food

Awesome treehouse cafe in Yokohama satisfies our longing for bagels, beer, and nature

4 Comments
By Casey Baseel

The great thing about Japan is the contrasting extremes you can find, and if eating in the middle of Tokyo’s concrete jungle by the soft glow of neon signs isn’t to your liking, you can always come on down to Yokohama, which has a cafe with plenty of natural sunlight thanks to the restaurant actually being an awesome treehouse.

The Nanja Monja Cafe is located in Yokohama’s Mitsuzawa suburb.

There’s one thing I had to do first, though, and that’s consult the weather report. Since it’s built in the boughs of a tree, with almost all of its seating outside, the cafe shuts down if its rainy. Thankfully, the forecast called for partly cloudy skies, so Operation Eat Lunch in a Tree was a go.

As I headed up into the hills, I started seeing fewer and fewer people. That is, until I actually arrived at the cafe.

Being built in a tree means there’s only space for about a half-dozen tables at Nanja Monja cafe, and if you go on a Saturday, you can expect a line. On the plus side, all that standing around does give you a chance to admire the exterior design.

With birds chirping and sunlight filtering down, it’s evocative of either a Disney or Ghibli movie, depending on where your cinematic passions lie.

Still, it’s probably a good idea to bring a book, fully-charged smartphone, or companion who’s a good conversationalist, since the wait for a seat was well over an hour.

Finally, a spot opened up, and the waitress beckoned me to the top of the narrow but sturdy flight of stairs.

Before grabbing a seat, customers head inside the treehouse and place their order at the counter. There’s a pretty limited menu, consisting of nothing but bagels. On Saturdays, Nanja Monja cooks up just 30 French toast bagels, which were all sold out by the time I got in, but they still had all of their other 350-yen varieties, such as spinach bacon, raspberry sweet bean jam with cream cheese, pumpkin cream cheese, and orange peel chocolate available.

There are a couple of tables inside, but the real draw are the outdoor seats, where you can enjoy the breeze while gazing out at the surrounding greenery, hills, and rooftops.

At one point, a group of neighborhood kids walked by underneath, waving up at everyone seated in the cafe. The atmosphere is extremely relaxing, even if the floor does shake just a little bit every now and again.

The upside to the small menu is that your order comes out pretty quickly. If I’m being totally honest, I don’t really have the happiest relationship with bagels, and most of the time I’d rather eat a sandwich or donut instead. Nanja Monja’s bagels are a legitimately tasty class unto themselves, though, moist and flavorful through every bite.

Nanja Monja also serves coffee and tea, plus thick, frothy banana juice for 600 yen.

And if hanging out in a treehouse is making you feel just a little too close to your inner child, you can reaffirm your adulthood with a 700-yen bottle of Kirin Heartland Beer.

As tasty a brew as it is, though, Nanja Monja probably isn’t the best location for heavy boozing, given the long way down should you drunkenly tumble over a railing. What it is, on the other hand, is an extremely unique and unquestionably memorable place to sit back and have a snack with your friends, date, kids, or pet bird.

Cafe information Nanja Monja Café /なんじゃもんじゃカフェ Address: Kanagawa-ken, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ku, Mitsuzawa Higashicho, 5-55 神奈川県横浜市神奈川区三ツ沢東町5−55 Open noon-5:30 p.m. Closed Sundays Website

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4 Comments
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Bagels, beer and not much else? An hour wait? Yeah, maybe not.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

An hour wait - maybe 'awesome' was not quite the right adjective. If the wait was several hours there is a chance someone could be in awe of that.

"and if you go on a Saturday, you can expect a line."

of what?? coke or washing are the only 'lines' that springs to mind!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There is no such thing as "extremely unique." It is either unique or not. Nice pictures at the original link, though i don't think I'll be entrusting my life to that rickety structure anytime soon.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Is it still there today?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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