Long before you sit down to dine at code kurkku, before you even glimpse its splendid glass-fronted facade, you know already you're going to love it. How could you not? It has everything going for it.
First of all, it's the central focus of the brilliant new Yoyogi Village development — or, more precisely, antidevelopment. This human-scale assemblage of low-rise, low-impact buildings is the absolute antithesis of all the monumental high-rise complexes that have come to dominate the Tokyo skyline over the past decade.
The contrast with the surrounding neighborhood is breathtaking. Leaving behind the nondescript Yoyogi backstreets, with their ramen counters and shabby student cram schools, you pass through a gateway set into a wall of glass and steel into this "village" of small shops, cafes and bars, all housed in converted shipping containers painted a brilliant white. Following the path as it meanders past a landscaped garden of exotic plants, you arrive at the impressive two-story building that houses code kurkku.