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What helps you feel at home when more than one country has shaped who you are? For literary translator and Book Nerd Tokyo creator Yuki Tejima, one answer is coffee: her rituals across Japan and the United States show why everyday habits matter when home exists in more than one place.
Book Nerd Tokyo: https://www.booknerdtokyo.com/
Listen for:
- Japanese vs. American coffee culture
- What Tokyo kissaten reveal about Japanese coffee
- How hand-drip coffee rituals create familiarity across countries
- Why neighborhood cafes can strengthen belonging
- How coffee, books, and creative culture connect to place
How Do Coffee Rituals Create a Sense of Home Between Japan and the United States?
Coffee rituals can create continuity when more than one country feels like home. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima describes a life shaped by Japan and the United States: born in Tokyo, raised in Los Angeles from age four, then living in Okinawa, New York, and Tokyo again. Coffee entered her life in her twenties, first through Starbucks lattes and later through black coffee, hand-drip brewing, and neighborhood roasters.
Yuki’s Tokyo morning ritual is specific: she heats water, grinds beans, and uses a dark-blue ceramic dripper her husband brought home from a Japanese pottery town. She prefers darker, less acidic coffee and repeatedly found that coffees she loved came from Guatemala. She also buys a new bag before the current one runs low. A familiar routine can move between countries even when the culture around it changes.
What Are the Differences Between Japanese and American Coffee Culture?
Japanese and American coffee culture differ in serving style, cafe behavior, and expectations around space. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima compares American cafes, where customers often spread out with laptops and stay for hours, with Tokyo cafes that may limit visits to 90 minutes or two hours because tables need to turn over.
Traditional Japanese kissaten add another difference. Yuki describes retro coffee shops that may have operated for 70, 80, or 90 years, serving small cups of dark, rich coffee. After growing up with larger American servings, she initially found a roughly 600-yen kissaten coffee surprisingly small until she tasted how intense it was. Japan may label a lighter, larger style “American coffee.” The contrast shows that coffee culture is about more than beans. The same drink can reveal different ideas about public space, portion size, and how long people are expected to stay.
How Do Tokyo Coffee Shops and Historic Cafes Create a Sense of Belonging?
Tokyo coffee shops and historic cafes can make a large city feel personal by tying routines to specific streets, train lines, and histories. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima describes Horiguchi Coffee as a regular stop when she lived one station away and Woodberry Coffee Roasters as a favorite she could later reach on foot. The day before the interview, she worked at Blue Bottle Coffee before buying two bags of beans at Cafe Shozo in Aoyama.
Coffee also overlaps with Yuki’s relationship to books and creative history. In Kyoto, she once felt too intimidated to enter Rokuyosha as a UC Irvine exchange student. About ten years later, she returned, walked in, ordered coffee, and finally experienced the legendary cafe herself. Cafe Reggio in Greenwich Village gave her a similar connection to earlier generations of writers and artists. Belonging grows through repeated places and rituals, not just an address.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Japan | Tokyo | Los Angeles | New York | Okinawa | Kyoto | Japanese coffee culture | American coffee culture | kissaten | hand-drip coffee | Horiguchi Coffee | Woodberry Coffee Roasters | Rokuyosha | Book Nerd Tokyo
Original publication date: February 9, 2022
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