TABI NEKO TEI
Miyota, Japan
A soup curry restaurant in Miyota in Nagano Prefecture, opened on 13 October 2025: a timber building with twelve seats inside and ten on the terrace, a timber deck and a dog run. The facade is cedar slats, the floor cherry herringbone, the stone Asama and Oya, the counter cast with walnut shell as its aggregate, and the lights Louis Poulsen. The owner had run Kyu Yamu Tei in Osaka and Tokyo before moving to the area.
Hishida Koumuten both designed and built it; the firm holds a registered architect office licence and runs its own design department. It publishes the project as 旅猫亭, read Tabi Neko Tei, roughly Travelling Cat House, the last character being the old suffix for an eating house.
Hishida Koumuten
Hishida Koumuten is a builder and design office in Sakaki, Nagano Prefecture, founded in 2012 and led by Shohei Hishida, with 43 staff and its own design department.
Hishida Koumuten (@hishidakoumuten).
The picture comes from this post on Instagram.
Researched August 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.