Mother and daughter welcomes you in a Hokkaido specialty café.

“I call myself the Tourism Ambassador of Rebun island.”

Yukako Takahashi – the owner of Rebun Cafe

A cute wooden café with a signboard with the word “Rebun” in a rounded font. It will not take much time to notice that the store name indicates to Rebun Island located in the Sea of Japan, near the upper corner of the diamond shaped Hokkaido.

The seafood is splendid. The “Hokkaido Special” – dried mackerel from Rebun and butter sautéed scallops from Sarufutsu, Hokkaido – shows the café’s confidence in seafood.

“We also have sea urchins in the summer. Many of our customers remember the taste, so it is sold out in a blink of an eye,” says Kyoko Kazusa and her daughter Yukako Takahashi, originally from the Rebun island. Café Rebun – famous for meals made from Hokkaido specialties – is owned and run by this mother and daughter.

Mother cooks, and daughter provides service and potteries.

The café was established in 2010. Yukako learned pottery when she was working in Osaka.

“I like to make things. I have tried varieties of activities, but pottery was the only thing that continued to attract my interest.”

Her hobby grew in intensity and Yukako went to a pottery school in Moma-cho for high school. But after her father Kenji fell ill, Yukako and her mother decided to open a café with a pottery workshop (and also their new home) in Tanakaokubo-cho.

“I liked café-hopping. If it is a café, I can do pottery while running the store and also hold classrooms too. The environment to continue pottery had settled at this timing.”

After all, everyone is a traveler.

Yukako’s pottery work made in the firing kiln at the back of the store, is indispensable to the Rebun café. The rounded coffee cups serve as a foil of the coffee.

On the other hand, Kyoko moved to Kyoto in 1979 after her marriage. Her parents own a hotel in Rebun island, where she can purchase seafood from the marine products department.

“If opening a café in Kyoto, I had in my mind that I will serve food from the Rebun island.”

Kyoko cooks in the kitchen, and Yukako makes sweets and provide service – sometimes pottery. The roles were naturally decided.

I am fascinated by the generosity that leads to nature.

Mashed potato made from Kita Akari, Miso soup made from the Rishiri seaweed broth, dried mackerels. Addition to the food, travel stories are also something to enjoy at the café.

The refreshing summer seaside with the echoes of singing seabirds. 8 Hours of trekking through the garden of alpine flowers. Inhabitants of the northern region. Kyoko is very talkative about the Rebun island.

” I call myself the Tourism Ambassador of Rebun island. Not that anyone told me to be so. Many of my customers have visited the island. There are some who have visited the island before, and comes here to feel the island again.”

There are many solo male customers at Rebun café. The food quality is nowhere to doubt, but they must be a fan of this comfort.

Mother and daughter welcomes the travelers of life with a superb smile. Kyoko and Yukako’s warm generosity will somehow remind you of the Rebun island and its mother nature.

1 /Wooden decoration inside the café. Of the seascape photos of the Rebun island, the snow covered Rishiri Fuji is beautiful. 2/ “Hokkaido Special” set meal is 1250 yen. 3/ Yukako’s works are available for purchase. 4/ The heavy wooden door on the white wall. There are warmth of the handmade touch everywhere.