Bringing Seattle's café community to Niseko.

Their destinations were Seattle, Portland, and Colorado. Seattle, where he had spent just three days on his way back from Alaska at age 20, had left a particularly strong impression, and he wanted to see it again.

"I was scheduled to fly back from Alaska via Seattle, but my flight was delayed by a day, so I decided to stay for three days. This was around the year 2000, before Seattle's coffee culture had really taken hold in Japan. I remember trying the coffee there and being amazed at how delicious it was."

It wasn't just the taste of the coffee that impressed Mr. Touge. It was the sheer number of cafés and, more importantly, the fact that each one had its own community—a culture completely different from what he knew in Japan.

"For example, near a movie theater, there would be a café where film lovers gathered. Near a university, you'd find students discussing music in another. I had never seen anything like that when I went for coffee in Japan, and it left a huge impression on me."

Could he create a similar café in Niseko, a place where outdoor lovers could gather and plan their next adventure? Inspired by Seattle's café culture, Mr. Touge returned to Japan and found a perfectly sized property in front of Kutchan Station. And so, SPROUT was born on December 15, 2009.

SPROUT when it first opened

Although Mr. Touge had never worked in the coffee industry, his wife had a connection to Yokoi Coffee in Sapporo. He began sourcing beans from Mr. Yokoi, the owner, who taught him everything about coffee from the ground up.

"For the first six years, we used and served Mr. Yokoi's beans. Over time, I felt a growing desire to try roasting myself. I consulted with Mr. Yokoi and gradually started roasting. Roasting is very similar to activities that deal with nature, like backcountry skiing or trail running. In the mountains, you have steep parts and gentle slopes. Some days the snow is fluffy, other days it's hard. You have to adjust your pace to the 'nature' of the environment, which changes every day you ski or run. Coffee is similar; you look at the state of the green beans, the temperature, and the humidity, and then decide how to apply heat. I really enjoy that process of adapting to nature."