A 273-year-old Uji tea house sets up a 10-day pop-up inside Akihabara Station
Kyohayashiya, a Kyoto tea house founded in 1753, is running a 10-day pop-up shop at Atre Akihabara 1 from July 10 through July 19, 2026. The venue is the 1F special-event space directly in front of the East Exit escalator, which means the pop-up sits inside the station building itself. For Akihabara visitors arriving on the JR line, it is effectively a station-arrival pop-up, no street-level walk required.
The shop focuses on the brand's matcha sweets catalogue, which is built around stone-mill-ground matcha made from Uji-grown tea. The signature item on display is matcha kuzuneri, a kneaded kuzu-starch sweet with the dense, sticky texture the brand has spent years refining. It is sold in bamboo-basket gift sets (5 pieces, 2,755 yen) and as part of a 2-variety kuzuneri set (6 pieces, 3,295 yen). For visitors who want to eat on the spot, the pop-up is also stocking the brand's cafe-style items.
What to look for on the shelf
The headline retail item is the matcha kuzuneri, which has become Kyohayashiya's representative sweet since its development about a decade ago. It uses wasanbon sugar for sweetness and combines milk and fresh cream into the kneaded matcha base. The texture is somewhere between a firm yokan and a soft mochi, and it carries the bitter, umami-forward character of the brand's Uji matcha rather than leaning sweet.
The pop-up is also offering the hayashi-anmitsu, a takeaway version of the cafe-popular matcha warabi-mochi anmitsu, which layers matcha warabi mochi, red bean, and shiratama dango. The event-only matcha parfait-anmitsu combines elements of the parfait and anmitsu formats, and is the item most likely to sell out early on weekend days.
Why this matters for Akihabara
Atre Akihabara sits directly attached to JR Akihabara Station, and its 1F event space is one of the most accessible short-term retail venues in the district. Pop-ups there tend to draw office workers and commuters as much as tourists, since the location requires no detour. Kyohayashiya has been expanding its Tokyo footprint through similar short-run station pop-ups (Tokyo Midtown Hibiya's Hayashi Shinbei storefront is a longer-running example), and the Atre Akihabara run is positioned to test the otaku-district audience for traditional tea sweets. The 10-day window is short, so the realistic advice is to visit mid-week if you want the full assortment, since weekend afternoons see the highest sell-through.
Practical Details
- Dates: July 10 to July 19, 2026 (10 days)
- Venue: Atre Akihabara 1, 1F special-event space in front of the East Exit escalator, 1-1 Hanaoka-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
- Nearest station: JR Akihabara Station (direct access from inside the station building)
- Hours: 10:00-21:00 daily
- Price range: 600-1,500 yen for most takeaway items; gift sets from 2,755 yen (matcha kuzuneri 5-piece bamboo basket) to 3,295 yen (kuzuneri 6-piece 2-variety set)
- Specialties: Matcha kuzuneri, hayashi-anmitsu, matcha parfait-anmitsu, Uji matcha-based sweets
- Website: Atre Akihabara official news, Kyohayashiya official
