Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo

In front of Demachiyanagi Station in Kyoto, there is a coffee shop named Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo. It was founded in 1953, when Mr. Chen Hofuku, a graduate of Kyoto University’s Faculty of Science, opened an additional cafe on the second floor of Bakery Ryugetsudo. The store was closed in 1981 due to a lack of customers, but was reopened in 1983 in response to requests from former regular customers, and is currently operated by his son, Soichi Chen, who has taken over the business.

According to Wikipedia, the store has over 10,000 records and CDs in its collection. Nowadays, you can listen to your favorite music wherever you are with your PC or smartphone, and a place where you can appreciate music in such a retro way can now be considered an important cultural asset of Kyoto, don’t you think? In this article, I will explain in detail how to use the listening room in Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo, so that even first-timers will not be confused…

Private conversation is prohibited, as well as the use of computers! A summary of precautions for using the listening room at Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo

The entrance to Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo is on the right side of the stairs to the left of the bakery Ryugetsudo. When you enter, there is a common room on your right where you can have a conversation, and a listening room in the back where private conversation is prohibited.

To use the listening room, a music charge of 600 yen (tax included) is required in addition to the food and beverage fee. However, there is no time limit for using the listening room, so as long as you pay the 600 yen, you can stay in the listening room for as long as you like until you leave the restaurant.

Other rules regarding the use of the listening room are…

• No electronic devices such as PCs are allowed in the listening room. (Smartphones are just barely safe (?), but of course they must be set to silent mode).
• Coats must be taken off before entering the room and hung on hangers in the front room.
• Do not take off your shoes before entering the room.
• Once you have been assigned a seat, you are not allowed to change seats.
• Bread purchased at the bakery on the first floor may be brought into the room (remove silver paper or other sound packaging before entering the room).
• Writing is allowed in the room, but not with a ballpoint pen.

These are very strict. Of course, you must also pay attention to the sounds of dishes, opening bags, flipping through books, etc., even if they are not mentioned here.

The interior of the music room looks like this, with 11 seats on heavy leather sofas, plus four tables for one person who can write along the right wall. You can sit wherever there are seats available, but basically no work is allowed on the sofas, so you can only sit and listen to music or drink coffee, which are almost the only two options. But that’s fine. Sink into the leather sofa and relax while listening to classical music. It’s so comfortable that I almost doze off (of course, snoring is strictly prohibited).

After you have been seated for a while, a waitress will bring you a menu and an order form without saying a word. Simply choose a drink or cake from the menu, fill in the order form, and hand it to the waiter to complete your order.

If you are going to use the music room, let’s request your favorite music! How to request music at Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo…

Now, if you are going to use the Music Room at Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo, let’s make a request to have your favorite classical music!

There is a small desk at the far end of the room where you will find a notebook for requesting music. To the left of that table is a list file of records, and the system is that if you select a song from the list of classical music listed here and describe it, the clerk will play the song in the order of your request.

However, even though there are over 10,000 records and CDs in the collection, if you look at them by composer, the inventory is quite uneven. While the list of music by classical composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach is extensive, the list of music by composers born after the 1800s is quite small (of course, the list is not zero, and many famous pieces are on the list). If you are interested in making a request in the music room, it would be a good idea to keep in mind the names of the composers who were active before the 1700s.

By the way, the music I requested that day was…

Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in this CD set. I really wanted to listen to Symphony No. 3, but unfortunately I couldn’t find it on the list… Anyway, even if I didn’t request the piece myself, I could always find it on the CD set by saying “Hey?”.  If you are curious about this song, look behind the desk and you will see the package of the record/CD that is playing at the time, so you can use it as a reference to make a list of your favorite music.

If you are a frequent visitor, purchasing coffee tickets in advance is by far the best deal! To get to Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo, the nearest station is Demachiyanagi Station on the Keihan Electric Railway (Eizan Electric Railway), a one-minute walk away.

If you want to use the Music Room at Meikyoku Kissa Ryugetsudo frequently, you can save a lot of money by purchasing a coffee ticket in advance…

The price of one coffee ticket includes a drink and music charge of 700 yen, which is almost half the price of paying for a drink and music charge separately. You can listen to music in a special place and add a drink for just 800 yen or so. If you are a repeat customer, there is no way you can avoid taking advantage of this offer. By the way, even if you do not purchase the coffee ticket, you can get a 200 yen discount on the music charge if you bring your previous receipt, so be sure to bring your previous receipt when you return.

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…