About two Sundays ago Helene and I came across something that confused and shocked us. But even saying that kind of gives it away. So, I suppose the best would be to start from the beginning.
There was a special exhibition going on at the Kyoto Royal Palace that many people insisted that we should see. I'll skip over the part where we went to the exhibition, I'll leave that for another time. Trust me there are lots of pictures and it's a story worth telling. No, today, I need to tell you what happened after we left the palace.
Walking down the street we come across a sign that read "FREE CAFE
". Sorry the picture is blurry because it was dark by then. At the time we were joking about funny Japanese signs we see here and there. How we come across things that say "WARNING" and the rest is in Japanese or "AWESOME" with a lot of blah blah in Japanese. Maybe they don't have words like that in their language or maybe they find it witty or perhaps people understand these phrases. I'll be sure to throw some pictures up when I see them. Anyway, exactly at this time we were looking around for funny English signs, when we come across this one.
I looked up and read it out-loud and immediately was thrown back. Everyone knows I love free stuff. I live by the code, "if it's free take it and figure it out later if you need it".
This must confuse you as much as it did me. We looked around for some sign of what we were about to deal with. Helene was so weirded out by the concept and told me to go inside first.
This sign was out front. Not sure what any of it says but it was very clear that is cost nothing for whatever it was, most likely coffee. Entering the cafe we immediately faced a line. Go figure, something is free and there's a line. Looking around everyone had a cup of coffee, munching on rice crackers, happily chatting and having fun. "I want coffee" I thought to myself so we stood in line. The further we got in the line the more we could see the front of it and we realized that we were really going to get free stuff and that there didn't appear to be any catch. Does this not weird you out as well? My North American mind still doesn't really comprehend this.
The place was very clean and professional. I looked like a Starbucks with one exception, that there wasn't all this stuff that the cafe was selling upfront. As we got further down the line there was a juice and tea machine with this stand of cups beside it. Even this thing was cool. You pressed the button on the bottom all the way in and it 
somehow dropped only one cup down. Afterwards you had the choice of two different coffees followed by milk, cream, sugar and a communal stirring stick. At the end was a selection of four different rice crackers. Once the person in front of me was done with the tongs for the rice crackers he smiled and passed them to me. Everything was so civil. We stat down baffled and began to eat out rice cakes and drink our coffee wondering what the catch was. At the back there was a little booth selling the rice crackers so we thought this whole thing was to promote their snacks and perhaps it was. Those rice crackers were really good.
After you were done everyone brought their cups over to another table where you poured out what was left in your cup, left your tray in the proper pile. Everything was thought out.
Within a few moments a woman came over to me (I know you've been waiting for this) and handed me a pamphlet. Which read "Your Gateway to Real Freedom". No this is not some kind of weird religious thing where they were asking me to pledge my life to some deity or something like that. It was far deeper and interesting than that kind of cliché.
The pamphlet had 18 pages to it so I`ll sum up what this concept is all about.
Free cafe is a concept designed by the Harimaya Honten company to share Japanese traditional rice crackers and to "share with young people the seriousness and pressing nature of global environment problems, the fundamental solutions that currenly exist and the track in real time the process being made." Noble huh? "People are welcome to use the cafe at no charge, at any time and as frequently as you like with only one rule that people treat each other with respect and courtesy" How does this relate to global warming you may ask? Actually, the free rice crackers are directly related to how to solve global warming. Yeah, I was shocked by this revaluation too but keep reading and I'll explain why.
Awareness of the cause of environmental problems is the target of this Free Cafe system since most of the issues discussed today by governments are about secondary problems. Conversations on CO2, recycling, etc. are all meaningless if the main problem is not approached.
According to the pamphlet, the root cause of all environmental problems is the meaningless strive of people to dominate one another politically, economically, academically, etc. rather than seeking real happiness and coexistence. Then it goes into a long explanation basically coming to justify why some people have what others do not, "the have, and have-nots". The cause of this is the over-use of the left hemisphere of the brain. The right hemisphere deals with intuition and the left with logic. Our social activities today are primarily based on thinking how to dominate others. This represents an over-use of the left side of the brain. Think about our school system or job hierarchy or how countries view other countries. Everything is based on showing who is better which is a very inward view of the world. On the other hand children use both sides of the brain equally and thus can see things and grasp things that are fundamentally simple but adults are not prone to understand them as easily.
The proposal offered is to live in harmony with nature and other people in everyday life. Jealousy and animosity cannot possibly bring happiness. In order for people to be happy they must be civil, respectful, tolerant and courteous to all others. If you go back and read the beginning of this post you can see how easily that can be accomplished. If we act in ways that benefit other people and not ourselves then the issues of global warming will fade very quickly. I suppose the owners of this company simply wanted to promote honest peaceful coexistence.
The themes represented here are not new. Sometime I will write about my thoughts on all this stuff but what this cafe represents is a crucial issue that goes beyond global warming. I not sure if the concept of Free Cafe could work in other countries, at least not now. But the fact that something this profound exists in Japan is the a good start. What do you think? Could this work in Canada?
Since were on the topic of coffee shops, this is a sign I found outside a local Starbucks. It may not seem that special at first but here in Japan smoking is permitted in most coffee shops and restaurants. Because it`s straight forward that smoking is prohibited in most other countries in places like this, there is usually no need for a special sign. Here is one that I bet you`ve never seen.
There was a special exhibition going on at the Kyoto Royal Palace that many people insisted that we should see. I'll skip over the part where we went to the exhibition, I'll leave that for another time. Trust me there are lots of pictures and it's a story worth telling. No, today, I need to tell you what happened after we left the palace.
Walking down the street we come across a sign that read "FREE CAFE
". Sorry the picture is blurry because it was dark by then. At the time we were joking about funny Japanese signs we see here and there. How we come across things that say "WARNING" and the rest is in Japanese or "AWESOME" with a lot of blah blah in Japanese. Maybe they don't have words like that in their language or maybe they find it witty or perhaps people understand these phrases. I'll be sure to throw some pictures up when I see them. Anyway, exactly at this time we were looking around for funny English signs, when we come across this one.I looked up and read it out-loud and immediately was thrown back. Everyone knows I love free stuff. I live by the code, "if it's free take it and figure it out later if you need it".
This must confuse you as much as it did me. We looked around for some sign of what we were about to deal with. Helene was so weirded out by the concept and told me to go inside first.This sign was out front. Not sure what any of it says but it was very clear that is cost nothing for whatever it was, most likely coffee. Entering the cafe we immediately faced a line. Go figure, something is free and there's a line. Looking around everyone had a cup of coffee, munching on rice crackers, happily chatting and having fun. "I want coffee" I thought to myself so we stood in line. The further we got in the line the more we could see the front of it and we realized that we were really going to get free stuff and that there didn't appear to be any catch. Does this not weird you out as well? My North American mind still doesn't really comprehend this.
The place was very clean and professional. I looked like a Starbucks with one exception, that there wasn't all this stuff that the cafe was selling upfront. As we got further down the line there was a juice and tea machine with this stand of cups beside it. Even this thing was cool. You pressed the button on the bottom all the way in and it 
somehow dropped only one cup down. Afterwards you had the choice of two different coffees followed by milk, cream, sugar and a communal stirring stick. At the end was a selection of four different rice crackers. Once the person in front of me was done with the tongs for the rice crackers he smiled and passed them to me. Everything was so civil. We stat down baffled and began to eat out rice cakes and drink our coffee wondering what the catch was. At the back there was a little booth selling the rice crackers so we thought this whole thing was to promote their snacks and perhaps it was. Those rice crackers were really good.
After you were done everyone brought their cups over to another table where you poured out what was left in your cup, left your tray in the proper pile. Everything was thought out.Within a few moments a woman came over to me (I know you've been waiting for this) and handed me a pamphlet. Which read "Your Gateway to Real Freedom". No this is not some kind of weird religious thing where they were asking me to pledge my life to some deity or something like that. It was far deeper and interesting than that kind of cliché.
The pamphlet had 18 pages to it so I`ll sum up what this concept is all about.
Free cafe is a concept designed by the Harimaya Honten company to share Japanese traditional rice crackers and to "share with young people the seriousness and pressing nature of global environment problems, the fundamental solutions that currenly exist and the track in real time the process being made." Noble huh? "People are welcome to use the cafe at no charge, at any time and as frequently as you like with only one rule that people treat each other with respect and courtesy" How does this relate to global warming you may ask? Actually, the free rice crackers are directly related to how to solve global warming. Yeah, I was shocked by this revaluation too but keep reading and I'll explain why.
Awareness of the cause of environmental problems is the target of this Free Cafe system since most of the issues discussed today by governments are about secondary problems. Conversations on CO2, recycling, etc. are all meaningless if the main problem is not approached.
According to the pamphlet, the root cause of all environmental problems is the meaningless strive of people to dominate one another politically, economically, academically, etc. rather than seeking real happiness and coexistence. Then it goes into a long explanation basically coming to justify why some people have what others do not, "the have, and have-nots". The cause of this is the over-use of the left hemisphere of the brain. The right hemisphere deals with intuition and the left with logic. Our social activities today are primarily based on thinking how to dominate others. This represents an over-use of the left side of the brain. Think about our school system or job hierarchy or how countries view other countries. Everything is based on showing who is better which is a very inward view of the world. On the other hand children use both sides of the brain equally and thus can see things and grasp things that are fundamentally simple but adults are not prone to understand them as easily.
The proposal offered is to live in harmony with nature and other people in everyday life. Jealousy and animosity cannot possibly bring happiness. In order for people to be happy they must be civil, respectful, tolerant and courteous to all others. If you go back and read the beginning of this post you can see how easily that can be accomplished. If we act in ways that benefit other people and not ourselves then the issues of global warming will fade very quickly. I suppose the owners of this company simply wanted to promote honest peaceful coexistence.
The themes represented here are not new. Sometime I will write about my thoughts on all this stuff but what this cafe represents is a crucial issue that goes beyond global warming. I not sure if the concept of Free Cafe could work in other countries, at least not now. But the fact that something this profound exists in Japan is the a good start. What do you think? Could this work in Canada?
Since were on the topic of coffee shops, this is a sign I found outside a local Starbucks. It may not seem that special at first but here in Japan smoking is permitted in most coffee shops and restaurants. Because it`s straight forward that smoking is prohibited in most other countries in places like this, there is usually no need for a special sign. Here is one that I bet you`ve never seen.
That is genious and I'm truely amazed that a free coffee shop exists and I love the idea behind it. Curtesy and respect are two things that are increasingly difficult to find in our society where most people prefer to look down their noses at you. While I have a hard time picturing something like this here in Ottawa it would be really great. Thanks for sharing your amazing find Mike!
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