I had a bit of free time this afternoon, so I popped over to see the exhibition at Cafe Rokujian of photographs and paintings by our friends John Einarsen and Tiery Le. The cafe forms part of the Kampo Cultural Center, which as I understand it, opened up last month. The center consists of three parts, the cafe, a small gallery space, and a learning center where you can take classes in flower arrangement, calligraphy and art – the latter with Tiery Le himself! Currently, John Einarsen’s graceful and exquisite black and white lotus photographs occupy most of the gallery space, whilst Tiery Le’s exhilarating and dynamic oil paintings decorate the cafe walls.
The cafe itself is spacious and comfortable and a pleasant place to stop and rest if you happen to be visiting the Higashiyama area. They do three lunch time sets of curry, a panini sandwich, or pasta, which all come with a (negligible) salad and a drink (tea, coffee, etc). If you want beer or wine it is 200 yen extra but the beer is Moretti, which happens to be one of my favorites so I was quite happy about that.
Each of these dishes changes daily.
I ordered the pasta, which on this occasion was spaghetti in tomato sauce with olives, anchovies and capers. It was tasty, and it came in a goodly portion so I was quite satisfied, though I think at 1180 yen for the set, it could be a teensy bit cheaper. The panini and curry sets are cheaper at 980 yen apiece.
Here are a few more pictures from both inside and outside the cafe and gallery…
Open 12:00-20:00, and closed Mondays, Cafe & Gallery Rokujian is in the Okazaki area, to the east of Heian Shrine and drectly to the north of the Kampo Museum. Click here for a map.
See also: Lotus – A Joint Exhibition by John Einarsen & Tiery Le…
The Photographs of John Einarsen
Tiery Le’s website.