IT might come as a surprise to most espresso drinkers, but some of the most obsessive figures in coffee take their cues not just from Italy, but from Japan.

Just peek inside Blue Bottle Coffee in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on March 10 when it is scheduled to open (inspection permitting).

Sharing the counter with two espresso machines are two “pour over” bars where drip coffee is made a cup at a time using a Japanese kettle with a swan-neck spout that delivers a thin, precise stream of water. On weekends there will be “nel drip” coffee made with Japanese flannel filters.

And there are the showstoppers, the five Japanese slow-drip devices for iced coffee, each three feet tall  they look like an aristocrat’s science experiment, the wood and brass frames supporting a network of glass globes and adjustable nozzles that mete out liquid at 88 drops a minute.