Cafe outing

This is a kangaroo cup! Unfortunately for this lefty, it
is a right-handed cup! But it still tasted delicious. I did
end up with a bit of a buzz from both the coffee and the
chocolate, though.

On Tuesday we took the boys on an outing downtown. Ten years ago . . . hey, even five, a holiday outing for our family would be to a park or a playground. Now, the outing we can get the most enthusiasm for is a cafe or restaurant! I didn't see that coming. Life has indeed taken on a different hue as we move deeper and deeper into teenage years.

18 months ago we discovered a cafe downtown called Max Brenner. Actually while we were in Australia we discovered that Chocolate Cafes were a thing, and a "thing" that our boys really enjoyed, so we went hunting for something similar in Tokyo. Max Brenner is what we found.

We also found this sort of outing is much more expensive than a trip to the local park! But this Christmas we'd been given a financial gift by a supporting church to spend on ourselves, so we figured this was one thing that we'd all enjoy.

It nearly went wrong because the first branch we went to was shut for the New Year. But thankfully another one, in a more popular shopping area, was open, and only a couple of train journeys away. Such is the joy of living in a large city with several sizeable CBD areas and a great transport system.

We enjoyed a chocolate fondue at around noon. It took this long to get everyone out of bed, travel an hour by train to the wrong cafe, travel to the right cafe, and then line up for a little while. It was so rich that hardly any lunch was needed after that (though we did stop at the local convenience store to top up teenage tummies). Outrageously delicious!

The sky is often a beautiful blue at this time of year.
Something we rarely see in other seasons. This was me
playing around with my phone while waiting for the
guys to top up.

I'm intrigued by the clever ways Japan incorporates seating into their urban landscapes. This is especially important when you consider that it isn't considered polite to walk along eating at the same time. This convenient "railing" was outside the convenience store on the busy, famous shopping street (Omotesando). We stopped for a short while while the two big boys ate a "small" snack for lunch. The rest of us were coping with a sugar/chocolate overdose and didn't eat anything till we got home an hour later, and then we only ate fruit and nuts.

Great memories!