Last Sunday I went to an awesome café called the Free Factory, with my friend Layna. The café was opened by a famous modern Japanese author Ayumu Takahashi, who’s works focus on living a carefree life and taking advantage of the journeys that life has to offer. He and his wife took a two-year honeymoon across the entire world, returning to Japan with only about $200. He chronicled his journey through prose and countless photographs. When Takahashi came back to Japan, he and his wife had no place to live and simply drove around until they felt in their hearts that the location was where they wanted to be. After he settled in Okinawa, he developed an artist’s community, where he and his family lived for a few years.
The café itself was started on a whim, and he has since opened two cocktail bars after seeing one in a movie and finding the concept intriguing. We took the elevator to the café’s floor, and at first glance the place appeared to be closed, which was a bummer considering the 1.5 hour train ride that it took to get there. In fact, there wasn’t any sign acknowledging the place’s existence, but there was a small door with a Cambell’s Tomato Soup can painted on it.
We took a chance and opened the door, only to be met by another large dark room, reminiscent of a prison of some sort. We walked up the short metal stairs to a door that was literally half my size, and pulled the giant “F” handle. It was as if we were entering wonderland, or the chocolate factory. The adjoining room was lively and bright, with exposed brick walls and a staircase that drastically increased in size at the bottom. There were no windows, which was actually a nice touch: it felt as if this place was out own private oasis, sheltering us from the busy streets below, and transporting us to somewhere very far from Tokyo. Photos from Takahashi’s journey lined the walls, and there were bookshelves of his works, along with albums by Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and many others. There were ample design books and books about life, love and freedom. It was quite an incredible experience. The cheesecake was outstanding and the coffee was rather good too.
I think what made this place so special was the fact that almost every person was there because they knew of the author; the awkward location made sure of that.
Here’s a link to the site:
http://www.a-works.gr.jp/freefactory/index.html