Rikawafuku Kyoto-Station Store — Local services in Kyoto

One thing you have to know before coming to this specific store is that you have to use cash only. First, the confirmation email and SMS message confirmation that we were supposed to get two months before our appointment did not come. The confirmation email consisted of the information that we must use cash but since we never got the email before we started the trip, we did not have enough cash with us to pay 15,000 yen (which also btw, is a ridiculous amount of money to be expected to be brought in cash and only cash). The staffs claim that the cash only information is written on their website somewhere but I still cannot find it on their website till this day, so I felt like such important information was miscommunicated on their part. Due to this, we were late for an hour to our appointment because we tried to get cash from various convenience stores and had to run to a nearby bank.

Since we were late because we never got the confirmation email, we asked if we could return the Kimono later since our appointment was delayed, but they refused to give any adjustments to the time. When we tried to return the kimono, we were stuck in traffic and was about to be late so we called them to ask if we could get 5 mins of leeway time, but they said that every single minute of returning it late would cause an additional 1000 yen in penalty.

We also don’t recommend this store for tourists who aren’t fluent in Japanese because we asked for staffs who knows English but...

Worse place I have visit ever, trying to charge me $20000 jpy for a water stain and a male staff called 瀨野 trying to find a way to charge us as much as he could. It was not even a stain at the kimono and it was water as I checked so many times l could. Worse place I visited ever. Charged me $20000 for a water spot, not ever coming again. I have seen other reviews that people have the similar experience with the male staff. So please try to avoid this place.

update Thank you for your reply. I have just uploaded the photos which are the evidences that the male staff charged me for “water stains”. The photos could be the references for anyone who would like to consider this place in the future. Under this circumstance, anyone could be charged for extra $20000 and I hope it is not too “misleading”. I remember that day the male staff (seno) was trying to look for any opportunity to charge my sister too so he could end up charge us total extra $40000 but unfortunately he couldn’t find any “water stains” on my sister’s kimono. I truly don’t recommend this place for such a poor...

I was really looking forward to this kimono rental experience, but unfortunately, the service was extremely disappointing. Despite having a reservation, we were ignored for about 30 minutes while walk-ins who spoke Japanese were helped right away. When we were finally acknowledged, the staff seemed annoyed by our presence, likely because we didn’t speak Japanese. Instead of guiding us through the process, they rushed us the entire time, making the reservation feel pointless.

The man at the cashier was especially rude and even told my husband that we only had three hours for our rental. However, every sign in the store stated that the return time was 5:30 PM—the same time that was written in our reservation and on the document we signed. This was very misleading and made us feel like we were being treated unfairly.

That being said, the kimonos themselves were beautiful, but I would have chosen a different rental shop had I known how poorly we would be treated. If you’re a foreign visitor, I’d recommend looking elsewhere for a more welcoming and...