This morning I woke up and made a cup of coffee in the french press as usual. This has become, by far, my favorite way to brew coffee beans. Thanks to Japan's "tea culture", it's common to have boiled water on hand in an electric hot pot, so it doesn't take much time at all to prepare coffee this way. I put in one scoop of coarsely ground beans and fill with hot water, give it a quick stir and put the top on. 2 minutes later I give the plunger a push and the coffee is ready. This gives it a deeper flavor than drip coffee with a paper filter, but even more is the fact that you keep the essential oils from the bean in the coffee. I don't know how to express the difference except to say, imagine drinking chicken soup out of the pot or after putting it through a paper strainer; I think you'd want to get rid of the strainer in that case as well.Anyway, there was more thème français to come as the day went on. In the afternoon, J and I went to Shibuya (downtown neighborhood of Tokyo) where there is a 7 Floor Tower Records. The store was hosting an event for a French artist I happen to like this afternoon. Born in Senegal, but living in Paris, Tété sings folk rock-style with blues undertones. I actually had no idea he was in Japan this week. I was searching the internet, drinking my french press café, looking for when tickets to his concert in September would go on sale. To my surprise, at 3:00 he was giving a promo show.
Well, J and I already had plans to go to the Thai Festival downtown in Shibuya, but we cut that
short so we could make the promo show. Lunch at the Thai Festival was great and we had pad thai, green curry, spring rolls and papaya salad, not to mention a Phuket beer, which was all good. Then we stopped by the tsunami relief booth where my friend Kenji was volunteering. It was great to see Kenji and talk for a bit. I told him we were on our way to see Tété and he said he liked his music too, so maybe he'll come to the concert in September with us.Anyway, we trotted off to Tower Records and got there early enough to get Tété's latest CD so I could get it signed. Tété came out and played 2 songs acoustic, which was great. There was a huge crowd there, clearly more than anyone had expected. Everyone cheered and asked for one more song, and Tété was great and said okay and sang us another one. For the signing he had a translator so he could talk with his Japanese fans. He speaks English though, so when it was my turn I simply said "Thanks for coming out" and we shook hands. Anyway, here's a pic of Tété below during his promo show.
you can hear some of his songs at the link below:
Tété on MySpace
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