Thinking about Tokyo's morning rush hour is enough to make anybody want to crawl back into bed. After working late in the office or attending an obligatory drinking party with coworkers, the last thing anyone wants to do is squeeze themselves onto a packed morning train for a somber repeat of the day before.
On the other side of the hemisphere, however, mornings are spent differently, according to Foru Granola creator Yukina Hirai. After working at Bills Omotesando — a Tokyo branch of Australian chef Bill Granger's breakfast restaurant — Hirai spent two months on a working holiday in Sydney during the summer of 2012. There she worked in the kitchen at two of Bills' original restaurants in the Darlinghurst and Surry Hills neighborhoods.
She was surprised to see people exercising before work, and how busy the Sydney Bills restaurants were in the mornings.