I discovered the Misaki Cafe by accident while searching for the route to Mt Nokogiriyama . The route goes through the Tokyo Aqualine tunnel and bridge route, a supposedly scenic drive over and under the sea through Kisarazu. The road then goes through the Nokogiriyama Line branching off to the Uchibo Nagasia line. The last part of the journey involves taking a right turn just before the mouth of a tunnel with limited visibility of the oncoming traffic.
There was a weekend traffic on the Acqualine and the tunnel part took close to 30 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic. The drive across the bridge was better with the traffic thinning out as the cars picked up speed or took the exits.
Once you have managed the turn and turned into the parking lot set over a rough stretch of land, it takes a short 100 metres walk to the reach the cafe. The cafe located on a cliff overlooks Myogane Cape and the Sagami Bay.
Mt Fuji is visible across the bay on clear winter mornings though the early autumn that we traveled in brought in enough clouds to hide the mountains in the distance.
If there were three words to describe the cafe, they would be ‘location, location and location’. The cafe set on the cliff overlooks the small fishing harbour, a paved platform next to rocks. Fishermen were perched on the rocks, their cars and vans parked, sometimes precariously, on the partially paved road or the platform on the sea.
The cafe is run by two cheerful middle aged ladies and though lacking in a wide variety of choices makes up for it in its location and excellent service. Jazz Music played inside the cafe, the notes mixing with the breeze blowing in We ordered and decided to move outside on the wooden benches overlooking the sea.
A few customer preferred to sit inside or on the porch , the coffee and tea served on antique but study coffee mugs. To the ones not interested in the hot beverages there is an option of milkshake and juice.
We wanted to explore the rocky beach and asked asked the ladies to point us the way.
‘There are a lot of fishermen out there today, something must be up’ the lady added helpfully.
The fishermen were numerous spread evenly across the rocky, a few venturing into the sea and sitting on rocks further from the shore. They ignored the curious visitors, with no obvious intent to fish, and continued focusing on their lines.
After a while we headed back to the cafe for a lunch of toast bread and cheese along with a refreshing banana shake. The day was warm and occasionally sunny and the breeze from the sea still didn’t have the autumn chill in it.
The crowds at the cafe remained steady and the unhurried atmosphere remained. There were cheerful couples, pensive loners all content with beverages and looking into the sea on this glorious day.
