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I took this shot of the city from the top of the Tokyo Tower, a communications and observation tower located in Shiba Park, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 1091 feet, it is the second tallest artificial structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations. The city of more than 35 million people can be overwhelming, but—true to the nature of the Barista Nation model—when Barista Nation Tokyo took place on May 10 at Key Coffee, the local barista community felt intimate and open, fostering relationship building and coffee education. the attendees how the structure of the event would work: attendees would be able to see all presentations, even though some took place concurrently in the morning, as sessions would be repeated in the afternoon. As the international guests, Anastasia, Sauro and I were welcomed to the front of the room for introductions, and we were greeted cordially by the eager attendees. Having attended almost all of the Barista Nation events to take place since its beginning, I was delighted to see that the baristas at the Tokyo event reminded me of previous attendees to a T. They were young and keen to learn. Some were shy at first, but I would see that by the end of the day, all the nervousness had been shed, and the baristas were acting like a great big family, helping each other and laughing together. With the generous translation help of Clément—himself a native of France with an expert grasp of both English and Japanese—I delivered my lecture on using social media for café marketing and building customer loyalty. At the same time, Anastasia was treating the baristas to a session entitled, "The Three Points of Success for Your Café. " Sauro was busy readying his station for a clinical workshop for baristas to follow our lectures. The day was off to a wonderful start. From there on, Barista Nation Tokyo unfolded seemingly effortlessly— that's because the Key Coffee staff had prepared so well, and was at the ready for questions, supplies or anything else the attendees and presenters could need. The baristas moved through impressive hands-on sections on cupping, led by Key Coffee's master cupper, Mr. Akata, before diving into a hand brewing segment, where they practiced pour over and siphon brewing on breathtaking glass equipment. There was no language barrier for the always jovial Sauro, who kept his groups laughing as he led them through the basics of espresso and milk texturing. Sauro kindly led the most shy baristas in the group through the motions until they felt comfortable on the Stella di Caffe, and soon each and every attendee was clamoring for a turn on one of the four machines, excited to practice their either newly-acquired, or newly enhanced barista skills. Barista Nation has a tradition of taking educational experiences and adding a heaping dose of fun to them, and that's how we ended the day— with one of the most entertaining group competitions that the Barista Nation model has ever enjoyed. The baristas were divided into three groups and given their assignment: to make use of a table full of goodies—fruits, candies, nuts, syrups, spices, and creams—to create a fun summer beverage that would sell well in a Tokyo café in the summer season. Anastasia, Sauro and I delighted in moving from group to group, watching the baristas work together both seriously and with laughter, to create some fantastical drinks. After an hour of work, the three of us took places at a judges table to receive the team presentations, and the drinks, and judge them on style, taste and appearance. This was a ton of fun for everyone involved, from the baristas, to the judges, to the many Key Coffee staff and sponsors in the room. We turned in our ballots and collected our things, as we were being asked to head to Key Coffee's main level for a cocktail party. And what did we see upon arriving but a tower of masu, which are wooden boxes that were traditionally used to measure sake and also from which to drink sake. Though sake purists today shun masu, saying the wood affects the flavor www.baristamagazine.com 31