UPCOMING EVENTS
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A converted grocery-store community hall in rural Japan, communal long table, soft afternoon light

Host gatherings worth traveling for

Rent The Grocery Store — our 120-person event venue at the heart of a coliving neighborhood in rural Japan. One week to one month, fully ours.

Past gatheringsAnnual Popup 2026Build Month 2026

Who books this room

We rent The Grocery Store to people who want to gather their community somewhere with depth — not a hotel ballroom, not a coworking warehouse, not a wellness brand.

Company retreats

Take your team off the laptop. Open kitchen, communal table, slow mornings, mountain afternoons. The kind of offsite people remember.

Hackathons & unconferences

24-hour access, music lounge, coworking, fast wifi. We've hosted builder weeks where the lights stayed on until the soba shop opened.

Popup villages & residencies

Two weeks. Three weeks. A month. Bring your community and live as neighbors. We extend across nearby ZuCity homes.

Cultural workshops & rejuvenation

Tea ceremony. Soba making. Sake brewing. Onsen circuits. Calligraphy. We connect you to neighborhood masters who don't usually teach foreigners.

On the Asia Conference Circuit

Komoro sits 90 minutes from Tokyo, mid-circuit between the region's builder gatherings — WebX and ETHGlobal events in Tokyo, Coinfest Asia, Korea Blockchain Week, TOKEN2049. Teams route through us for the decompression week, the offsite, or the side-event their community actually remembers.

The Grocery Store

An old supermarket reborn as the gathering hall at the heart of the ZuCity coliving neighborhood. Open kitchen, communal long table, lounges, music lounge, outdoor patio, smoke room. Built for fifty people and the kind of week they'll remember.

120
Guest capacity
24/7
Venue access
7 days
Minimum booking

What you get with the venue

  • ·Open kitchen with a communal long table
  • ·Multiple lounges and quiet working rooms
  • ·Basement music room and late-night space
  • ·Outdoor patio facing Mt. Asama
  • ·Designated smoke room
  • ·24-hour access for the duration of your stay
  • ·Shared cars on the ZuCity network
  • ·Walking-distance overflow rooms across our coliving homes

Komoro · the neighborhood you're gathering in

Komoro is a quaint city in Nagano Prefecture, 90 minutes from Tokyo by shinkansen. An active volcano in the front window. Three shinkansen stations within thirty minutes. Six ski resorts inside forty-five. A 1,300-year-old zen temple at the edge of town. Properties so cheap we are buying homes for the price of a used car.

Mt. Asama: 2,568m active volcano. It shapes the weather, the soil, the light. Some mornings it's hidden in cloud, some evenings it glows.
Komoro is so famous for soba that a major Tokyo chain named itself after it. The local shops have been perfecting the craft for generations.
Dozens of hot springs within a thirty-minute drive. Rustic mountain rotenburo, luxury private baths, everything in between.
Three shinkansen stations within thirty minutes. Tokyo Station to here in about 90 minutes. Karuizawa twenty minutes away.

Sample experiences

Three shapes we've seen work. Customize freely. See how the 2026 popup unfolded; see how the Build Month came together.

5-day team retreat

Slow mornings — pour-over coffee at the long table, walks to the river, group breakfast someone made.

Working session at the venue or a temple-grounds offsite. Optional onsen run before dinner.

Communal dinner from a local soba master. One night at a sake brewery. One night around the music lounge.

10-day builder week

Stand-up at the long table. Quiet rooms for deep work.

Talks, demos, hacking. Shared cars to a hot spring when heads need clearing.

Late-night basement sessions. Demo night. Closing dinner with the neighbors invited.

30-day popup village

Week one — settle in. Cook together. Walk the neighborhood. Meet the soba shop, the kissaten, the priest.

Weeks two and three — programmed days, open evenings. Workshops, talks, residencies. Extend across nearby ZuCity homes for the overflow.

Week four — the village quiets down. People you arrived as strangers with leave as people you'll see again next year.

Where you and your guests sleep

Beyond the venue, the ZuCity app surfaces every nearby room — our coliving houses, partner homes through the ADDress network, traditional family estates. We can build accommodation for groups of fifty within walking distance.

Stay nearby

Available Airbnbs, hotels, hostels, and ZuCity rooms within walking distance of ZuCity popup venues

Historic Townhouse - Komoro Hokkoku Kaido
Villa

Historic Townhouse - Komoro Hokkoku Kaido

$283.87 USD /night

Kominka in Komachi - Momiji-an
Venue

Kominka in Komachi - Momiji-an

$290.32 USD /night

Route Inn Court Komoro
Room

Route Inn Court Komoro

$77.42 USD /night

Beautiful Renovated Open-Floor Family Home
Suite

Beautiful Renovated Open-Floor Family Home

$187.10 USD /night

NOVELS Hostel & Cafe
Venue

NOVELS Hostel & Cafe

$38.06 USD /night

Victorian Style Japanese Private Rental
Suite

Victorian Style Japanese Private Rental

$206.45 USD /night

Traditional Japanese House - Aramachi
Villa

Traditional Japanese House - Aramachi

$63.23 USD /night

まきはうす (Maki House)
Room

まきはうす (Maki House)

$38.71 USD /night

Bundle the local culture

The neighborhood is the program. We connect you to people who actually live this — neighbors, not vendors. Alpine air and ski circuits in winter; sakura, soba shops, and onsens year-round. More about how we think about this on the blog.

Tea ceremony in a hundred-year-old machiya.

Soba making with masters who've been at it for generations.

Sake and whiskey tastings at small distilleries you can't book online.

Onsen circuits — rustic mountain rotenburo, private baths, the works.

Pricing

$500
Daily rate · USDC or card

Longer stays unlock community rates

Our discount engine compounds — daily rate, bundled with rooms, and again if your community holds a network token. The four-week price ends up materially lower per day than a single week. We'll show you the math in the proposal.

What's included

  • ·The Grocery Store, fully yours for the duration
  • ·Open kitchen, lounges, basement room, outdoor patio
  • ·24-hour access for your community
  • ·Shared cars on the ZuCity network
  • ·Concierge introductions to soba masters, sake brewers, and onsens
  • ·Accommodation overflow across nearby ZuCity homes

Add-ons we can scope

Catering, neighborhood transport, accommodation overflow across the ZuCity network, ski/onsen/cultural bookings.

ZuCity is Japan's vibe curator

We're not the only good gathering spot in Japan. The ZuCity app aggregates the best coliving spaces, venues, and community events across the country — Komoro, Karuizawa, Tokyo, Hokkaido, Kyushu. See what's happening right now. Read our take on why we built it this way.

Hosting your gathering at The Grocery Store plugs you into that network. We'll cross-promote your event to the right communities, help you find collaborators in nearby cities, and make it easy for your guests to extend their stay across Japan.

Frequently asked

How far is it from Tokyo?
Hokuriku Shinkansen to Sakudaira, then a 15-minute hop by car or local train — 90 minutes door-to-door from Tokyo. Karuizawa is twenty minutes away. Three shinkansen stations within thirty minutes total.
Which airport should our guests fly into?
Haneda (HND) is the cleanest connection — direct shinkansen from Tokyo Station. Narita works but adds a transit. Smaller groups have flown into Komatsu and driven through the mountains; the views are worth it.
What's the wifi and AV like?
Fiber-grade wifi throughout the venue. Workstations and quiet rooms set up for video calls. Sound system for parties, projector for talks. We can scope specialized AV in the proposal.
Can we bring our own chef? What about catering?
Yes. Open kitchen, full-size pantry, working relationships with local soba masters, an itamae who travels, and a couple of farm-to-table cooks who can shop the morning of. Bring whoever you want.
We have fifty people — where do they sleep?
Adjacent ZuCity homes plus partner network rooms in Komoro and Karuizawa. We've slept fifty within a fifteen-minute walk before. The proposal will lay out specific rooms based on your dates.
What's the weather like?
Spring is sakura. Summer is mountain-cool while Tokyo melts. Autumn is the best month if you only get one. Winter is snow and onsens. The volcano is in the window year-round.
Are there sound restrictions?
The basement is the late-night room — built for it. Above ground, the neighborhood is residential, so we keep things reasonable past 10pm. Festivals and outdoor parties happen in town all the time, but coordinated with neighbors.
What's the minimum and maximum group size?
Seven-day minimum on the venue itself. Capacity is fifty inside The Grocery Store. We've had groups of twelve and groups of fifty; both work.
How far in advance should we book?
For one-week rentals: one to two months. For longer (10+ days): three to six months. The popular months — sakura in late March, October for foliage, January/February for snow — get booked first.
What kinds of events don't fit here?
Anything that needs a hotel ballroom and a banquet manager. Anything that's about projecting status more than sharing time. We send those organizers somewhere else with no hard feelings.

Reserve The Grocery Store

The Grocery Store

$500.00 USD / day

ZuCity's main coworking and event venue in the center of Komoro. A renovated storefront with 2 floors. The street level has open floor, high ceilings, mural walls, AV setup, and high power AC. USD $500 per day. Capacity fifty. Conferences. Retreats. Hackathons. Community dinners. Workshops. Residencies. 5-minute walk to all ZuCity homes. 90 minutes from Tokyo on the shinkansen. Mt. Asama on the skyline. Castle ruins, onsens, cafes, restaurants, and parks within a 15 minute walk. For Zuzalu alumni running the next popup city. For d/acc research groups needing a week offline. DeSci collectives publishing together. Longevity labs in retreat. Solarpunk builders running Build Month workshops. Network-state convenings that want to experience Real Japan. Not a hotel ballroom. Not a WeWork. No branded coffee, no AV rental upcharge, no conference-center aesthetic. The quiet mountains of Nagano outside your door. A venue is a container. What it holds is the only measure.

  • The Grocery Store, fully yours for the duration
  • Open kitchen, lounges, basement room, outdoor patio
  • 24-hour access for your community
  • Shared cars on the ZuCity network
  • Concierge introductions to soba masters, sake brewers, and onsens
  • Accommodation overflow across nearby ZuCity homes

Reserve The Grocery Store

Tell us about your gathering

We read every inquiry. We come back within a few days with a tailored proposal — dates, accommodation plan, programming options, pricing math, the works.

Tell us about your gathering

Keep reading

About ZuCity

Why we bought houses in rural Japan and what we're trying to build.

About Komoro

The town you'll be gathering in — Mt. Asama, soba, sakura, onsens, neighbors.

Snow Sports

Six ski resorts within forty-five minutes. A working winter on the snow.

Buying Akiyas

Why rural property in Japan is this cheap, and what we're doing about it.

ZuCity App

How to find what's open, what to book, what to apply to.

Send this to whoever helps you decide

Sponsor, cofounder, partner — the page is built to forward.

Send to your teamShare on XShare on LinkedIn