Nintendo’s old card-game headquarters is being turned into a hotel. Guests can stay at the Kyoto property starting in 2021.
The building, which dates from the first half of the 20th century, held the head offices for the Marufuku Nintendo Card Co., which Fusajiro Yamauchi founded in 1889. It would go on to become the Nintendo that we know today. (The original 19th-century headquarters, however, was apparently demolished and turned into a parking lot.)
The building has become a popular pilgrimage site with Nintendo fans. Starting next year, you can do more than stand outside it and take selfies. You can stay in the old HQ. The existing building will undergo improvements, and there are plans to add 20 guest rooms as well as a restaurant, a bar, and a gym. Hotel and restaurant development company Plan See Do is handling the project. Below is an artist’s rendition from the announcement.
Recently, there has been a trend in Japan of turning old buildings, such as castles, into hotels to cash in on the country’s tourism boom.
However, the old headquarters is not in Nintendo’s possessions, but rather the Yamauchi family’s. Hopefully, the hotel will include some sort of museum with old Nintendo-related family heirlooms so guests can have an even deeper appreciation during their stay.
Infamously, Nintendo’s Hiroshi Yamauchi did once own a love hotel.