Coffee

Normally I seek comfort in tea, but for some reason I woke up this morning craving coffee. There's really no opportunity to drink coffee here other than the sour instant stuff found everywhere. (Yes, its really sour. Blah.) There are a couple of small owner-operated type places in Obihiro keeping the tradition of making fresh coffee alive - the real deep flavored, bitter-type stuff that's made right in front of you. Also, Starbucks is rather consistent globally, and I can imagine one day galatically, in the quality of its coffee. I hesitatingly started drinking Starbucks and still think when I return to Canada I will continue to support small local coffee shops, but for now my need for a decent cup of coffee trumps all. Anyone who's had the oppurnity to go into lots of Starbucks globally has had the eerie experience of noticing that they're all the same internally; bringing a superficial homogeniality to a world that really is quite different where ever you go. Ah, Globalization you can walk right into. Discovering small indie coffee shops is so much better because they still allow whimsy, wit and playfullness to exist. This may be a contentious statement in the high-stakes coffee debates of the world, but this morning the brand I really desire is Tim Hortons. I know you can get it in tins, but I like the way the stores do it. My order is a large double-double. It's probably one of only experiences I consider uniquely Canadian (which is a lot, coming from me, I think). Anyways, I don't want to leave the reader with questions, so I will just note that I'm drinking loose tea as normal.