Design furniture, old books and magazines, inclusive menu and very quiet atmosphere. Even though everything tasted very good, the price is a bit expensive. The interior was not so interesting or memorable but the biggest turn off was the service. Maybe the waiter had a bad day or then he's just not that polite, but overall he made us kind of feel bad about the place so we changed to a Kissamaster, a very nice café near Sanjo with nice view to a inside garden.

Sunday Café Expedition V

www.goethe.de 
Chocolate cake 500¥
Mango juice 500 ¥

Café Müller inside the Goethe-Institute. This German-Japan mixture felt actually almost too "Finnish" to call it a great new experience (unlike some of the other expeditions have been). The outdoor deck was nice with the garden, but the mosquitos were in aggressive mood. Over all this place was okay and the staff was very friendly, but a bit too ordinary. The furniture, tableware and architecture reminds a lot of cafés in Finnish museums, libraries ect, so only the Japanese customars and staff was an interesting twist. The big painting on the back was also good.

Sunday Café Expedition IV

www.awomb.com 
Japanese umeboshi soda 650¥

A Womb. What a cool place! The architecture and minimalistic style would fit perfectly to Naoshima, but lucky for us it is here in Kyoto. Of course it is a bit expencive for everyday use but as an experience it is deffinitely worth it. The long window to the moss garden is simply beautiful and before we noticed, two hours had passed by.

I really enjoy discovering these hidden gems in Kyoto. It also makes the otherwise boring Sundays feel a lot more fun (Even though this week we did our trip on Monday, since it is a national holiday here).

Sunday Café Expedition III

www.boogaloocafe.co.jp 
Tomato bacon pasta 850¥

Boogaloo. The weeks go by so fast! This Sunday was so sunny and great that we went to the café a bit later than usually - after spending the day at riverside enjoying the feeling of doing nothing. 

In the café we actually were already quite hungry so insted of the normal coffee and cake we tried the dinner menu and the food was good! It would have been great to have a hot chocolate but this they didn't have.

The dim lighting and playfull mixture of design chairs (+ Ikea haha) works better in this open space when it gets darker outdoors. In that dark mood the place is very cosy and it is easy to forget yourself there for hours.

Sunday Café Expedition II

www.prinz.jp 
Chocolate cake 500¥
Hot chocolate 600¥

Prinz. New week new discovery. Prinz is combination of café, restaurant, hotel, two galleries, library and cd/bookshop. Super cozy place with strong Japanese atmosphere. When it gets a bit warmer it must be very nice to enjoy the garden with outdoor tables and music playing on the background.

It is nice to find new great places for working, sketching and studying while chatting with friends - or coming alone and taking a look of the design and photography books they have. Also next time we have to try the food in this place.

Sunday Café Expedition I

"Sunday Café Expedition" is a thing we came up with some friends last week. Basically the idea is to find cool cafés here in Kyoto, places we have or haven't been before but places we want to try.

For this first time we ended up in pretty minimalistic Coa Café. The whole space is one long "house form" tube with Scandinavian vibe and colour palette - using white, black and warm wood.

I'm actually pretty exited about these expeditions even though I don't really drink or like coffee. Luckily there are also other stuff to have and I never say no to a good cake.

Lets see where we go next.