Shimokitazawa (下北沢) Bear Pond Coffee House

So the winter cold, cloudy weather and holidays near and we can all use a jolt or at least a good shot of espresso.



Look no further than Bear Pond in Shimokitazawa (下北沢,) 2-36-12 KitazawaTEL: 03-5454-2486 東京都世田谷区北沢2-36-12

Honestly, it doesn't look like much from the outside, but the coffee if wonderful and a welcome change from the more watered down version of espresso that is popular in Japan.

Opened in April 2009 by Katsu Tanaka, Bear Pond is a welcome addition to the coffee scene around Tokyo. Created by Katsu Tanaka after close to two decades as a barista/trainer in New York City, Tanaka moved back to Tokyo to open his own shop.

Armed with a desire to offer true espresso, Tanaka found an old candy shop that he transformed into his coffee haven.

So what motivated the choice in name Bear Pond for a coffee shop? Tanaka, as previously mentioned, lived in NYC for several years and was fond of a part of the New York lake region - hence the name.

Tanaka's beans are provided by specialty roaster Nori Yoshimi.

So head to Shimokitazawa for the day, walk around and then take a break at this wonderful little coffee house.

All the best......Mark

Google's Pacific Fiber Optic Cable

Some exciting news for the tech geek in us all.....

The laying of a new high-bandwidth fiber-optic cable connecting North America and Asia via the northern Pacific Ocean began on November 1st from Japan. The cable line, called “Unity”, is a project of six major communication companies, including Google and Japan’s KDDI.


In light of the ever increasing traffic between the two regions of the world, six companies aim to increase the overall transpacific cable capacity by at least 20% when it is set to launch approximately in the spring of 2010.

The cable, when finished, will stretch approximately 10,000 km (6,200 miles) from data centers in the Los Angeles area to KDDI’s data center in Chikura, just outside of Tokyo. From Japan, information can then be distributed to other countries in East Asia.

News sites noted that the planned maximum capacity of Unity was 7.68 Tbps; however, that number has since fallen to 4.8 Tbps for its initial use, according to a report from Japan’s ITpro. (For the curious, according to one reporter, John Bourdreau, 4.8 Tbps would supposedly be the equivalent of approximately 75 million simultaneous voice calls!)

All the best.....Mark