Cafe Gakenoue

This guide to Cafe Gakenoue, on the road above Jozankei's hot spring town in Sapporo, tells the story of a husband and wife who decided a view was worth risking a fall for, choosing a crumbling cliff edge above the Shirai River for their cafe. You'll hear how engineers had to test whether the rock could hold real weight before the owners built the terrace in reinforced steel, pushing it out past the actual edge of the cliff. The guide covers the small cafe that opened here in 2010, its siphon coffee and house-made cakes, including one named simply for the cliff itself. Ask for the glass-floor table if you want to look straight down at the river below.