About Kuroneko Coffee Roastery
Kuroneko Coffee Roastery is a small micro-roastery based in the tiny village of Shimanoshita, Furano, Hokkaido—home to fewer than 20 households.
As I often say elsewhere, my “real job” is actually as an acupuncturist. I started roasting coffee in April 2024, mostly as a hobby and a way to cut down on living costs. Initially, it was just for my personal use, but before I knew it, I was roasting in the backyard with a homemade direct-fire roasting machine. I took a food safety course, filed paperwork with the health department, and somehow, it all turned into an official business. (Oops!)
My roasting style is direct-fire, and I focus mainly on blended coffee. Inspired by Japan’s nostalgic café culture from the Showa to early Heisei era, I aim to recreate those deeply roasted, aromatic, bitter brews that defined that time. While I respect how much the coffee industry has evolved, I also want to hold onto the flavors of my youth. This blend of past and present, combined with the unique characteristics of my handmade roasting machine, is the heart of what I do.
Why “Kuroneko”?
The name is pretty simple and doesn’t have a deep story—our family cat is a “KURONEKO”(black cat), and my wife said, “Why not just name it after the cat?” It stuck.
The image of a black cat fit perfectly with the dark, full-bodied blends I wanted to make. (We used to have a tabby cat too, but now it’s just the black one. The tabby inspired a different blend.)
All of our products are named after cats in some way—just a fun little theme that grew naturally.
Philosophy on Roasting and Blending
At the core of everything is a simple reason: I just really like the bold, aromatic coffee you’d find in a retro Japanese café.
I roast using a handmade, direct-fire machine, which delivers a powerful and distinct heat unlike the gentle roasting suited for today’s specialty coffee. My roasting shed is exposed to the elements—temperatures often drop below -20°C in winter—which means I can’t maintain consistent temperatures during the colder months. That’s why I close during winter and try to run things in a way that doesn’t push beyond my limits.
Because of this environment, it’s difficult to recreate precise roast profiles consistently. I’ve learned that trying to imitate specialty roasters under these conditions just doesn’t work. Instead, I aim to highlight what my equipment can do best, and make it my own strength.
I focus on blends because I find the layered flavor they offer to be more interesting than single-origin coffees. I first fell in love with deep-roasted Mocha Matari in my student days, and that was the first bean I ever roasted. But with quality and supply of that bean becoming unreliable in recent years, I decided to experiment—blending different high-quality beans to recreate that memory. That experiment led to surprising success and became a foundation of my current style.
This roastery is shaped by environmental limitations, creative adaptation, personal experience—and let’s be honest, a tight budget. All of those things came together to form what it is today.
About “Minoru Fujimoto”
Allow me to reintroduce myself: I’m just a guy born in urban Kanagawa who decided to trade city life for the quiet countryside.
It’s a bit of an irony—my father was a railway man, yet I could never handle the soul-crushing commuter trains. That misery eventually pushed me to quit the corporate grind and move to Furano. Today, I work as a sole proprietor, wearing two hats as both an acupuncturist and a coffee roaster. It’s a freelance lifestyle that suits me perfectly.
Believe it or not, I’ve been an acupuncturist for 12 years now. Thanks to the support of the local community, I manage to keep things laid-back yet professional every single day.
Lately, I’ve been practicing what I call “Countryside Wellness”—finding the ultimate balance between the digital and physical worlds. In the wide-open fields of Furano (a “depopulated” area in all the best ways), I’m just navigating this tricky world with a bit of curiosity and a lot of fun.
When I’m not working, you can usually find me with a camera in hand, cycling, fishing, cooking, or just hanging out with my cats. Other times, I’m sipping my home-roasted coffee while diving into English and Chinese clinical texts, using AI to help me translate and explore new insights.
On this site, I share those “tangible” experiences and the quiet, everyday moments here in Furano. People often tell me they have no idea what it is I actually do—and honestly, I’m right there with them. But life is short, so I figured I might as well try everything that catches my interest.
That’s me—just your average, laid-back guy enjoying the flow.
Future Direction
Although this site mainly serves as an online storefront for my home-roasted coffee, I’ve decided to gradually turn it into something more like a personal space.
To be honest, sticking only to coffee makes it hard to keep coming up with things to write about, which is why updates tend to slow down (lol).
More than that, though, I’ve been wanting to write about my hobbies, share thoughts from my clinical practice as an acupuncturist, and experiment with a nostalgic Geocities-style vibe—all with AI running behind the scenes.
This domain actually started out as an experimental side project, so there’s definitely a “let’s just see what happens” kind of energy behind it. Going forward, while coffee will remain at the core, this will also be a place where I casually write about daily life and whatever’s on my mind. I’m planning to keep things relaxed and take it slow.
Thanks, as always.
March 20, 2026
Minoru Fujimoto