The Airstream Garden, Tokyo

Coffee is about having an adventure.

Tokyo is one of our favourite cities in the world for simply wandering around and intentionally getting lost. For it’s hard to truly be lost when you don’t have a definite destination in mind, is it? Every place is a new discovery; every person you meet a fresh opportunity to connect. Everything is an experience.

And so it was one day, after lunch in Omotesando, when we were strolling in the back streets of Shibuya when we came upon quite a sight smack in between two otherwise nondescript buildings. It was a trailer, and not just any ordinary trailer but an American-made Airstream, glistening and retro-looking (though with everything being culled from the past, is anything truly retro these days?).

What’s more, it was also a café.

The Airstream Garden is indeed a coffee bar, albeit located inside a shiny caravan. Rather than gallivanting all over Japan, this camper van is permanently parked here though its distinctive, rounded body shape and well-polished aluminium finish recalls an earlier era. (Probably the 1930s when it was first designed, based in part on the creations of Hawley Bowlus, who was also responsible for Charles Lindbergh’s plane, hence the aeronautical lines.)

Here, besides espresso-based coffee, there are also hot pies (the chocolate pie and the honey sweet potato one are delish) and a daily bento lunch offering. Both beans and bites are prepared by Goost, a local caterer. Inside the trailer there are hangers on the white walls (it also doubles as a tiny photography studio); the wood theme continues from the floor and bar to the staggered wooden steps outside.

Have an adventure… without having to go anywhere at all.

遇上這家咖啡館是一個意外。
記得當天在表參道的一家餐館用完早午餐後，
我們漫無目地在小巷間穿梭，到處走走看看。
相比起名牌旗艦店林立的熱鬧大街，后巷這寧靜的宛如兩個世界。
而當我們走累了，正要離開表參道前往下一個目的地是時，
卻在兩棟建築物間意外的看到一輛Airstream 。

這有著復古的外型的Airstream小巴原來是一家咖啡館，就叫The Airstream Garden。
除了咖啡，這裡也有派餅和熱食，如果沒記錯的話它還是一個攝影工作室。
小巴內以白色為基調，配上木質桌椅和但大量的自然光，
雖然空間不大，卻不會讓人感覺擁擠不自在。
而小巴外頭也設置了一些座位，
天氣涼爽時坐在外頭那，來杯咖啡一份巧克力派，
無論是看書、工作，還是什麼都不做的放空一下，想來也都是一件樂事吧。