niigata’s coffee and cobblestones: a screen you don’t get on google maps
i was in niigata last week and i swear the coffee there is better than my local spot in tokyo. don’t get me wrong, tokyo’s got its moments but niigata… the way they roast beans? it’s like they were instructions from a japanese tea master or something. i ordered anAffogato at this little shop down by the river and the barista just nodded like i’d asked for water. maybe they were trying to impress me or maybe they thought i was a regular but i’m not. i’m not a regular anywhere.
the weather was this weird squelch of 19.97 degrees. not too hot, not too cold, but it felt like the air was holding its breath. i checked an app and it said exactly that. hope you like it. i didn’t. i sweated through my flannel. anyway, the humidity was 18% which is basically a philosophical crisis. is it nice? is it dry? is it a metaphor for something? i don’t know. i just washed my face with lukewarm water from a public fountain and called it a day.
neighbors? well if you get bored, matsushima is just a short drive away. ride the coast and you’ll see fishermen hauling nets that probably dating back to the edo period. someone told me that about it. don’t quote me. i heard a drunk guy shouting about crab sushi at a bar last night. that’s a reliable source. i also passed a groups of old men shouting into walkie-talkies near a shrine. maybe they were calling dibs on the last onsen? idk. i don’t ask.
i heard that the onsens in hokuhan are overhyped. someone swore by it. another person said it smells like old socks. i’m the third person. that’s reliability. i also heard that the best ramen here is in a place called ‘the underground spot’ but the owner charges more for a bowl than my monthly coffee subscription. another local said it’s cleaner than most, which is ironic considering the city’s reputation. i’m not sure which to believe. probably the one with the sock smell.
let’s talk about the coffee again. there’s this place called ‘black thrift’ on yelp. i didn’t check the reviews. why would i? yelp’s reviews are all 5 stars or this screaming ‘NEVER AGAIN’ in all caps. tripadvisor says ‘black thrift’ is ‘underrated’ but the address doesn’t match the map. weird. i trust no one. i went anyway. the coffee was good. not great, but good. the latte art looked like it was drawn by a sleep-deprived artist. which is exactly what i am.
i grabbed some images from unsplash to show you the vibe.
there’s a map here if you want to pretend you’re here.
it’s not perfect. i couldn’t figure out why the scale is off. maybe it’s lying. maybe i am.
i’m not a professional anything. i don’t care. i’m just here to drink coffee and take bad photos of things that look like they’ve been in a time loop. if you’re reading this, you’re probably also lost. good. we’ll figure it out together. or separately. idk.
somewhere in this post, i broke the rules. probably. i used a random number in a metaphor. it was 96966. what does that mean? maybe nothing. maybe it’s the zip code of the universe. who knows. i’m just writing this on a broken keyboard. maybe you should too.
p.s. if you’re hungry, check out the local markets. someone told me that the freshest produce is at a place called ‘the red tent’ but the signs are all in kanji and i don’t speak kanji. i used google translate. i’m 40% sure it said ‘spicy peppers’ but i don’t know. i think i smelled them instead.
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