Source: Creativity
At a Starbucks in Kyoto, Japan, that opened Friday, customers take off their shoes to hang out on tatami mats and sip matcha tea latte. The company preserved the original design of the 100-year-old townhouse that houses the new Starbucks, dubbed the Kyoto Ninei-zaka Yasaka Chayaten.
The coffeehouse’s mermaid insignia is printed on the curtain at the entrance. Other than that, there are few of Starbucks’ typical visual cues. Inside are hanging scrolls made of a fabric used to make kimonos locally and three rooms with tatami mats, and outside there’s landscaping designed to look like a traditional Japanese garden. The shop is located near Kyoto’s Kiyomizu temple, which was founded 1,200 years ago and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. To avoid disrupting the neighborhood, the company said it wouldn’t let people line up out front.
The coffee chain has over 26,000 shops worldwide, and it has been trying to make more of them feel local and one-of-a-kind instead of mass-produced.
