Blue Brew Coffee Roaster, Kyōjima, Tokyo: Uniting People and the City with Coffee

Guideto Japan

Food and DrinkIn April 2026, a new café, Blue Brew Coffee Roaster, opened in a former tenement house in Kyōjima, a retro-elegant part of Sumida, Tokyo.

Sitting unobtrusively in a sleepy old shopping street, the new café is attracting locals and tourists, despite its unremarkable location, a 15-minute walk from the nearest train station. How is a 20-something café owner creating such a buzz?

Coffee that Resonates with All the Senses

Passing through a split white curtain, the first thing you notice when entering Blue Brew Coffee Roaster is its long, elegant camphorwood counter. The interior is full of charm—gray mud-plaster walls, old roof tiles embedded in the floor, and scratched wooden pillars. The myriad textures of the old residence mesmerize. Looking up, I notice a mysterious signboard on the ceiling, reading kinkyoku (koto music). The last character is partly hidden. The old sign relates to the history of this old home . . . but more of that story later.

The menu includes café latte, cold brew, and Mörk mocha (made with cacao from Mörk Chocolate in Melbourne, Australia), as well as homemade desserts. I order a cup of the filter-brewed coffee and a slice of cheesecake, choosing Ethiopian beans from among the eight varieties on offer. The owner, barista Sekine Kenta, uses an Orea-brand dripper to extract the coffee, which has a delicate fruity aroma and gentle, sweet aftertaste.

His effort to impress the five senses with each cup is evident. My order is served in an Arita-yaki cup with no handle, with the intention of allowing me to feel the warmth of the coffee. It is accompanied by a handmade washi card colorfully illustrated to represent the flavor, with detailed information about the blend on the rear. The cards are designed by Sekine, who chooses coloration—for example, yellow and orange for coffee with grapefruit and apricot tones. This thoughtful touch evokes an image of the flavor and aroma through color, even before you read the description.

Sekine serves the desserts to pair with the coffee. The plate for my cheesecake is garnished with pink salt and cinnamon sugar, with a sprinkle of salt on the cake. After enjoying one bite of the cheesecake, the lingering saltiness draws out a sweetness when I sip my coffee, enhancing its profile. Until the last sip, the combination of coffee and cake undergoes innumerable changes.

A Backstory for Each Cup

The “Blue” in the shop’s name is a reference to the sky and sea. Sekine considers himself the final step in the journey of the coffee beans around the world from the grower, by land and sea, for him to roast, extract, and serve to coffee connoisseurs.

He pays surprising attention to detail in an effort to produce the perfect cup. Every morning, Sekine spends 45 minutes before opening to taste all eight varieties of bean. Once an hour, he calibrates his espresso machine to maintain consistency of taste. These meticulous tasks reflect his dedication and ensure good quality coffee each day.

In summer, I recommend the iced coffee, made using an AeroPress. First, a small amount of coffee is extracted over ice to capture the fragrance, next, the press is used to add pressure that draws out the coffee’s fresh flavor. Sekine has even tested to find the ideal number of ice cubes.

The Background to Blue Brew

In his youth, from junior high up through his university years, Sekine immersed himself in baseball, striving to contribute to his team as its leader. After college, he worked for a railway company as a platform assistant, but he struggled with the feeling that he was just part of a machine, unable to connect with people on a human level.

A turning point came with an experience that drew him into the world of coffee. Sekine’s longing for peace, and his interest in social and environmental issues, led him to take a leap of faith into the coffee culture of Sydney, Australia, despite lacking skills in English or as a barista. After visiting some 300 cafés with his resume, to be rejected due to lack of experience, he was finally employed thanks to his personality and passion.

He learned the trade for a year in Sydney, then returned to Japan. Thereafter, he polished his skills at a renowned Tokyo coffee shop before launching his own business, a once-a-week pop-up at New Hikifunsō, a share kitchen in Sumida. There, he met the owner of Un, a wine bar operating in an old house in Kyōjima. Un was set to close, but the owner hoped that someone would take over the precious prewar structure.

Inheriting 80 Years of Memories

The old home Sekine took over was rich in history unique to the working-class neighborhood. Initially, it was built as a residence, and later became a koto (Japanese zither) school before it was transformed into an okonomiyaki restaurant. After the eatery closed, in 2022, the building was extensively renovated before reopening as the wine bar. When renovating the ceiling to create an open space above, workers found the aforementioned “koto music” signboard.

Sekine limited his renovations to seismic reinforcement of the walls, out of respect for the building’s history and to retain the ambiance of Un. For the wall coating, he chose clay from Kyōjima. The off-white daub, applied by skilled craftsmen, provides a subdued backdrop for the coffee he serves.

Traditionally, many business owners operated from their homes, a combination of business and living areas. Sekine now lives on the upper floor, bringing back a traditional mood to the streetscape.

Learning from Older Business Owners

The peaceful vibe of the interior is also a part of Blue Brew’s charm. Sekine explains that there is a sense of everyone being at the same table, including himself.

Customers include overseas travelers staying in the area for the week, who make the shop a daily part of their time in Tokyo. A young couple drops in to announce, “We’ve decided to move to Kyōjima.” Even local business owners have begun frequenting the café, drawn by Sekine’s charisma.

Sekine recounts: “A local regular, aged eighty seven, was kind enough to share harrowing experiences of the Tokyo firebombing and other old tales from Kyōjima.”

One customer says she used to come there to learn to play the koto, a story that breathes new life into the old ceiling signboard. Beyond the coffee and the history of the building lies this other layer—the memories of Kyōjima.

A Chain of Happiness in a Quiet Part of Tokyo

Sekine considers two restaurants that opened nearby around the same time as his “classmates”—Comptoir Coin, popular for its pasta lunch menu, which moved from nearby Kuramae, and the curry restaurant Carlos. They form a tasty triangle, and happily introduce customers to one another. Together, they have brought a spark of fresh energy to Kyōjima.

Sekine explains that the concept of his store is to raise your body temperature by 1 degree centigrade.

He achieves this through, for example, the warmth of the coffee as it travels from the cup to your tongue, stimulating all five senses. Or through nonchalant conversation and the affinity he presents with a warm glance. For some, this time may be a chance to reflect and re-energize while savoring a cup.

Blue Brew is where you can receive that degree of warmth that brings you back to the right temperature. Perhaps it is Sekine’s lonely time as a platform attendant that makes him want to act as the medium connecting people, coffee, and the neighborhood.

“I want the coffee shop to be the first link in a chain of happiness,” he declares.

He hopes that people who experience a little joy here can take it back to their home or school and pass it onto others, thus becoming another link in the chain.

Although it is almost 15 minutes’ walk from the nearest stations, if you feel cold inside despite the heat, a visit to Blue Brew is sure to warm your heart by at least that promised degree.

Blue Brew Coffee Roaster

• Address:2-25-3 Kyōjima, Sumida, Tokyo
• Hours:8:00 am–6:30 pm (until 1:00 pm on Tuesdays)
• Closed:Wednesdays
• Access:11 minutes’ walk from Hikifune Station or Omurai Station on the Tōbu Kameido Line; 11 minutes’ walk from Keisei Hikifune Station on the Keisei Oshiage Line; 15 minutes’ walk from Oshiage (Skytree) Station on the Tōbu Isesaki Line and Toei Asakusa Line.
• Website:(Japanese)

(Originally published in Japanese. Reporting and text by Kawaguchi Yōko. Banner photo: The exterior of Blue Blue Coffee Roaster. © Kawaguchi Yōko.)