Oh Japan: The Ogori Cafe

by otaking on Jan.31, 2010, under Oh Japan

Welcome to the Kawashima Mystery Cafe! Be generous!

Cabel’s Blog LOL reports on a strange cafe in Kawashima, Japan, where you get what the last person ordered, and the next person gets what you ordered:

For the record, here are the rules of the Ogori cafe:

1. Let’s treat the next person. What to treat them with? It’s your choice.
2. Even if it’s a group of friends or a family, please form a single-file line. Also, you can’t buy twice in a row.
3. Please enjoy what you get, even if you hate it. (If you really, really hate it, let’s quietly give it to another while saying, “It’s my treat…”)
4. Let’s say “Thank You! (Gochihosama)” if you find the person with your Ogori cafe card.
5. We can’t issue a receipt.

So what would you do if you found this cafe? Would you try to score while being cheap to the person next to you? Or would you be generous even if you didn’t know who was next?

The American bloggers who stumbled onto the cafe chose the latter option:

Mike went up to the cafe, slapped down a couple thousand yen (~$25), and ordered a little bit of everything: some ice cream, some snacks, some candy, some drinks, a Japanese horn-of-mysterious-plenty intentionally set up as a shocking surprise for the next lucky customer. (After his order, Mike received single iced coffee.)

As we walked away from the cafe, with just the right amount of delay, we heard an extremely excited “arigato goazimasu!! thank you so much!!” yelled in our direction, from an ecstatic mom and her equally excited young son. They truly appreciated the surprise.

It was so worth it.

Oh Japan :)

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