on encouraging kindness

Image from cabel.name

Have you ever been served something that isn't what you ordered? Not just that it wasn't cooked to your liking, or that there was real milk instead of soy, but something completely different?

The Ogori cafe takes that same experience—which is almost never pleasant—and transforms it into a whimsical experiment about kindness.

Cabel Sasser, co-founder of Panic Inc., wrote up a description of his visit to the Ogori cafe. It's the sort of thing that can bolster your faith in humanity, or leave you with a grin for the rest of the day. From the piece:

For the record, here are the rules of the Ogori cafe:

1. Let's treat the next person. What to treat them with? It's your choice.
2. Even if it's a group of friends or a family, please form a single-file line. Also, you can't buy twice in a row.
3. Please enjoy what you get, even if you hate it. (If you really, really hate it, let's quietly give it to another while saying, "It's my treat…")
4. Let's say "Thank You! (Gochihosama)" if you find the person with your Ogori cafe card.
5. We can't issue a receipt.

The Ogori cafe was an unforgettable travel moment, and an idea that has stuck with me: It was a complete surprise in our day. It encouraged communication between total strangers or, in this case, members of the Kashiwa community and a couple of weird guys from Oregon. It forced one to "let go", just for a brief moment, of the total control we're so used to exerting through commerce. It led you to taste something new, that you might not normally have ordered. It was a delight.

While it must be understood that the Ogori cafe is something of an art installation piece, constructed to serve one specific, brief purpose, the realizations it brings about human interaction and kindness can certainly carry over into other realms. In stressful situations, such as receiving something different from what you expected or asked for, the first thing we usually want is to resolve the situation immediately. How often do we think of how to turn that same situation into something beneficial not only to ourselves, but to others, as well? And how many other situations might we design better, to improve people's quality of life through what might otherwise be understood as mistakes or problems?

As a final note, Panic Inc. is part of the team behind the video games Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, which both encourage exploration in a fun, vibrant world—exactly the kind of experience which the Ogori cafe seeks to create. Life imitating art, perhaps?