According to Japanese popular wisdom, no matter how small your project or enterprise is, if it's really good people will eventually take notice.
This seems to be especially true for anything food-related: In a country in which every conversation seems to lead to food talk, word of mouth about a deserving place spreads like wildfire.
This is exactly what happened recently to Il Brigante — a tiny backstreet ice cream parlor in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. For about three years, its owner and gelato master, Emiliano Vommaro, has quietly perfected his craft without really caring about publicity, but since this spring the place has been featured on three TV programs and picked up by countless magazines, websites and blogs.