Ash’s cocktails and coffee lack a major element: waste

The motto of Ash, a cafe and bar in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, makes the venue’s mission clear: “F— waste,” the slogan declares, painted across the back wall in charcoal-gray script.

The mural is provocative, but not aggressively so. Upon closer inspection, though, the suffixes “-ing” and “-ed” appear rendered in faint, pearlized-white lettering, changing the eco-conscious imperative into a slang term for extreme inebriation (“f—ing wasted,” in case you were wondering). The effect recalls viewing a message written in invisible ink under an ultraviolet light, and the jokey double entendre reflects the bar’s aim to promote sustainability in a lighthearted way.