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Kawa and Coffee
The balanced aroma of leather and coffee in the morning that you didn’t know was missing from your life. Enter the creative mind of Hidaki Toru.
Finding a quality cup of coffee anywhere in Japan before 10 AM can be a bit of a fools errand. In more rural areas it’s just a foolish waste of time. But that’s the fascinating thing about creatives… driven by passion, they tend to color outside the lines.
8:30 is generally the time you’ll find the door open at this leather works studio-cum-coffee roastery. Hidaki has a restless spirit, driven by the desire to create. At 25, just after getting married, he quit his ‘real job’ and relocated to Shikoku in the hopes of pursuing his love of all things leather. While initially working as a rafting guide in Tokushima he met a coffee roaster from Kochi who encouraged him to move into the newly vacated shop next door to establish his leatherworks studio. So off he went to Kochi with his wife and new born son in tow.
He returned to Obama 11 years ago, with his growing family of 4, and took up residence in the former warehouse of his father’s now shuttered pharmacy. He eventually established a studio in a renovated Kura in the outskirts of town. He pursued his craft there quietly… careful to sell his goods only outside the city limits. He was discomforted by the thought that some of his parents friends would feel obligated to purchase something from him.
Creative pursuits tend to ebb and flow in waves and the droughts force many of us to step away from time to time. During one particularly difficult stretch Hidaki returned to Kochi to spend time with his old friend and learn the art of coffee roasting and the eventual collision these two passions gave rise to OKURA.
More established now, he felt comfortable widening his presence locally and just two months ago opened the doors of his fathers former warehouse just around the corner from Obama’s main shopping street. Okura now serves as a one stop shop for hand crafted leather goods, custom roasted coffee, and great conversation. The simple clean lines of this renovated warehouse are warm and welcoming, the conversation is never hurried, and the coffee is really really good.
So the next time you're in my town I encourage you to drop in and say hello. You’ll be awfully glad that you did.
