There are a lot of cafes out there and Japan is no exception. An upstart cafe owner is always faced with the challenge of standing out in a crowd. Having good coffee and ambiance is a plus but with all the customers’ faces buried in their smartphones and laptops they may just as easily go to the place up the street.
Enter Toique (a tongue-twisting portmanteau of “toy” and “unique”), a Tokyo-based cafe that offers up a plethora of international toys for its drinkers. Toique only has two policies that it enforces, no smoking and no one under 15 allowed.
Toique’s owner, Mr Shimizu, wants to break the social taboo surrounding adults playing with toys by giving them a safe place to enjoy them. He also feels that adults can’t truly enjoy a toy store with so many kids around, whereas adult “playgrounds” like restaurants and bars are also being infiltrated with more and more children.
With these goals in mind Mr Shimizu set-up this cafe, and the result is downright tranquil. With every drink you purchase you can stay for one hour and enjoy any of the toys hailing from Japan, Germany, and Switzerland.
Don’t expect people playing Call of Duty, though. These are more traditional puzzle type games that are easy to pick up and understand. For example, there’s the Swiss Naef Diamant which is a diamond-shaped set of 15 blocks that can be rearranged in a seemingly endless variety of combinations.
Shimizu also recommends Via-J (see photo below), which is a Japanese toy that can also double as a decorative piece for your home. It consists of an elegant looking set of transparent slides that you can roll multicolored balls down. It’s a fine way to chill out and enjoy your drink.
One more featured toy is the German game Kubana. Kubana is just like Connect 4, only played in 3 dimensions. Meaning is you were to put four Connect 4 games back to back so you could win along any 4 places inside the cube. Pretty sneaky, Germans.
With only adults playing all these games the atmosphere is really serene. No one is yelling, crying, or fighting. In fact, hardly anyone is talking while immersed in their toys. Before you know it, your hour’s up.
© RocketNews24
27 Comments
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REMzzz
No soup for you!
nath
Yay for no smoking! Nothing ruins the aroma of a good coffee quicker than some inconsiderate smoker filling the air with cigarette smoke. Somebody asked me the other day "why is Starbucks so popular here?"... With other chains offering similar, if not cheaper drinks the only reason i can think of is the non-smoking policy...
Might need to check out this toy cafe.
tmarie
I love the idea. Mind you, I would just kill for a smoke free, child free cafe!
Original, I am a fine example of hating Starbucks coffee but going there ONLY because it is smoke free - I study and get work done there as I can't at home. I get a latte, turn on my ipod to drown out the inane chatter of housewives and the screaming of kids.... Mind you, there is a Dotour close by that is in a mall that I frequent more these days. Seems it isn't housewife central, cheaper, smoke free....
REMzzz
Oh how funny. For a smoker like me, a cup of coffee with is just not complete without a cigarette.... They go so well together. I hardly drank any coffee until i started smoking, and then it was like "wow!"... And it's not just me.
Didn't realize just how much it bothers you guys. I figured at least coffee should sort of block it out, as they are both a variation of something that's slightly burnt :)
Ewan Huzarmy
Who wrote this piece ?
Enter Toique (a tongue-twisting portmanteau of “toy” and “unique”)
It's neither tongue-twisting (unless you 're a flat-head with an extremely short tongue and a speech inpediment ), nor a portmanteau (two things, a portmanteau does not make ).
Better to have said crap Japanese -mangled English slogan of word combination origin.. hardly unique as Uniqlo beat them to it over 15 years ago !
Oh and it's good to find Japan has opened another establishment where people refuse to interact or speak with one another !
tmarie
You do know that smoking dulls the taste buds right? Imagine how much more flavour you could taste if you didn't smoke.
It bothers me because I don't want to get sick from second hand smoke and hate the smell of old smoke that gets in my hair and on my clothes.
REMzzz
It's not so much the taste as the feeling. Like i said, i didn't really care for coffee before... and i could never drink decaf. It seems that caffeine complements one of the mood altering substances in tobacco. But i'm not one of those inconsiderate people, i was just surprised that your reaction to cigarette smoke is worse with coffee than without. Something i never knew until now.
tmarie
I don't care if you have coffee with or without smoking. Just that it is a fact that smoking dulls your taste buds. Smoke all you like but just not around me. Japan has come leaps and bounds with non-smoking areas in the past few years but is still light years behind most Western countries.
Thanks for your consideration. It is a shame that not all smokers think like you. If they did, we wouldn't have to have such rules and debates about smoking vs non-smoking areas.
tranel
"There are a lot of cafes out there and Japan is no exception."
What a terrible opening line. Lazy, nonsensical... just aaaargh from a writing point of view. Seriously JT.
We editor and copywriters should unit against thighs like this.
Guy-jin
Oh, the iorny!
Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land
Now now, don't loose your temper. ;)
ProbablyWrong
Editors of the world, unite against the thighs!
anglootaku
Only old folks 70+ allowed??
REMzzz
@ProbablyWrong... it might be more like, proofreaders of the world, unite against the editors... heh... or just unite against Rocket News... it'd be much much simpler :)
REMzzz
Yea, but no adult diapers allowed. Old, but not too old.
Jonathan Hunt
tmarie, some people like to smoke. That is why there's areas in which they can smoke while doing the things that people like to do, including drink coffee. If you don't like it, go somewhere smoke-free.
2020hindsights
Maybe not tongue-twisting, but clumsy. And indeed it is a portmanteau - albeit a clumsy one as well.
Vesperto
The more i see people complaining about smoking, the more i feel like starting to smoke.
It's plain simple: post a sign outside cafés that says whether or not you can smoke inside. If you're a smoker, welcome to heaven; if you're a non-smoker, you might not like the air inside so stay out and stop yapping. Jeez...
I, for one, prefer smoker places even though i never smoked - people tend to be more tolerant and relaxed. I never really did like the "You can't do __ because i don't like it / science or god says / it's wrong according to my moral standards" crowd.
Incidentally, toys for grown-ups, really?
+1
lucabrasi
Hah! Classic.
Alan
It sounds like a great way to unwind for an hour. Playing with things like Lego is a great way to get rid of stress. I hope this new cafe is successful and becomes a chain.
I'm surprised you consider smoking a more adult pastime than playing with toys. What are smokers but big selfish babies with a desperate need to suck on a nipple substitute?
Elbuda Mexicano
Somehow this place sounds very boring, but if some adults and anybody over 15 years of age?? are interested in this, well good, but since I do have kids, I would never take them to such a place, not kid friendly?? OK! You will not get one penny nor YEN from me!
Ranger_Miffy2
Non smoking. I will go.
Vesperto has a good idea about posting signs that places ARE SMOKING. I hate sticking my head in to check on the cancer cloud, and look for ash trays. Wish that sorry cancerous state would be posted for every bar and restaurant.
Vesperto is also a sorry character as s/he has no empathy for destroying the health of the workers in cancer-smoking places. Sorry about that.
Jonathan Hunt
Ranger_Miffy2, how about those same workers who lose their jobs when business tanks because smokers decide not to visit anymore?
Alan
I think the world is turning the other way. It's the nicotine dens that will go extinct from the loss of business and lawsuits from sick employees. The owner of the cafe described in this story must have reached the same conclusion. Good luck to him.
presto345
How does Shimizu keep track of the time spent? A little electronic timer for each customer that beeps when it's time to leave?
TheQuestion
I wonder if they have lincoln logs? I loved linconln logs, my parents would always buy half missing sets from garage sales because we couldn't buy new ones but I had hundreds of the things. My dad taught me how to weld because none of my second-hand sets had any roofs or window blocks. Broke kids get the best time out of their toys, not like my brothers kids. Mess with it for two days then toss it.
Ranger_Miffy2
Oh, sure. J.Hunt. Really? Stats world wide dispute you. You have no idea how many nonsmokers do not patronize smoking places. Seems that bars and restaurants in California, France, and Britain are doing just fine and dandy. You? You'd be fine killing other people and at the very least inconveniencing them with your wretched stinking smoke just so you can keep your flaming addiction going. Pathetic!