I revisited many of my old haunts on this trip to Tokyo, and one of the most lovely was the Tide Pool Cafe in Kichijoji. It’s a bit out of the way on the path leading to the park, but I have fond memories of sitting there with a glass full of icecream doing my translation homework. This visit was a great reminder of why I loved this place so much – it was another warm day and we stopped in for icecream and to get out of the sun for a bit. The ladies explained the three icecream flavours and we picked two to try – vanilla and cafe au lait. They were both beautifully presented in glass teacups, with fresh strawberries on the vanilla and a huge dollop of whipped cream on top of both serves. The vanilla was surely made from buttermilk – the flavour was so rich, creamy and genuinely vanilla, not essence or imitation. Similarly, the cafe au lait had a gentler coffee flavour, as would be expected, but was incredibly refreshing and not sickly sweet. The ladies kindly lent us fans to cool down and were very welcoming of hot and bothered tourists, just as they were of an intrepid student all those years ago.
Tide Pool Cafe, F&W Building, Musashino, Kichijoji, Tokyo Japan, no website
