Café culture has been evolving in Japan. While the country is well known for its traditional tea culture, it also embraced coffee making since the late 19th century. Kissatens – traditional Japanese coffee houses appeared mainly in mid 20th century with calm atmosphere and lovely ambience.
As you probably already guessed from my blog, café hopping was one of the priorities on my Japan itinerary – we visited dozens of character cafes, kawai (cute) theme cafes, kissatens with traditional settings, specialty coffees.
Have you heard this popular tongue-in-cheek theory about Japan: in the wake of its post-WWII reputation crisis, Japan decided to launch a full-scale invasion of cuteness – think adorable mascots, amines, sparkly cafés, heart-shaped food, cutest robots and Hello Kitty. Guess what? It totally worked. These days, the power of kawaii culture is visible in everything, but especially in Japan’s amazing cutest themed cafés.
See also my complete guide with tips and itineraries for planning your trip to Japan.
While I can’t say I managed to check out all cafes I wanted to, I definitely managed quite a few. I still have a lot more pinned on Google maps on my list for my next visits. So I will share my suggestions with you, as well as the places that are on my list to try.
Tips on Visiting Cafes in Japan
Before we jump into listing the cafes we did love and didn’t so much like, I have to give you some tips, that may help you while visiting popular cafes:
Check out Opening Times
- Interestingly, not many cafes open early in the morning. So if you are a morning person, or if you, like me, get up early only during your travels, you need to check the opening hours of the cafes you can actually visit until 9am. Those will most probably be either chain branches, or the cafes mostly concentrating on breakfast.
- Similarly, check which days do the cafes work. While many in bigger cities work daily, there are exceptions. In the smaller cities though, it’s common that some cafes may be closed on certain days of the week. So definitely check in advance, before visiting.
Rules on Minimum Order
- In some of the most popular cafes, especially character cafes, they may have “one person – one drink” rule. This is not as common in Japan in our experience, as it is in Korea, but it’s still there. Especially in case if you make a reservation in advance. With reservation, there might be even more rules – such as the spending limit, or even 2 drinks per person requirement.
Find Less Popular Times for Visiting Famous Cafes
- While the popular cafes are often very crowded, you may still manage to go at a non-crowded time or to a less crowded branch. Weekdays are of course better than weekends. Showing up first thing upon opening or towards later evening is much better than afternoon times. For instance, we got in Sanrio café in Ikebukuro without wait because we showed up at about 7pm, while Pompompurin café we visited directly at the opening time of 11am. However, I am sure we wouldn’t be able to do anything on weekends. One Saturday, we tried to get into any of my noted cafes in Harajuku and literally all of them had huge queues, so we obviously skipped.
Advance Reservations
- Many popular cafes and restaurants can get fully booked in advance. These mainly include the famous character cafes, or Insta and TikTok popular places. Many have queues outside, as I mentioned above, where you may have to wait half an hour, an hour, or who knows how long 😊 So before going, do check if the café or restaurant you want to visit requires reservation. There are very few such cafes in my list though.
A note: As I will be mentioning kissaten often – they are retro-style Japanese cafés, often dimly lit with vintage furniture, jazz playing , and strong black coffee. They take you back to 1960s and 1970s.
Below are my lists of mainly independent coffee shops of either popular or less well-known lovely places. The lists are of course based on my opinion and my research. There are numerous more cafes all around Japan and I am sure I wouldn’t be able to check out all of them in a lifetime 😊
List of the Most Beautiful Cafes by City
Kanto Region
Best Cafes in Tokyo
Best Cafes in Nikko
A pretty popular café, which has two branches in Nikko. Their coffee was pretty good, but if you don’t like black coffee, they don’t really have options for you. Besides, it’s pretty expensive. We came here on a very cold day with the main aim to warm up. As it is an old building, it certainly doesn’t keep warmth that well, but it did the job still 😊
Hongu café – this café is located at a very convenient location near Shinkyo bridge.
Toki Coffee – if you are visiting the Kegon waterfall, this café is at a very convenient location.
Best Cafes in Kawaguchiko
Kawaguchiko area is a very popular touristy destination and, hence, you find a number of cute cafes with a view.
Troisieme Marche – we didn’t get a chance to try their cakes, but they look awesome.
Café Mimi – beautiful lakeside café with a view of mount Fuji. The atmosphere here was really nice.
Lake Bake café – if you make it all the way to the Oishi park area, this café looks cute.
Kansai Region
Best Cafes in Kyoto and Osaka
Best Cafes in Nara
In Nara many lovely cafes are concentrated in Naramachi district, which provides an easy access to people who visit on a day trip.
CHAMI – Specialty Coffee Roaster
I didn’t expect much from this modern looking coffee place, but they had great coffee and very welcoming baristas. They have a second floor sitting, as well as bar type seats downstairs. Definitely come here, if you are looking for good coffee in a convenient location.
Rokumei Coffee – the café is located just next to the Kintetsu Nara station and offers simple breakfast and coffee.
Maldita Maldito – cute kissaten type café
Orion – cute café that offers drinks and snacks, including the scones.
Salon Naramachi – a café in a traditional setting with small Japanese garden. It offers Japanese sweets and drinks.
Mizuya Chaya – teahouse in the Nara park
Nakatanidou – This is not a café per se, it’s more of a shop. If you are a fan of Mochi, this is one of the most famous mochi places. You might has seen all the videos about how they make mochi here.
Chubu Region
Best Cafes in Kanazawa and Takayama
See my dedicated post to the cafes in Kanazawa, Takatama and Shirakawago
Chugoku Region
Best Cafes in Onomichi
This cute small café is hidden along the train tracks. We got a very cute cat shaped delicious ice-cream dessert.
You will find this wooden café when climbing up or down the temple area. It has views over the cat alley. It has Ghibli vibes – quirky and eerie. I honestly don’t know how to describe it properly. Even photos don’t quite capture it, you just have to visit. The café was full when we visited, but we only had to wait a few minutes, before they found us a seat. Honestly, can’t say the lady was very welcoming, she seemed overwhelmed, although they only have a few tables.
Antenna coffee house – cute little café on the way up or down the temple area.
Oyatsu-to-Yamaneko – this little shop has tasty milk puddings.
Best Cafes in Kurashiki
This popular coffee house has been working since 1970s. They have a big selection of coffee and it was absolutely great. If the prices were not huge, I would definitely buy beans from them. On top of that, the café is beautiful. They bring you coffee in old pretty cups. They also have a small yard with seating. Don’t miss this place when in Kurashiki.
Café El Greco – a gorgeous café decorated with flowers from outside. Vintage furniture and welcoming staff also helps a lot.
Kyushu Region
Best cafes in Fukuoka
While Fukuoka city itself may not have too many sightseeing spots, the city is vibrant and has a number of cafes, restaurants and eateries.
Bread, Espresso & Hakata – while this is a chain with branches in several cities, I love their wonderful cappuccinos and pastries. It’s a café more for a quick breakfast coffee, than sitting long.
While Glass coffee – a spacious café with delicious coffee and cakes. You can come here to hang out and enjoy the vibes.
Kirby café – another branch of this character café. It does need reservations as well, but if you didn’t manage them in Tokyo, maybe you will be able to here.
Nooice Tenjin – this café is known for its breakfast and especially pancakes.
Café Delta – cozy café with beautiful décor.
Green Bean to Bar chocolate – this chocolate café looks amazing. I definitely need to visit this on my next trip.
Best Cafes in Kumamoto
This lovely little city with its cutest mascot has some great options for food places and cafes. Oh, and the people in this cute city are the most open and welcoming:
First thing you do, when you want sweets in Kumamoto, should be to visit this chocolate shop. I didn’t know about it and accidentally noticed from the street, it just looked so appealing. It didn’t disappoint, the chocolates are absolutely amazing and the staff was awesome. We got our chocolates with ice pack, so that they didn’t melt. That ice pack lasted amazingly long. Absolutely one of my favorite chocolate shops.
We came here in the evening, the vibe was nice. The cakes are tasty and the coffee is great too. Plus, staff is so welcoming.
This small café is near the Suizenji gardens just across the tram station, which makes it very convenient to visit. We visited just after the garden, exactly as it opened at 11.30am. They had great coffee and food. Keep in mind, they only take cash, no cards – we learned that the hard way exactly when we ran out of cash. If you are in the similar situation, there’s Lawson a few minutes away with an ATM 😊
And Coffee Brewers – Modern café in the center of Kumamoto. Do come here if you want your morning coffee fix.
Nagasaki Jiro café – Vintage kissaten a bit farther away from downtown Kumamoto.
Best Cafes in Yufuin
This café is located near the Yufuin train station. They have delicious cheesecakes. We grabbed one on our way back to the train station after exploring Yufuin village and ate it on the train. Definitely worth it. They also have tasty kaese kuchen in small jars, try it here or at another branch in the village. This second branch doesn’t have any seating though.
A café with great seating overlooking with the views of the Kinrin lake. Definitely grab a seat outside if you can. It gets very crowded though, so come here as early as possible, upon opening, if you can. While the main reason to visit is the view, they have fine coffee and pastries as well.
Very close to the Kinrin lake, this café might be a bit difficult to find. But Google location is correct, you will just need to go to the second floor, once you are in that courtyard. Do visit, if you want a quiet spot to relax after visiting the crowded Yufuin village. When we visited, there were only a few people here, I guess the reason was its hidden location. Coffee is strong, you get only the black coffee with or without milk.
Best Cafes in Nagasaki
This beautiful old style café is located inside the Glover garden. You can find the café once you go up to the second level using the escalators. We found a respite here during our visit on a very hot day and definitely loved the vibe.
We chanced upon this old style café when wandering around Nagasaki. We needed coffee so we simply googled the cafes nearby and this one came up. We lucked out, it turned out to be a cute Japanese café with vintage furniture. We were the only customers that afternoon. The lady was very welcoming and nice. I highly recommend this hidden gem if you are in the area.
Café Chains with Branches in Many Cities
We generally tried to visit independent cafes, however, sometimes we checked out the chains as well. Here is the list of decent café chains, which you could try. These are Japanese and international brands, which are popular and widely available around the country. I can’t say I was a huge fan of any of them, but they were pretty decent and ok enough option, especially before a train ride:
- Doutor – this is one of the, if not the, largest café chains in the country. It is also one of the cheapest. I can’t say I was a fan of their coffee, but it’s all right to grab to take on a train.
- Excelsior – Doutor slightly more upscale bigger brother (owned by the same company) offers decent coffee, sometime even with latte art.
- Hoshino – a kissaten type chain with interesting old-style interior. The café chain has about 200 branches. Except for their black coffee, they offer souffle pancakes and other sweets. We did try 2 types of their souffles. They were not to our taste, compared to other fluffy versions we tried, but they were still good and you might like it a lot.
- Starbucks – you can find a Starbucks branch basically everywhere you go. This US brand is very popular in Japan for a reason I can’t quite fathom, and you will find some quirky branches, branches in historical settings (like the one in Sannenzaka in Kyoto), a huge roastery branch in Tokyo, etc.
- Tully’s – this US born company was acquire by Japanese and has thrived in Japan. Their coffee was decent and the atmosphere was fine for sitting for a short while.
- Komeda’s – this Japanese chain is becoming more and more popular. They concentrate on offering bigger spaces and nice atmosphere. They have decent coffee.
- % Arabica – while this chain is smaller, it’s rapidly gaining popularity around the world. There are branches in London, Dubai, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and a number of other cities in Europe and Asia. They are also planning to open more. Their coffee is strong and good. I will write about their Kyoto branches in my post about the city.
- Saint Marc café – this is a very popular Japanese chain I definitely plan to try next time.
- Blue Bottle Coffee – this chain does not have as many branches, as most others mentioned here, but it’s been growing. Coffee here is great, so if you come by it, definitely do try.
- Beck’s coffee shop
- Café Veloce
- Ueshima
Pancake Café Chains
- Happy Pancake – this is a very popular chain with branches in a lot of locations. I can’t say that I loved their souffle pancakes, but they were quite decent. Plus, they are usually open later in the evening, which not many cafes do and that is pretty convenient.
- Eggs and Things – this American style cafes are in a lot of locations as well. Their pancakes are not souffle, but rather the American pancake style. We ordered savory ones when we visited their branch in Harajuku, and it was decent. Basically if you need breakfast, this is not a bad option.
- Flipper’s – another chain for Japanese pancakes. We didn’t get to try it yet.
Cheapest Coffees on the Go
When talking about coffee and tea in Japan, one has to absolutely mention the convenience stores and even the vending machines. I gotta say the simplest and cheapest coffee at Lawsons was quite decent. So if you are on a budget and need coffee in the morning, you can definitely opt for it. You also have other convenience stores with good coffee machines.
Another option is canned coffees and teas in convenience stores and vending machines. M has tried every type of drink from vending machines we saw on the way. I did try some of those coffees and personally was not a fan of either because they are normally sweet and hardly taste of coffee. But if you like sweet coffees and want a drink on the go, you may give them a try.
Hello I am Ket,
A traveler, planner, and sweet tooth behind Hit the Road Ket.
Travel isn’t just my passion – it’s a lifeline for my mental health. Having lived in three cities and explored 60 countries (and counting!), I created this blog to share my experiences, smart tips, and itinerary advice with fellow travel lovers. I’m all about making the most of limited time, finding scenic routes, and turning every trip into something memorable – coffee in hand, of course.