The first and second floor are very different at Cafe Juju.

When you walk up to the newest restaurant to open in Tokyo’s Honan neighborhood, it looks like the quintessential Japanese cafe. The interior design is that perfect mix of bright and inviting while still feeling cozy and relaxing, and the menu, with options like curry rice, pizza, coffee, and cream soda, also fits into that not-too-light, not-too-filling fare that’s great for lingering over.

Even the name of the cafe sounds cute: Juju. Really, there’s only one thing that doesn’t quite fit in the first-floor décor.

Even though everything else on the ground floor is clean and freshly scrubbed, this door has a layer of darkness around its edges, almost like there’s something trying to force its way out of the space beyond it. Very mysterious, but there’s a helpful video that shows what’s on the other side.

Ah, that should be a “helpful and terrifying video that shows what’s on the other side.” Remember how we said the cafe’s name is Juju? It doesn’t have quite as cute a ring to it once you know that it comes from ju, the Japanese word for “curse,” and that the cafe’s second floor houses a collection of supposedly cursed items gathered from around the world, such as dolls, mummified remains, ritual masks, mirrors, and video tapes.

The cafe’s full name is Jubutsu (“Cursed Object”) Cafe Juju, and it’s managed by Obaken, the horror design company which runs a permanent haunted house in Honan and also the organization behind Tokyo’s haunted taxi and the Devil Tribe takeover of Japan’s Hello Kitty/Sanrio amusement park.

Cafe Juju isn’t a limited-time horror event, though, but a permanent cafe operating with an amassed stockpile of curses on its second floor. If you want, you can limit your visit entirely to the first floor, blissfully nibbling on your parfait…

…while directly above your head other visitors subject themselves to the allegedly evil energies that radiate from the unsettling artifacts.

The cafe’s dual nature is also reflected in its coaster design, with one pattern saying “Feel free to relax and enjoy your time”…

…while the other ominously warns “Somethings [sic] in this world must never be touched…”

▼ It’s unclear if the coaster says “objecto” because of a benign typo, or if it’s a manifestation of a curse of misspelling.

Note that there is an additional 600-yen (US$4.05) fee to access the second floor, and it appears that all guests are initially seated on the first floor, and can request to move to the second upon ordering a second item from the menu. So if you don’t want to admit that you’re too scared to see what’s upstairs, you can claim you’re abstaining due to budgetary reasons.

Cafe information
Jubutsu Cafe Juju / 呪物cafe ジュジュ
Address: Tokyo-to, Suginami-ku, Honan-cho, 2-4-27
東京都杉並区方南2-4-27
Open 1 p.m.-8 p.m.
Only open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for March 2025
Open Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from April 2025
Website

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: YouTube/Obaken San, PR Times
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[ Read in Japanese ]