Just off to one side of a narrow winding road that ascends a moderately steep hill in Kamakura sits a nondescript little wooden shop advertising coffee and cakes. Inside it could be mistaken for a coffee shop, with all sorts of props intended to create some atmosphere for the hapless customers who come in to enjoy the coffee and cake. But then the very friendly owner gets across to you that he built the place himslf when he was much younger – the photographs testify to that when he pulls out an album of photos that show the progresss of the house being built, by a man who resembles the man who is showing me the album.