Every other store in Tokyo Character Street is open, but Donguri Kyowakoku says it’s not time to shop.

Earlier this month the Tokyo Skytree branch of Studio Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku held its grand reopening, welcoming guests to its enchanting forest-style interior. However, just a few weeks after gaining a place to find cool Ghibli stuff, fans are now losing one, though it’s hard to imagine anyone getting too steamed over the logic behind the shutdown, which is itself an attempt to deal with some sweltering conditions.

First Avenue Tokyo Station, or Tokyo Station Ichibangai as it’s called in Japanese, is a shopping center attached to Tokyo Station. The most popular part of the complex is Tokyo Character Street, a section of specialty shop after specialty shop filled with merch for some of Japan’s most popular characters from anime, manga, video games, and the sphere of adorable mascot characters, and one of those shops is Donguri Kyowakoku’s, officially listed as its “Tokyo Station branch.”

First Avenue Tokyo Station’s proximity to one of Japan’s busiest rail hubs for both short and long-distance train and subway rides, plus being located outside the ticket gates so you don’t even need a ticket to shop there, make Tokyo Character Street an extremely popular place to pick up souvenirs and presents. However, First Avenue Tokyo Station is an underground shopping center, which means there are no naturally cool breezes coming into its stores. As a matter of fact, cool breezes are in short supply right now in general in Japan, as the whole country, Tokyo included, is grappling with an intense heat wave, and things have gotten so hot that the Donguri Kyowakoku branch has announced it will be temporarily closing, for an undetermined amount of time, out of concern for the wellbeing of its workers and customers.

The announcement was made through the Donguri Kyowakoku Twitter account and on the website of managing company Benelic. The statement says:

“Over this series of consecutive extremely hot days, it has become difficult to regulate the temperature in the facility, and we do not feel able to adequately provide the atmosphere of a place of comfort, warmth, and unfading smiles that our customers value.”

First Avenue Tokyo Station is air-conditioned, but as a series of long, wide tunnels with hundreds of people moving through them at any given time, keeping the place cool isn’t always easy, especially since Tokyo Character Street’s shops have open storefronts when their shutters are open during business hours.

Neither Donguri Kyowakoku nor First Avenue Tokyo Station have mentioned the facility’s air conditioning system being outright broken, and there’s been no order from the health department or other governmental authorities to suspend business operations within the center. Of the roughly 30 shops in Tokyo Character Street, Donguri Kyowakoku is the only one to have said they’ll be shutting down indefinitely in response to the heat, so this really does seem to be a judgement call the store has made to protect it employees and would-be shoppers from the risk of dehydration, heat exhaustion, and other high-temperature maladies. It’s an especially conscientious move considering that Japanese schools are currently on summer vacation, and it’s also the high season for inbound foreign tourists as well, so Donguri Kyowakoku is leaving a lot of potential sales revenue on the table, but still feels that shutting down for the time being is the right choice.

▼ Calcifer was unavailable for comment regarding his possible culpability in the affair.

The announcement apologizes to fans for the inconvenience, and directs them to the Donguri Kyowakoku branches elsewhere in Tokyo at the Skytree, Sunshine City shopping center in the Ikebukuro neighborhood, and the Diver City complex in Odaiba.

Source: Benelic via Maido News via Yahoo! Japan News
Top image: Studio Ghibli
Insert image: Studio Ghibli
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