April in Paris -- Almost

It was a pretty low-energy day for me; I didn't stir from home until about 3 o'clock, and only because I was out of coffee, and if I weren't to rely upon supermarket coffee (not if I could possibly help it) I'd have go out to Kaldi Coffee Farm, their Italian Roast coffee being the closest thing to Peet's dark roasted coffee I've found around here -- and cheaper than Starbuck's, to boot.

While I was out, stopped by Shinjuku and the basements of some the department stores down there (Isetan and Mitsukoshi). Mitsukoshi, in particular, has completely revamped the area to creat a shopping space aimed at young women, a place they call "Alcott" (I'm assuming after the author of Little Women), among other things replacing the Cinnabon with a branch of New York's Doughnut Plant -- more upscale, don't you know.

What I found particularly striking while wanderng the aisles was how many French gourmat brands I saw represented there with kiosks/stores: Fauchon and Hediard, the competing Parisian gourmet groceries have areas to flog their tea, duck terrine, and truffles (real, hideously expensive truffles, not the chocolate kind). Marie-Ann Cantin, the famous cheese shop which I made a point of visiting while in Paris, has a stand in the basement of Isetan. Today, Istopped by for a little cheese and a taste of Paris.

If it's French and gourmet, you can get it Tokyo.