A look inside Nintendo’s old headquarters in Kyoto

If you’re a Nintendo fan, you’ve probably seen countless photos of the outside of Nintendo’s old headquarters in Kyoto. But have you seen inside?

The building has long been a popular pilgrimage site, with Nintendo fans trekking to stand outside and take selfies. The only person I know who’s ever been inside is GovernorWatts, who just…walked through the place in the late 2000s.

Now that the building will be a hotel from April this year, Guests can also just enter the place. As igamesnews before reported, the existing building will be improved and there are plans to add 20 guest rooms as well as a restaurant, bar and gym. Hotel and restaurant development company Plan See Do is handling the project.

In recent years, there has been a trend in Japan to transform old buildings, like locks, in hotels to take advantage of the country’s tourism boom. But with Covid-19 and Japan’s borders closed to foreign tourists, hospitality has been hit hard.

Photos of the inside of the building before the renovation have been published, giving an idea of ​​what the inside looks like – or rather what it looked like.

I really like it! Fingers crossed for the renovation do this building – and Nintendo – justice.

This isn’t Nintendo’s first headquarters. ​​In 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the Marufuku Nintendo Card Co. and produced traditional Japanese playing cards called Hanafuda

and finally also Western playing cards. This building was demolished in 2004 and is now apparently a parking lot.

However, this is the oldest Nintendo building in Japan – actually it was, as it seems Nintendo no longer owns it. The old headquarters is not owned by Nintendo but by the Yamauchi family.

Hopefully the hotel will include some sort of museum of old Nintendo-related family heirlooms so guests can experience an even deeper appreciation during their stay.