TOKYO, July 10 (UPI) -- The wicker seats command a prime view of the fashionistas parading down the street, armed with their latest acquisitions from the neighboring boutiques.
The chairs are arranged in pairs, set in front of small, round marble-topped tables, all equipped with ashtrays. A dark red canopy shelters espresso drinkers on the sidewalk terrace from the summer sun.
It's like any other street cafe in Paris, and at Aux Bacchanales, the menu is typical French casual fare, from baguettes simply sandwiched with country ham and onion soup topped with bubbling gruyere cheese, to mushroom omelets with a dash of tarragon. And of course, patrons can wash it all down with a glass or two of reasonably priced red table wine.
But while the tables, chairs, arts-deco posters, and even the waiters' long white aprons are imported from France, this coffee shop cum bistro is a purely Japanese creation. And while many French expatriates appreciate a little taste of home in Omotesando, Tokyo's trendy shopping district, its main client base are the Japanese craving to recreate the experience they had whilst on holiday in France, or more often than not, dream of the country they have never been to.
"I love coming here and just relaxing...and it's a good place to meet people too," said Sayuri Takebayashi, a 26-year-old office clerk.
A demi-tasse of surprisingly good, strong espresso can be had for less than $4.20 (500 yen), a bargain compared to some of the smaller, more exclusive coffee shops that have traditionally attracted Japan's lounging class.
The open-air cafe culture had taken off about 15 years ago, as French coffee shops, department stores, and luxury brand companies rapidly expanded into the Japanese market.
Indeed, Les Deux Magots of Saint Germain des Pres, renowned as a favorite hangout of Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and other existentialist writers, has an outpost in central Tokyo. So too does Cafe de Flore, another popular Left Bank hangout amongst the French literati.
While Les Deux Magots in Tokyo is located at the basement of a building, and its cafe front doesn't offer much in terms of people watching as does Aux Bacchanales that faces a busy street, it boasts the exact same interior design as well as the same menu as the original shop in Paris. Here too, a cup of coffee goes for $4.20, while a glass of Beaujolais can be had from around $7.50 (900 yen), and cream-filled profiteroles are on offer for $6.70 (800 yen) a plate.
The cafe is actually found in a cultural center, which has a theater as well as cinema that specializes in foreign, especially French, films. So the bulk of Les Deux Magots' patrons are those coming from or going to a performance, and the cafe acts as a place for people to linger over the cultural experience.
One problem with enjoying the full effect of the Parisian cafe culture experience, though, is the Japanese reluctance to linger over a cup of coffee. While Sartre, Camus, and the other impoverished writers would have likely spent a goodly part of the day after purchasing one drink, Japanese customers today don't have the time or possibly the guts to hog up a seat for hours on end with only one cup of coffee.
"Customers stay on average for about 20 minutes per drink, I would say," said Hirotaka Yamane, a waiter at Les Deux Magots. "What would I do if someone stayed for four hours with only one coffee? Um, probably ask repeatedly whether they'd like something else."
But it's precisely the fine art of lounging that Parisians appear to have mastered that attracts the Japanese to the French coffee shops and more broadly, to French culture.
For while English is by far the most popular foreign language to learn, the Institut franco-japonais de Tokyo, the French government's cultural arm in Japan, reported that French is the second most popular language, particularly amongst women in their 20s and 30s. Indeed, nearly 60 percent of the school's student body fit into that demographic.
"I need to learn English for practical reasons...but culturally, it's limited, especially looking at America," said Masumi Amaha, a 31-year-old office worker who takes intermediate-level French lessons once a week at the Institut.
"Learning French opens your mind to a different culture, a way of life that we can't find here," Amaha said. She added that one of her favorite things about the school was its on-site cafe, which serves food and wine as well as hot drinks. Here, the wait staff are largely French students who are themselves in Japan to study. But whilst on the job, they are happy to speak in their native language to the Japanese eager to practice their French.
They are also more than willing to teach them about lingering over a single cup of coffee, usually accompanied by a few cigarettes.
Meanwhile, "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain", marketed simply as "Amelie" in the United States, was a box office hit in Japan too when released last year.
In fact, so popular has the film been with women under the age of 30, that cafes and travel agencies alike are taking advantage of the Amelie boom.
At Aux Bacchanales, customers can order an "Amelie" meal, replicated the teas and dinners the French waitress had on-screen. Meanwhile, travel agents HIS continues to offer package tours to Paris. For a minimum of $1,700 (198,000 yen), travelers can get a return ticket to Paris, six nights' accommodation at a Monmartre hotel, and to top it off, a meal at the Cafe des Deux Moulins, where Amelie supposedly worked.
"I think that's a wonderful plan. I just wish I could take enough time off from work to go on it," Amaha said.
(GoTo Shop is a biweekly musing on where or where not to spend one's hard-earned paycheck. If there is indeed an opposite and equal reaction for every action, then shopping is no exception. The fine art of shopping can be a political statement, a social manifestation, an economic triumph, or simply a dud decision on the part of the consumer.)
