For most of us, the first meal of the day is also the fastest, a quick bite or perhaps just some java on the run. But why the hurry? Slow down, breathe, take your time, reward yourself. This is a good half of the pleasure of getting to break your morning fast at Kishin.
That and the setting itself: Kishin lies in leafy, low-rise Kamakura, housed in a handsome two-story minka — an old-school timber-frame building — in a residential area surrounded by forested hilltops. Follow the stepping stones to the simple white-cotton noren half-curtain, slide open the door and enter tranquility.
Take your seat at the counter and observe the calm, purposeful action in the open kitchen that forms the focus of the compact dining room. You will be served tea — not green, but a russet infusion prepared from black beans grown in the fertile Tamba area of Hyogo Prefecture — to sip on as you wait for your meal to be prepared.