I have visited interesting Starbucks locations all over the
world, but my visit to the 5-day old Ninezaka store in Kyoto definitely rises
to the top of cool.
This one-of-a-kind store stands alone from the others in
that it is not in a newly constructed building, but opened in a century-old
machiya house in a very traditional neighborhood of Ninenzaka.
The shop is literally occupying one house in a row of
private, residential homes. When I got there in the morning (right when they
opened at 8:00am) there were children in uniforms on their way to school, old
ladies sweeping porches outside their homes, and people hanging their laundry.
This really is a neighborhood.
With respect to their location, Starbucks employed one
security guard who keeps people in line and keeps crowds from forming. I went
so early that I was one of the only people there, but I have no idea how busy
this place gets on say, mid-day on the weekend.
From the outside, the house is discrete. Only the
Starbucks-branded Noren (cloth doorway) marks this building as a café. The
exterior is almost otherwise untouched. Though, upon leaving I did catch sight
of the subtle mermaid silhouette on a light outside.
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| hanging the Noren in the morning just before the store opens |
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| the Noren signifies that the store is open |
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| subtle Starbucks logo details |
Inside, the house has been heavily redone, but not to the
loss of it’s original character. For instance, it smells exactly like my
century-old house in Shimane. The first floor is dedicated to housing a long line
of people, a counter where you can order and select sweets, a small sitting
space, and a back room where the drinks are made. Upstairs contains rooms and
rooms of seating. As I walked around, I noticed that they basically kept the
frame of the house, and used traditional materials to modernize it, so that it
still had an authentic quality.
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| the entrance seems generic at first |
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| Japanese-flavored food |
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| decoration at the entrance |
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| the back room drink stand |
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| the back room where you pick up drinks |
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| hallways |
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| natural lighting |
Guests still on pillows on tatami (woven straw) matts.
Tokonoma (alcoves) in the room display kakemomo (paintings) and ikebana (flower
arrangements). Shoji (sliding paper doors) section off the rooms as in a
traditional house. There is also a room with modern chairs and seating
arrangements.
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| Japanese style (left) and western style (right) |
I am impressed that Starbucks refrained from putting it’s
logo on everything…actually, anything inside the house. The art and displays
are complete unbranded, as are the cushions and all other decorations. It would
have felt cheesy if there were mere moderns replicas but Starbucks kept it classy
this time. How they manage to keep this place clean, tidy, and undamaged with
all the unruly tourists running around is beyond me.
