Tokyo's retro coffee palaces are in a class entirely their own www.japantimes.co.jp

These parlors of pomp may have taken inspiration from the storied coffee houses of Vienna and Budapest, but the pleasures they evoke are distinctively Japanese.
If you didn’t experience the heady excesses of the ’80s bubble era firsthand, Tokyo’s classier kissaten offer the next best thing.
There’s always an eclectic clientele at Coffee Seibu, on the east side of JR Shinjuku Station.
Don’t be put off by the smoggy antechamber on the first floor — the downstairs is entirely non-smoking.
Cafe de Paris: 1-23-1 Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku; Coffee Seibu: 2F, 3-34-9 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku; Cafe de L’ambre: 3-31-3 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku; Kojo: 3-39-10 Higashi-Ueno, Taito-ku