Nintendo news: Super Mario mural in Kyoto, opening date for Nintendo Kyoto

Over the past few years, Nintendo has made a big deal about expanding the number of people who have access to Nintendo’s IPs, which has resulted in various initiatives such as mobile games, the opening of several official stores, and the Super Mario Bros. Movie. And today, Nintendo announced a new and unexpected initiative: a Super Mario mural in Kyoto.

This Super Mario mural will be located at the Shijo-dori underground walkway in Kyoto. To be precise, it will be found on the north and south walls of the Shijo-dori underground walkway near Exit 10 up to Exit 11 starting October 5th.

This initiative is part of something called “Shijo-dori underground walkway activation initiative” by the Conference of Shijo-dori Underground Walkway Activation (which consists of Shijo Han’eikai Shopping Street Promotion Associations, Hankyu Corporation, and the City of Kyoto).

This project is being promoted as an effort to contribute to our fundamental strategy to expand the number of people who have access to Nintendo IP, and by displaying our IP at Shijo-dori underground walkway in Kyoto-city, where many people come and go, we hope people will feel an affinity with our IP.

Here’s what this mural will look like:

And speaking of Kyoto, Nintendo also announced the opening date for their third official store in Japan following Nintendo Tokyo (November 2019) and Nintendo Osaka (November 2022). Nintendo Kyoto will open in just about a month, on October 17th. As previously announced, it will be located on the 7th floor of Kyoto Takashimaya S.C. [T8].

As in the other stores, visitors will be able to purchase games, consoles, and merchandise, but also take part in various events. Speaking of merchandise, the store will also carry some exclusive goodies not found at other stores.

Here’s pictures of merchandise that will be on sale at the newly-opened store:

While the store opens on October 17th, there will be a pre-opening on October 13th (Friday) and October 14th (Saturday). But in order to attend those pre-openings, fans will have to be selected via lottery. In total, 500 pairs (1 000 people) will be able to attend on Friday, and 1 000 pairs (2 000 people) on Saturday. Applications for the lottery run until September 14th (check out this page for more details).

Source: Nintendo PR (19/09/2023) / Nintendo