If you’ve been to Kyoto, you might have made the journey out to Nintendo’s headquarters — well, at least, to stand outside the gates.
The building is no longer new. Yet, a recent thread on 2ch, Japan’s biggest online bulletin board, took a moment to react to — and sometimes, roast — the Nintendo HQ.
The company’s headquarters, which is fine, to be honest, does lack the certain charm of the old one.
The 2ch thread is titled “Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto lolololololololololol.” Below are a selection of comments:
“It’s simple and cool.”
“It seems like a prison.”
“It looks like a box.”
“It looks like a GameCube.”
“Koei Tecmo’s headquarters is cool. Please take a look at it on Google Maps.”
“Sometimes foreigners take photos in front of the sign.”
“It’s cool when the logo sign lights up [at night].”
“If you actually go there, you’ll be surprised that it’s in a hard-to-reach location.”
“Instead of being located in that industrial area, they should move to the Sakyo area or the Kita area.” (Ginkaku-ji, or the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, and Heian Shrine are located in Sakyo. Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion, is located in the Kita area.)
“It looks like a house you’d make for the time being in Minecraft.”
“You can see it from Kyoto Tower.”
“The surrounding area looks nothing like Kyoto and was a letdown.”
“It’s somewhat lacklustre.”
“If you pass by on the weekend, the office lights are still on, and that’s a dark feeling of despair.”
“It looks like a house I made when I just started playing Minecraft.”
“Make something that kids can look at and admire.”
“It seems clean and tidy.”
“It doesn’t look Kyoto-esque at all.”
“Make it out of brick.”
“Every day, I’d walk in front of it.”
“It’s boring, just like the games they make.”
“I went to university in Kyoto and have never been here.”
“This, it seems, makes foreigners sad.”
“The surrounding area is…”
“The companies that made the PS5 and the Xbox are much more stylish.”
“It looks like a library, which is good.”
“It’s spooky that there’s nothing around [the company].”
“Is it not that tall because it’s in Kyoto?” (Some parts of Kyoto have rules about the height of buildings.)
“Because it’s modern, it’s good.”
“There’s really nothing around it. My grandma’s place is nearby, and the only there around there is a Japanese Self-Defence Force base.”
“The company I work for, Toyota, also has a lacklustre building.”
“Do foreigners who come straight here after arriving at Kyoto Station fall into despair and then join the forces of evil?”
“Was this made in Pokémon?”
“This destroys all of Kyoto’s beautiful scenery.”
“It looks like an American governmental office.”
“Less than the headquarters, the surrounding area is more awful.”
“It seems like it wouldn’t break if it were dropped.”
“I saw it once on a bus from Kyoto Station going to Itami Airport. It was more plain than I thought it would be.”
“For a global company, it’s smaller than you’d think.”
“There’s not enough playfulness.”
“Tofu building.”
“Maybe it morphs into something during an emergency?”
“Buildings these days aren’t interesting.”
I certainly agree with that last comment! Yes, Nintendo’s headquarters is super boring-looking, but perhaps, all the company’s creativity in poured into its games and not its corporate accouterments?
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