Meg Tanaka

Co-owner of Melbourne’s Cibi café and design store. Master of Japanese-style picnics.

Meg and Zenta Tanaka know how to tap into the best of Japan. Their cafés, Cibi and Minanoie, are such convincing portals into the Land of the Rising Sun that you may as well shelve your Tokyo travel plans. The authors of the Cibi cookbook prove that a Japanese-inspired picnic is about props, not geography. Don’t forget the chopsticks, wrap your bento boxes in furoshiki cloths, sit under a cherry blossom tree, pack yuzu lemonade and sake, bring flat cushions and take your shoes off. That, says Meg Tanaka, is a “very Japanese-style picnic”.

Clockwise from top left Stanley Classic 1L vacuum flask, $89.95, from Koskela. Indigo dye fabric, $140, from The Happenstore.

Wakatsuru Junmai Ginjo Kissui Sake, $50, from The Oak Barrel. Hakusan porcelain Stone sake cup, $18, from Cibi. Hakusan porcelain Linen line indigo sake set, $75 for three, from Cibi. Hakusan porcelain Whirlpool blue plate, $165, from Cibi. Bamboo chopsticks, $2.80, from Daiso. Hakusan porcelain Bird nut bowl, $45, from Cibi. Turari cups, $115 each, from Ginkgo Leaf. Cutipol Goa chopsticks, $52.95, from Tableking. Inari bowls, small, $28, and large, $32, both from Provider Store. Kobo Aizawa teapot, $85, and tea strainer, $40, from Cibi. Tenugui tea towels in chrysanthemum and stripes, $20 each, from Cibi. GA Homefavor Stainless Steel Lunch Box 2-in-1 bento box, $35.99, from Amazon. Kobo Aizawa tea canister, $85, from Cibi. Shotoku V glass, $35, from Cibi.