October 1 is “Coffee Day,” it turns out. I have lived quite a while and never knew. According to the All Japan Coffee Association website, an international agreement makes October the start of the coffee year, so this day is the start of the coffee fiscal year. In Japan demand tends to rise as autumn deepens, and the season fits; Coffee Day was set in 1983.
Until yesterday I had been drinking only iced coffee, but this morning’s pre-work cup was hot. Steam rising, the aroma and bitterness spread in the mouth.
When did I start drinking coffee? In junior and senior high I put in sugar and milk; at university it became black. That was when Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee” was a hit. In a student-quarter café (there was a Garo song) I would smoke, read, refill, and linger for hours.
I admired the scene of Dylan singing to a lover?, “One more cup of coffee before I go.” Coffee before doing something, coffee when a stretch is done, coffee when sorting one’s head, coffee when calming the feelings.
Here at the Palaceside Building, tea rooms and cafés are plentiful. Please use them in your own rhythm.