Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles This is full access inside the original Nintendo headquarters hotel. [Intro] I'm in Kyoto, Japan and I've got a special one for you today. I've got first access to Marufukuro. Nintendo's original headquarters, turned hotel. Although opening April 1st of this year, it's not open right now so I'll have full access to show you everything inside. But like always if you guys want to see what I'm doing on the daily, check out my Instagram account. If you want to help support the channel check out my merch. And if you guys have any questions about Japan or your Japan travels, check out my Discord community. All right let me take you inside! So you all probably already know that Nintendo is one of the largest video game companies in the world today. But you may not know that it all started out as a company that made playing cards. In 1889 here in Kagiyacho, Kyoto and was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi. And this very building was Nintendo's first ever office headquarters, which was in full operation until 1959 when Nintendo finally outgrew the office and moved to a larger space. Since then, it's sat in this location unoccupied, until now. As it's been transformed into a hotel so that many can enjoy its cool history in person. Named Marufukuro, after one of the company names Nintendo used in its past. Situated by the famous Kamo river, it's located just four minutes from Nanojo Station and a walking distance from Kyoto Station. Okay so it looks like this hotel is still not completely finished. There's probably a little bit more stuff to do before the hotel opens. But this is kind of the whole point of doing a video like this, is to show you it all before it comes out. But it is getting hot in here so let me just take my jacket off real quick. Okay that feels a lot better. I mean just looking at the entrance and just coming inside, I can already see all the historic pieces that have been just left original but there's also some new pieces. Let's look around just a little bit more and see if we can find some of the rooms [Music] [Music] Okay, so this building is where Nintendo's HQ office was originally. [Door handle jiggling] It looks like it's not open, let's go see if we can find a different room! [Music] Walking around you'll quickly see that the building itself has been preserved, along with [its] interior and many of its historic details. You kind of get a sense that you're traveling in time! Just look at this piece of art, which is a tile design pulled from the residence building's bathroom. The hotel consists of four buildings, three original and one new one. Nintendo's main office, a warehouse, the actual President's house! Yup, him and his family lived here. And then a new building designed by Ando Tadao (安藤 忠雄), who even designed a Malibu house that Kanye West bought. TA-DAO how you like me NOW? :D And this is the lounge area. Unlike some hotels, Marufukuro is all-inclusive so in addition to breakfast and dinner being part of the stay, it also offers drinks and finger foods 24 hours a day here! Yep, they've got them happy drinks all day long! Okay let's see what's down this hall. This.. It's just concrete right here. Oh! And just through here it seems like the former office building is directly connected to the new building! [Music] [Door opening] [Music continues] So this room is quite interesting because it's a mix of the old building and the new building. So this room here that's all in green is a part of the older building, and connected behind me is the master bedroom and the new building with its newer style. It's just so crazy being in such a historic building! Just to think that this was the original starting point of many of my childhood memories of playing Nintendo. Ah, that's so crazy, it's just so crazy being here! Just looking around, I believe that this furniture is actually part of the older building and it just has been what do you call it? Refurbished (yeah!) or Redid? Redone? It looks new but I think some of this is probably from the original wood. I think. [Laughs] I don't know. Let's go around some more! [Music] Cool! The bathroom is all brand new along with the toilet! Oh, I guess there's still a little bit of finishing work left in the sink area. [Music] So this is the bedroom area and I think the thing that surprises me the most is how big the beds are. You generally don't see a bed this wide in Japan. Let me just show you how wide it is. This is me... Lens isn't picking up, let me see if I can move this around! I think that's a little bit better, maybe if I sit all the way to the end here.. You can see, I can't even reach halfway. Let's see if we can see more of this room! [Music] Okay! So this is the balcony area and for this room it's pretty huge! When they finish, there's gonna be some furniture here, some tables and some chairs and whatnot but man! Just look how spacious it is. And the view out here ain't so bad either! [Music] So this room looks like it's completely in the new building and as you can see, like just everything is obviously new. It is pretty spacious, you can see that it's not done completely, the TV is still on the ground. But, the bed looks larger than ever! I also like this light thing that comes all the way from the corner, and down here in the center. [Music] So there's even a little kitchen right here! It has a stove, microwave, refrigerator and just right here, there's a washing machine! You really don't see washing machines in hotels and very often in the room itself! [Music] [Music] Okay, so that's that room. Let's see if I can find a room that has a little bit more history. Before we continue on I want to give a quick shout out to my regular sponsor, Bokksu! If you all don't already know Bokksu would provide a gourmet experience of Japanese snacks and tea pairings delivered to your front door. They work with traditional Japanese factories, some over 100 years old! To provide you with authentic Japanese flavors. And each monthly box has its own unique theme so you get new snacks each and every time! During this time, new and existing users will receive this awesome box. This month's theme is 'sakura season' so it's packed with all sorts of limited edition cherry blossom themed goods. Every year Japanese cherry blossoms bloom all across Japan and people celebrate by gathering under the trees, called 'hanami' (flower viewing) to enjoy a picnic together. Wherever you are in the world, this is the perfect box to be able to celebrate the Japanese sakura season from your very own home! So have your own sakura celebration today and get $15 off your order by using my code PAOLO15 and link in the description! :D [Music] I think this is the way ~ Oh look, looks like they have some 65-inch televisions coming in. [Applause] [Music] So this building was actually the Nintendo CEO's house back in the day, and now where the Japanese style rooms are located; right when you step inside you're greeted overhead by a stained glass piece, which was recreated based on an old design from the main office. It represents the local scenery and playing cards. In fact, there are original pieces preserved like this one throughout the building and its design recreated in other parts of the interior. [Music] [Music] Wow this room is just so impressive! You can just feel the history walking through here. This room is actually pretty unique as you can see, it has the tatami room. But just looking around you can see how much historical detail that has been left behind. I mean if you look at the covers you can see the handles and just how much detail there is. And just along this entire room you can see these plum designs. I'm... to be honest I don't really know what it is but it looks pretty intricate. And just even looking up at the ceiling you can see that it's how it was back in the day. And then this room itself, if you just go right here it has its own built-in outdoor bath. And then just beyond that, you have the full bedroom. It's just cool to think that you'd be in the same room as the Nintendo founders is pretty awesome. And I love how they kept the entrance as is. You have like the traditional genkan (玄関) or entrance area where you step up into the actual house, and people just leave their shoes in the front. It's pretty cool. This one you have the actual like stone going into the house is pretty cool as well. And the unique thing about staying at this hotel is just not the rooms but, as you walk around the entire building you can see pieces of Nintendo headquarter history. I think just even in the front, there's this huge bird, it's called 'sagi' in Japanese. I believe that bird is made up of little wallpaper pieces that was from this building. All right, let's see if we can find some more cool stuff in this building! [Music] I guess this is the original warehouse where all the playing cards were stored. And this elevator used to move products up and down the floors. It's a nice touch that they kept it around, even at the entrance of the warehouse, you can see the original boxes Nintendo used to store their playing cards! [Music] One thing I do love about Japanese construction sites, is that everyone leaves their shoes outside to keep the site clean! Oh ~ And right here it looks like they have the original playing cards that they used to make. Before today I'd never seen original Nintendo playing cards! Also each of the four buildings are assigned to one of the card suites. For example, the warehouse building is a building is hearts. [Music] So this room has a completely different feel. Maybe it's the red theme, it just feels a little bit different. More kind of like 1920s or something, I don't know why. Maybe maybe it's the red or maybe I just don't even know my eras. But this room was renovated from their old storage warehouse. They're so cool. You can see that just up here, they have higher ceilings. But I think I was told that if you look inside of the closet, it has some like old remnants of the old warehouses' wallpaper or something like that. So let's go see ~ [Music] Oh okay, so this is the original wallpaper that they had in the storage warehouse. So that's pretty interesting. I love how they have these like little historic easter eggs hidden throughout the whole entire hotel. [Music] [Music] Okay so, I guess this is the balcony area, not as big as the one before but pretty decent and with a pretty good view! Obviously the furniture isn't here yet. So one thing that I'm actually excited to see is this whole thing all completed, all finished, all the furniture in and in fact! I will be back here in about a month or so when it opens, and I'll do another video of that experience. And I'll actually be staying in one of the rooms here. So I can share the entire experience with you and I won't be alone! I'll be bringing Maiko and I'll be bringing Wolfie, and we'll just kind of have a little family trip over here, and stay at the Nintendo hotel and so, we can also kind of do a little wrap up of this place and show you how things got finished. I don't know which room I'm going to be staying at yet but, let me know in the comments if you have any preferences in which room I stay in. Um, let's see if we can find some other stuff in this hotel. Just outside here, I had to go because apparently there's a restaurant here that we can take a look at, but you have to get through it from the outside. So the hotel also has a restaurant serving breakfast and dinner, supervised by a Japanese culinary specialist, Ai Hosokawa. With an international cuisine using seasonal Japanese ingredients! Okay, so the restaurant is right here but I can't get in so I guess I'll just have to wait until the video when Wolfie and Maiko and I come here. And there you go! That's a first look at Nintendo's original headquarters turned hotel. And if you guys want to see more of this hotel, don't worry I'll be doing another video like I said so, if you guys want to see that video or anything related to Japan, hit that subscribe button and the bell button, and I'll catch you guys in the next one! :D
A2 US nintendo building music hotel room original Nintendo Headquarters Hotel in Japan - World's First Look Inside 23 1 jacky posted on 2022/05/12 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary