This limited-time cafe is only open through Valentine’s Day!
The Hakata Hankyu department store in Fukuoka Prefecture is ready for Valentine’s Day. The eighth floor of the building is currently dedicated to a Valentine Chocolate Fair, with some of the best purveyors of chocolate around selling their finest. While most women in Japan will be buying a majority of their chocolate for male coworkers or acquaintances (known as “giri-choco“), others will be buying for their significant other.
Alongside the chocolate vendors will be a limited-time cafe, set up to allow patrons to relive the innocent feelings of love experienced in Valentine’s Days past. The Homeroom Cafe will have handsome waiters dressed in school and sports club uniforms, as well as other male waiters dressed as teachers, to “bring back those youthful memories of school-aged puppy love.”
With the purchase of a drink (prices start at 280 yen (US$2.50), customers will also receive two complimentary pieces of chocolate to sample. Customers can submit poems about love in the senryuu style, which is similar in structure to a haiku but instead deals with themes of human nature and is often satirical or ironic. They will also be offering “Valentine color advice” to help improve your “feminine strengths.” These advice sessions last for about 15 minutes, and are limited to only 20 people per day.
If you happen to be passing through Fukuoka between now and February 14, a visit to the Homeroom Cafe could be a fun way to get you in the mood for Valentine’s Day, and along the way you can pick up some delicious chocolates for you or your friends at the chocolate fair too!
Restaurant Information
Homeroom Cafe / ホームルームカフェ
Address: Fukuoka-shi Hakata-ku Hakata-eki Chuogai 1-1
福岡市博多区博多駅中央街１－１
Open: February 1 – 14, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. (until 6 p.m. on February 14)
Website
Source: Hakata Keizai Shimbun, Hakata Hankyu
Featured image: Twitter/ @yry0814