My mum was visiting in Japan last month, so together we decided to visit the Starbucks Reserve Roastery. The Roastery is a souped up Starbucks that roasts beans onsite, and serves a bunch of exclusive menu items that you can’t get at any of the other Starbucks. It’s one of 5 worldwide, and the only one in Japan. The building sits right on the Meguro River, which is a big cherry blossom spot, so afterwards we enjoyed some sakura-viewing as well.
Since we decided to visit the Roastery during cherry blossom season, we assumed it would probably be the most busy period of the year and decided to show up at 8am on a weekday when the store opens. However even this didn’t turn out to be early enough, as people were lining up well before then, and so we got into the store at around 8:45am.
The building was designed by Kengo Kuma, who I hadn’t heard of my mum had. One of his more recent works was the Japan National Stadium which was built for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
My favourite word in Japanese is kikan-gentei (期間限定) or kisetsu-gentei (季節限定) which means “limited-time product” or “seasonal product”. When I see something is only available for a limited time my eyes just lock onto it (every marketer’s dream, really).
So we decided to get a sakura cornetto (i.e. the Italian version of a croissant) plus a slice of sakura cake.
For the drinks - my mum got a pourover coffee, and I picked-up the very fancy-sounding “sakura barrel-aged cold brew”. The cold brew was sweetened with some sort of sakura syrup, and garnished with a sakura leaf you can eat as well.
I had a sip of the pour over, which I’d put into the “not bad, but overpriced” bucket”. There are better spots to get coffee elsewhere in Japan (but worse spots too) so I’d come here more if you are a Starbucks fan or just want something fancy where you can enjoy the decor too.
From the top floor, there’s a balcony where you can get a bit of a view down to the sakura trees below.
Once we enjoyed our coffee and cake, we headed towards Naka-meguro station. You can walk along the river all the way to the station, so it’s lined with plenty of cherry blossom trees.
The Meguro River is a very famous spot for sakura, although in recent years its trees have been pruned back for safety reasons and for the trees’ health. So the area is maybe not quite as beautiful as it was in years-gone-by. Nonetheless there were still plenty of people about taking pictures. I can imagine it would have been ridiculously crowded if we had gone on the weekend.
In past years I didn’t really pay too much attention to the sakura. Maybe I spent a bit more time outside this year in the short week that they were blooming, so I realised that sakura trees are basically everywhere - in parks and lining the banks of rivers, not to mention on random side streets. So really you can enjoy sakura without too many people around if you wanted to.
But it’s also bit of a tall ask to tell someone to “wander around until you find some sakura” so I can understand the appeal and convenience of just coming to a spot like this that is “the” spot for sakura. And of course we are guilty of doing the same thing as everyone else, too.
Upon reaching the main road near Naka-Meguro station, we could even see that a barricade had been put up.
I’m sure people must come out of the station and then stand here to take pictures, so they’ve done their best to mitigate that.
This year was quite rainy, so sakura season felt like it ended in the blink of an eye. Maybe I’ll try and enjoy it a bit more next year.
Public transport access
Even though it’s in the middle of Tokyo, access to the Roastery is a tiny bit annoying, depending on where you are coming from. The nearest train stations are either:
- Shibuya station (JR and metro lines): from here it’s either a 20-minute walk, or there are some busses running as well
- Naka-meguro station (metro line): from here it’s a 10-minute walk along the Meguro River
In my case, it was quicker for me to get a train to Shibuya station and then walk the rest of the way. We decided to go see a movie in Shinjuku afterwards, so after walking along the river we got the train back from Naka-meguro.
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