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Starbucks in traditional Japanese building at Ise Jingu has hidden secrets in its roof tiles

Oona McGee Feb 27, 2025
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Details not many people know about reveal connections between the chain and traditional architecture.

Starbucks has a knack for adapting its brand to suit overseas markets, and in historic areas of Japan that means changing the entire look of their stores to fit in with the surrounding landscape.

Over in Mie Prefecture, along the Oharai-machi approach to Ise Jingu, Japan’s most sacred shrine, you’ll find one such Starbucks branch, which does away with the chain’s distinctive green-and-white brand colours and disguises itself within a beautiful traditional Japanese building.

▼ You won’t see any flashy green-and-white mermaids disrupting the historic setting here.

This Starbucks branch is known as “Ise Naiku-mae“, with “mae” meaning “in front” and “Ise Naiku” being one of the two main shrines at Ise Jingu. It blends in so seamlessly with the other buildings that you might find yourself walking right past it, but it’s worth stopping to admire some of the beautiful details.

Firstly, the store’s wooden townhouse has been constructed in the “tsuma-iri” architectural style, where the entrance is on the same side as the gabled roof.

The signs on the building are surprisingly modest, with a wooden “Starbucks” appearing above the entrance…

…and the siren beside the entrance, in plain white and seemingly dug into the surface to resemble a wall relief.

The traditional details continue when you step inside, where you’ll find a simple counter staffed by baristas on the first floor, and a quiet, warmly lit space on the second floor.

It’s much deeper and wider than you might expect, and when you head to the back of the second floor, you’ll see a residential area and a parking lot from the wall-to-wall window.

The most popular seating area, however, is towards the front of the building, where you get to admire the traditional streetscape.

▼ The view from the second-floor window at the front of the building.

Though this Starbucks branch looks and feels very different to other run-of-the-mill branches in Japan, the menu remains the same, with all your favourite drinks available, including limited-edition varieties like the Ruby Chocolat Symphony Frappuccino below.

It’s one of the most relaxing Starbucks stores in all of Japan, and when you’re outside again, even more details become apparent, with onigawara, Japanese gargoyle tiles, adorning the roof.

A closer look through the power of a telephoto lens reveals details not many get to see up-close.

This beautifully crafted roof ornamentation shows incredible attention to detail in the mermaid’s face, with textural marks giving it a sense of movement and life.

There’s attention to detail a little lower down as well, in the tomoegawara (round tiles at the eaves), which show the fruits of the coffee tree.

The onigawara above the eaves on the first floor depict these coffee trees in a three-dimensional manner, showing just how well Starbucks is able to add its own spin on ancient Japanese traditions.

▼ The more you look, the more tiles you find, adding unique charm to the building.

Hidden behind the roof’s front view is another onigawara, this time depicting a bird. Though hawks and eagles are often often chosen for this kind of motif, Starbucks is known for its hummingbird program, which creates learning opportunities for children and young people struggling with financial difficulties, leading us to believe this may well be a hummingbird.

The hummingbird program was inspired by an Andean folk tale known in Japanese as “Hachidori no Hito Shizuku” (“Water drop of a Hummingbird“), in which the bird drops water from its tiny beak onto a raging forest fire. When the forest animals question the bird over this seemingly useless task, the hummingbird replies, “I’m just doing what I can“. Like the hummingbird, Starbucks is doing what it can to help with its charity program, and as onigawara tiles are often seen as protectors of buildings against fire damage in Japan, this folk tale ties in perfectly with the longstanding roof-tiling tradition.

While this Starbucks branch has come to the attention of local guides and visitors to the area since it opened in 2021, the story of the roof tiles is yet to receive any similar recognition, with the official site only briefly mentioning that they exist, and an Internet search in Japanese giving us no deeper information on them.

So if you’re visiting Ise Jingu and want to go viral on social media, you might want to stop by this store and give your followers a closer look at the roof tiles and the hidden stories behind them. Don’t forget to tag us in your posts so we can hit you up with a like, and you can always check out some other unique Starbucks branches in Kawagoe, Kyoto, and Toyama, the last of which has been deemed “the world’s most beautiful”.

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