Funabasiya Teahouse

This afternoon, T and I went to the Koyomi Funabasiya, which is a teahouse in the Japanese style. This is a place I’d wanted to go to for a long time. It’s right near our neighborhood, in the Hiroo area of Tokyo. T always teases me about my love for traditional Japanese and Korean sweets, what she calls grandma food, and this teahouse creates exceptional grandma food, in a relaxed, funky, quasi-traditional setting on two floors. Most places in Hiroo are peopled with non-Japanese, but this one was full of college-age women because it’s a stone’s throw away from the entrance of the citadel-like Sacred Heart Women’s University. From where we sat, we could look out the window at not only the university but also the temple near it.The desserts were about 700yen with another 200yen for a big bowl of green tea (which is about $8 total). You might balk at the price but the servings were uncommonly generous in a country where less is more. My dessert had seasonal ingredients like chestnuts and persimmon.

I’d recommend this place for intimate chats, writing poetry and reading love letters.