Jazz & Coffee

I met Marefumi, who used to live in Seattle while going to the Art Institute. He was a regular at Wall of Sound, my record store at the time. He's been back in Tokyo since 2000. We had lunch and spent the day walking all over Ebisu to Shibuya stopping at shops that he knew, etc. Just after taking the top photo I noticed the big record and pictures of Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington across the street. I right away thought it might be the place a friend in Seattle had told me about (and that I should go to) where they play, from their jazz vinyl collection, great records and where she got "the best pastrami sandwich of her life". It was, we went up and perused the collection and Marefumi translated stories about the 30 year old "Kyokho's Volontaire" and how it may have to move soon... I found out later that the Jazz cafe is a recurring business theme in Japan and afficionados will go, sit at the small counter and just listen w/o talking.