UNDER BLUFF COFFEE in the morning, after the climb

Early in the day we went up to a coffee shop on the Yamate hill. A place cut off from the noise of the city below.

Ueno-cho, at the top of the slope

UNDER BLUFF COFFEE is in Ueno-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama. The Yamate area — a residential district up the hill.

It is within walking distance of Motomachi and Chinatown, where the tourists gather, but by the time you are up here the number of people drops off sharply. The same Yokohama, and time runs completely differently on the seaward side and on the hill.

You sit facing the window

Inside, the counter seating faces the windows. You sit looking out, so the arrangement is for each person to be quietly on their own rather than talking across a table.

In the morning that quiet does its work. A shop just after opening has the feeling that nothing has happened yet that day.

The sister shop of a bakery

This is a sister shop of Blaff Bakery, which is well known in Yokohama. So the bread is good. It is not a coffee-only place; it stands up as somewhere you go to eat something baked.

That day I had something sweet and an iced coffee.

Somewhere worth going in the morning

Cafés tend to be an afternoon or early-evening thing. But there are places whose quality only comes out in the morning, and this was one.

The effort of climbing the slope to the top of the hill is itself the switch. Sit down after walking yourself out of breath and the first mouthful of coffee is different.

Notes from this visit

• UNDER BLUFF COFFEE, Ueno-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama — the Yamate area
• A sister shop of the well-known Yokohama bakery Blaff Bakery, so the baking is the point as much as the coffee
• Counter seating faces the windows
• Walkable from Motomachi and Chinatown, but far quieter
• Menu, prices and hours change. Check before you go

Prices and opening details are as they were at the time of the visit. Some images here are illustrations generated from my own photographs, not photographs themselves.