Chapel for healing

Lighthouse Coffee is a café located in front of the main gate of Kyushu University. It’s a four-minute walk from an entrance to Ōhashi Station in Fukuoka City. Hiroshi Horie, pastor of Lighthouse Church Fukuoka, is the manager of the shop. It’s opened as a café from Monday to Saturday and is a church on Sundays. “It’s six years since we started the café. Although it is indirect, this is missionary work as well,” Horie says.

Lighthouse Coffee is a popular café and is open from ten-thirty in the morning to seven in the evening. According to Horie, “The busiest time is lunch, until around two-thirty.” One online comment says, “When the automatic door opens . . . cheerful voices are heard. Most of the tables are full. Of course, most of the customers are women. The owner comes out from behind the counter and greets us cheerfully.”

The exterior of the shop has a handcrafted look that is neither gaudy nor cheap. The interior also has a handmade touch that creates a pleasant atmosphere. Since it is in front of the university, you’d think that students would be their main customers, but most of their customers are women who are raising young children. Horie told the journalist, “The selling point here is our homely atmosphere. In a relaxed atmosphere, people can chat while eating or drinking. Some young mothers enjoy chatting for hours in our low-table area. They all need to have a place to relax and be healed.”

More than 20 meals and soft drinks are on their menu and they are changed according to the season. Some items on their menu are offered only in limited amounts. When the Christian Shimbun journalist visited, the café’s lunch special was Gapao Rice, which is Thai nampla- or fish-flavored fried rice with ground chicken, onion, paprika, and basil (¥700, tax included). The writer expected it to be spicy, but it was actually delicious—mild and wholesome. “This is the most popular item at our shop,” Horie said.

The variation of sweets and soft drinks on their menu show that this is a well-regarded, high quality café. Their Koguma Latte is Korean-style coffee with a rich sweet potato flavor (¥450 hot, ¥480 iced) and the Pong-Pong Latte contains a blend of 17 ingredients and is topped with a pongashi puffed oat cake (¥500). The writer tried the iced Koguma Latte and found that it had a pleasant, mellow, sweet potato flavor. It should even be good for your health. In addition to these two lattes, and tea and coffee, they offer various other drinks such as rooibos tea and blended soy latte.

Horie started this café with a Korean missionary in 2013. They tried to create the image of a fashionable café in Seoul. “People who have been to Korea say ‘Oh, it’s just like Korea!’ Japanese customers who like Korea come here often.” Since the missionary went back to Korea, Horie and a part-time staff member have run the shop and held worship on Sundays. Some regular customers to the café come to worship as well.

They also hold café events for parents, workshops on aromas and herbariums, and mini-concerts at the shop. “Some musicians come here and play music in their spare time when they come to churches in Fukuoka City for their own concerts. Night-de-Light and Saluki & Misa Kamiyama have held live concerts here. Some artists playing around Fukuoka Prefecture perform at our café, too.”

The Christian student association (KGK) in Kyushu University uses the shop for their student meetings, and another church has a mission gathering there once every two months for people who struggle with entering church directly. Horie says, “We can offer food and drink, so we hope various local churches will make use of this space.”

Lighthouse Coffee:
4-13-15 Shiohara Minami-ku
Fukuoka-shi Fukuoka-ken 815-0032
Tel: 092-555-8133
https://www.facebook.com/CAFE.LightHouseinJapan

From Christian Shimbun, February 16, 2020
Translated by Tomoko Kato