A Secret Nintendo Cafe in Japan is Opening to the Public for the First Time
Japan is no stranger to gaming themed cafes – there have been Kirby cafes, Super Mario cafes and Final Fantasy cafes to name but a few. But for the first time, a secret cafe only available to Nintendo employees and other game developers will be opening up to the public.
Reported by Bloomberg, the café known as 84 is owned and operated by ex-Nintendo employee Toru Hashimoto, and was created as a members-only cafe for video game developers. The cafe, located in Shibuya at a still-secret address, has been forced to re-evaluate its operating model as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and is now taking reservations and customers from outside the industry.
Toru Hashimoto originally wanted 84 to be a place for Nintendo’s game developers to relax in a video game themed environment that wasn’t in the company offices. It still very much retains a Nintendo focus, however, with art and doodles from various Nintendo games framed on the walls, and a Legend of Zelda jingle playing as you walk through the door.
The name 84 comes from the year that Hashimoto joined Nintendo, and many of the items and decorations in the cafe are related to his time there. Hashimoto left Nintendo in 1995, and opened the café ten years later in 2015. Apparently, he opened the café exclusively for friends because he didn’t have much experience in the hospitality business, and they “would be forgiving even if I make mistakes”. Brilliantly, even those invited to dine at 84 still had to solve a puzzle to find the address.
It isn’t just Nintendo employees that have eaten there. Famous Japanese developers like Dragon Quest designer Yuji Horii and Shigeki Morimoto from the Pokemon Company are also regulars, making the venue a hotspot for Japanese development talent.
