Japanese Cafe Full of Nintendo Rarities Opens to the Public
As a company, Nintendo has an incredibly rich history but bad habits with preservation. Despite that, Nintendo fans have made great efforts to preserve things themselves. One ex-Nintendo employee harbored plenty of respect for the company and his co-workers, creating a cafe for developers only in 2015. After the pandemic's economic impact, however, anyone can make a reservation and come enjoy draft beer and ramen alongside video game history.
As reported by Bloomberg, Toru Hashimoto started out as a collector while working for Nintendo. The company put no effort in preserving the video game products it made when it started out in the industry, so he would take the items it threw away home with him. That eventually lead the now hard-to-find trinkets to be archived in his collection that grew into his cafe, named "84."
"84" seems simple for a cafe's name, but it's a strong pun. It references Toru's own last name as the number 84 is known as "ha-shi" in Japanese, along with the year he joined Nintendo (1984) and the last world in Super Mario Bros. (World 8-4.) Overall, the cafe is known to be a calming place for loyal patrons, one Pokemon developer saying he tends to go and play the series' card game with his son there.
Thanks to Hashimoto's efforts in taking small trinkets, destined to be destroyed, home from Nintendo, 84 is a shining light on video game history with even obscure things like unused cartridge stickers on display. With Hashimoto's developer friends being fond of the cafe, they have even left personal doodles that hang on the cafe's walls; like a special drawing of Mario done by Shigeru Miyamoto. 84 isn't just about Nintendo, as drawings from Dragon Quest developers can be found, as well as plushies of other characters like Sonic the Hedgehog scattered about for guests to relax with.
As open as the cafe has decided to be as of late, 84 is still kept somewhat of a secret, as reservation-makers are made to play a game to find the cafe. For the years that it's been around, Hashimoto has remained stubborn on keeping prices the same despite not retaining much profit. He's considered opening an online subscription base for the loyal customers that want to keep the Nintendo-centered cafe open and growing.
Hoshimoto told Bloomberg, "... moving to a new location is an option, and when I do, I may do so without telling anyone so that people can play a fresh game of finding 84.” It helps that Hashimoto's developer friends have his back; with many offering to help, and some even offering to come by to teach video game history to some of the newer clientele. With newer and veteran Nintendo fans seeking 84 as their relaxing place, the future of video games remains sentimental and bright.
Source: Bloomberg
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