Death Café in Bangkok

Stumbling on an attraction in Ari…
Bae: "Death Cafe"? Sounds like a place where coffee isn't the only thing that keeps you up at night.
Prae: Haha, Let's check it out. Maybe they serve killer lattes.
Bae: (walking down the alley) The lights are on, but it looks like nobody's home. Spooky!
Prae: Look, there's a ghost room and escape challenges. And what's this? Finding an antidote after being bitten by a snake?
Bae: What a weird place. I wonder if they have a frequent screamer card.
Prae: Maybe they give out ghost points. Collect ten and get a free exorcism!
Bae: I don't see anyone inside. Do you think it's a trap? Like, we go in and never come out?
Prae: Or maybe it's just a really exclusive club. Only the bravest souls allowed.
Bae: Speaking of souls, did you notice the cancer hospital across the road? Talk about a contrast.
Prae: Yeah, it's like life and death are having a staring contest.
Bae: Well, if we survive the Death Cafe, we can always pop over for a check-up.
Prae: Let's see if we can find someone to tell us more. Maybe they're hiding in the ghost room.
Bae: Or maybe they're just dying to meet us.
Prae: (groans) That's terrible.
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Voice-over
The idea of a “Death Café” was initiated by Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who organized the first "café mortel" in 2004. His aim was to break the "tyrannical secrecy" surrounding death and encourage open conversations about it, to increase awareness of death and to help people make the most of their finite lives. There are now some 14,000 death cafés in 80 countries.

The Hat that Came Back

Arrival at the café

Mimi: Hiroshi, he’s here. He’s come. Hiroshi, bring the hat.

(Hiroshi carries over a dilapidated Panama hat)

Carl: Yes, it’s my hat all right.

Mimi: You left it here in the summer.

Carl: It’s certainly my old summer hat. Merci, merci beaucoup.

Hiroshi: We found it on your chair. We kept it.

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Voice-over

What café would keep a hat, a very decrepit hat, for 5 months, from mid-summer to mid-winter? Mimi’s, a French café run by a French woman and her husband. It says something about them, about the effect of Japanese culture on even many immigrants, in their effort to return a forgotten item to its owner.