Kyoto Sept 2019 : Tatami Starbucks

Continue on my journey from my last post, I was looking for the one of a kind tatami Starbuck in Kyoto. Above is actually the front of the store. You would never have guess, would you?

Here is another view of the shop front. So can you tell which shop is Starbuck? Yeah. Me neither. I must have walked up and down the same road three times with my GPS trying to locate this shop. The reason I couldn't find it was because it has blend so well into the Japanese traditional shops that it's kinda hard to shot!

This is the entrance to the store. It looked just like any other Japanese store there! No bight green giant green mermaid sign at all. Everything is just natural wood in color, with a small sign that says "Starbuck Coffee". I like it so much. It's so minimalist design and so typical Japanese!

One of the tell tale sign to finding this place is to look for the high concentration of the caucasian hanging outside the store. They like taking photo of this Starbuck, cause it's so different from any other Starbucks in the world! I even helped some ladies took their photo, and they were really embarrassed when they ask to have their photo taken with the store, haha! I told them I was also there for Starbucks. 

After my photo duty is done, I made my way inside to the store. Interestingly the pathway lead you all the way to the back of the store and made a u-turn back into the front where the order counter is. So in away, you get to enjoy the view of the whole shop. Inside is just as beautiful and minimalistic in design. Dark wood and natural light shining in. The ground floor was concrete, so the reflection of the natural light coming in reflected on the floor making it such a elegant ambiance. 

There are some Japanese decorating along the long pathway too, so you really get a feel of coming into another area, a very Japanese zen kinda feel to it. The place just instantly make you feel relax. I don't know if the wooden surrounding absorb the sound, or it was too early in the morning to have many customers in the store, but it was quite peaceful and quiet.

Here are some seating area on the ground floor. Interestingly, there weren't any one on the ground floor. The store has 2 stories, and seeing how empty it is made me hopeful that I would get a nice seat upstairs as well! HA! How wrong I was. 

One the ground floor, there is also a small garden beautifully decorated at the back of the store. The glass door  is transparent, so you can view out to the garden as the photo above. Very zen like. 

As you make you u-turn, you finally see a very big but unassuming Starbuck mermaid gently printed on the wall. That's when you finally feel like, yeah, you are in the right place after all. Haha. Else your brain is like going "is this really Starbucks?", "it doesn't feel like Starbucks", "Are you sure this is Starbucks?" on and on. Finally you reach the order counter, and that is where I placed my order, sweet potato frappe again! Woohoo! SGD7 breakfast was all I could afford until lunch time.

After I got my drink, I made my way upstairs. My goal was to get a seat by the front window so that I can look down into the streets below. The flooring upstairs are made of wood, and there are seats here and there, as well as room partition. It feels quiet, but almost every corner I went was filled with people, either alone or with a small group, sipping on their coffee, and not making much noise as would a normal Starbuck in any other part of the world. 

Disappointed I couldn't get a nice window seat up front, I made my way to the back of the floor, and found a window seat in one of the private room. But there was already a table occupied with some gaijin and a korean lady. I assume they were American's from their English ascent. I made my way in and sat down at one of the solo corner looking out of the second floor back window. Above is what the room look like when they left. It's super comfortable and very quiet too. I think in general, people don't talk loudly in Japan.

I have to take off my shoes to go into this tatami room, and yes, you do have to sit on the floor. It was ok for me. So I sat down and enjoy my drink. I try not to look at my phone too much, and instead look out of the window. There were some greenery outside, and it was really relaxing to just be there. 

As I start to drink my frappe, I saw the drawing and message on the cup, and it was so cute. Below it says "Welcome to Kyoto". I was there for around 1 hour, cause even though I wanted to spend the whole day there, I still need to go to the temple before it gets too crowded. 

Yes, I would definitely recommend you come visit this Starbuck if you are in Kyoto. It is a very different feeling from any other Starbucks in the world.