You got off at Kamakura Station and walked a loop around the area looking for somewhere to smoke. This article is for people who have done that.
The conclusion first. There is exactly one public smoking area around Kamakura Station: the indoor smoking room on the third floor of i-ZA Kamakura. Every outdoor smoking area has been removed. Miss it, and the only option left is to go inside somewhere that allows smoking.
This article covers how to reach that one smoking room, the spots that are gone, and four cafés where you can smoke either cigarettes or heated tobacco. I live in Kamakura, and these are only places I actually use.
The only smoking room is THE TOBACCO KAMAKURA
It is in the commercial building straight ahead of the east exit. Go up to the third floor and turn right. The signs inside the building are not easy to spot, so rather than hunting for a floor map, it is faster to remember: third floor, then right.
Watch the hours: it closes at 17:00. If you get to Kamakura in the evening, there is nowhere to smoke by the station. After that, the cafés are the option.
It is the closest place to the station, so if you want a cigarette as soon as you step off the train, this is the only choice. It does not work the other way round: walking back to the station partway through a stroll is not realistic. For that, use the cafés below.
The smoking areas at Sankaku Park and Tsurugaoka Hachimangu are gone
Writing this down for anyone who searched and landed on an old article.
There used to be smoking areas at Sankaku Park, by the west exit of Kamakura Station, and on the grounds of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. Sankaku Park is also known as a filming location for the film Taiyo no Uta.
Both have been removed. Things tightened up all at once over a few years. Articles from when the two were still in service are still online, so if you set off by those, you will arrive at nothing.
Four cafés where you can smoke
From here on, this is the option of going inside. It is what you use after THE TOBACCO KAMAKURA closes at 17:00, or when you want to smoke away from the station. All four allow both cigarettes and heated tobacco.
MORE (喫茶モア)
MORE (喫茶モア)
- Getting there
- 2 minutes on foot from Kamakura Station
- Hours
- 11:00–20:00 (last order 19:30), irregular closing days
CigarettesHeated tobacco
The one I go to most often. It is closer to a restaurant than a coffee shop, with pasta and other lunch dishes as the main business.
What makes it unusual is that the smoking section is larger than the non-smoking one. Where smoking is allowed at all, the smoking seats are normally pushed into a corner, so this is rare. The outdoor seats are non-smoking.
The range of customers is wide, too: couples visiting, people from overseas, local men and women of an older generation, and younger people. It is easy to walk into on your own, which is the best thing about it.
What I order is the tuna omurice with the A set: salad, soup and a drink.
cafe RONDINO
cafe RONDINO
- Getting there
- Left out of the west exit of Kamakura Station, at the entrance to the Onari shopping street
- Hours
- 7:00–18:00
CigarettesHeated tobacco
A small café to the left as you leave the west exit, at the entrance to the Onari shopping street. It opens at 07:00, which makes it the place to fall back on when you arrive too early. It is the earliest of the four to open.
It closed once and later reopened, and lost seats in the process. What is left is the counter and the table seats behind it. It is a place where solo customers come for coffee, and many of them are reading.
Honestly, it takes some nerve to go in. It is small and quiet, so the first time needs a bit of courage. On the other hand, being popular, it has one saving grace: you can see whether a seat is free from outside.
What I order here is the spaghetti.
Lespoir (レスポワール)
Lespoir (レスポワール)
- Getting there
- 5 minutes on foot from Kamakura Station
- Hours
- 10:00–18:30
CigarettesHeated tobacco
On the second floor of an old commercial building, some way along Komachi-dori, on the way out to the Dankazura.
As the sign outside says, the homemade cheesecake is what it is known for. It is an old-style coffee shop run single-handed by the master, and the coffee is very good as well.
Komachi-dori is crowded and tiring, so somewhere to sit down partway along it is worth a lot. Being on the second floor puts you one step away from the noise of the street.
Cafe Last Waltz
Cafe Last Waltz
- Getting there
- 20 minutes on foot from Kamakura Station
- Hours
- 9:00–17:00 (closed Mondays and Tuesdays)
CigarettesHeated tobacco
A 20-minute walk from the station, in a detached house. It is the only one of the four at a distance you clearly have to walk.
From the outside it is completely a house. The streets around it are residential, and even I, living here, did not know about it for a long time. Walk without looking for the sign and you will go straight past.
It closes early, at 17:00, and is shut on Mondays and Tuesdays. Walking 20 minutes to a closed door is not something you get over quickly, so watch that part.
In exchange, it is very calm inside. The menu is short, and it suits ordering kintsuba and a coffee and reading a book. Of the four, this may be the most Kamakura-like.
I live here, so in the end I go to MORE, the one that is easiest to drop into.
Depending on what you are after, though, one of the other three may suit you better.
Information about smoking changes surprisingly fast. When the smoking areas at Sankaku Park and the Hachimangu went, they were already gone by the time I noticed.
I will walk this area again, and update this if anything has changed.
