A visit to Cafe Pause in Ikebukoro
Jean Snow (the hardest working blogger in Tokyo) has written quite a bit about Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro. (see his postings at MoCo Tokyo, at Gridskipper, and at his site), and I’ve been wanting for some time now to visit it. So today I stopped by to check it for myself.
Ikebukuro (where Cafe Pause is located) is not known as one of the hipper places in Tokyo, and isn’t a place that most people find themselves having a lot of reasons to visit (unless they happen to live close by). In fact, for me personally — despite the fact that I live not too far away from Ikebukuro (in Shinjuku, only 4 stops from Ikebukuro on the Yamanote loop line) — the only reason I can remember for wanting to go to Ikebukuro any time recently was just to visit Cafe Pause.
Anyway, I’m glad I made the trip out here today. The walk to Cafe Pause from the Ikebukuro JR station takes less than 10 minutes. And it’s not too hard to find because once you get nearby, you can pretty easily spot the big lighted “Cafe” sign outside (see the photo). Inside it’s basically one big room that seats maybe 25 or 30 people (to get a better idea of what it’s like, see Jean’s photos at Gridskipper and at at his own site). It has windows on two sides that run the whole length of the walls, so that you can watch the foot traffic outside as you sip your tea/beer/wine. The spot where I was sitting has a view that was kind of nice, looking down a sidestreet towards what looks like it might be part of a temple or shrine.
Internet friendly
As a Net vagabond, one of the things that makes Cafe Pause comfortable to me is its Internet friendliness. It’s not just that they have WiFi access (which, kudos to them, they even note prominently on their home page), but they also have electrical outlets. Ones that they’re happy to let you use. So if want to hook into the Net from there, you’re not limited just to staying only as long as your laptop or notebook battery might hold out. Bring an AC adapter and hang out as long as you like. Or bring your keitai charger and charge up your keitai while you’re there. At most supposedly Net-hip cafes in Shibuya, if you have the gall to ask the staff if you can plug your laptop or notebook into their AC, you get at best a “We’re very sorry but…” mock apology, or at worst a reaction of genuine suprise that you would even think to ask such a thing.
As far as the Wifi, if found two open and unencrypted WiFi access points there when I checked — one with a “YBBUser” (Yahoo BB) ESSID (which I think may be the official one that Cafe Pause provides), and one with a “livedoor-free” ESSID. Though the Yahoo BB one is slower (11Mbps) than the Livedoor one (54Mbps), the Livedoor one appears to require that you have a Livedoor account to use it. Which I don’t, and don’t want, so I didn’t bother. And really, 11Mbps is fine for remote use at a cafe (or for most other uses, for that matter). I had no problems at all logging into or using the Yahoo BB access point.
Staff, food, drink, atmosphere
Cafe Pause has a full drink menu — ranging from lemonade, “lemon cola”, “triple berry soda” and a variety of tea and coffee drinks, to beer, wine, and cocktails (including some of their own original cocktails, with names like “May”, “Lily”, “Jun”, “Teany”, and “Florent”). The food menu is more limited, but they did have a couple of “light meal of the day” choices (today, a soup one and a sandwich one) and three kinds of toast sets, as well as an assortment of side dishes (otsumami), snacks, and cakes and sweets.
The menu I ordered from was Japanese-only and I’m not sure whether much of the staff speaks English or not (we spoke in Japanese). But they were friendly and accommodating, so I reckon that even if you don’t speak or read Japanese well, they’ll do what they can to help you with food and drink ordering and making you feel comfortable.
As far as the atmosphere: The music while I was there was listenable, cafe-style down-tempo stuff — nothing too unusual or attention-getting, but then again, nothing annoying either. The lighting in the daytime is really nice — mostly just natural light coming in through the big windows. In the evening, they keep the lights down pretty low, so it’s also real nice then.
In a nutshell, I found Cafe Pause to be a comfortable, friendly place and plan to head back again soon. If you live around Ikebukuro, you really ought to stop by and check it out. If you do, I reckon you might like it enough to make it one of your regular hangouts. (By the way, there’s also an interesting stationary stored nearby, called Voxx, which Jean has also written up.) And even if you don’t normally come by Ikebukuro, perhaps you ought to make a special trip (as I did) just to check out Cafe Pause. Especially if you find yourself looking for a place free from the kind of uptight attitude you sometimes run into in cafes in Shibuya and its surrounding evirons.
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well, i’m glad that there are areas like ikebukuro in tokyo. while i like areas like harajuku and shibuya; i found them a wee bit pretentious. besides i’m too old for that kind of crap. i also like the ueno area and where i stay near minowa station where i stayed - ya theres aren’t many “cool” and “hip” places there, but they have a more home - like feel.
Any tips on net friendly places on the west side of Tokyo? I’d love to find a place to work from that’s not my home office, but can’t find a place with a decent atmosphere.