Final visit to the last Cold Stone Creamery in Tokyo before it closes leaves us with a bad taste

It seems that Cold Stone's Harajuku store is closing — news like that popped in at the end of March. An ice cream specialty store that mixes ingredients on granite that has cooled to -9 degrees in front of customers, “Cold Stone Creamery...

Final visit to the last Cold Stone Creamery in Tokyo before it closes leaves us with a bad taste

Could the demise of Cold Stone have been prevented in Japan if they’d done this earlier? Cold Stone Creamery has seen a meteoric rise and fall in popularity in Japan. After opening its first Japanese branch in Tokyo’s Roppongi in 2005, the chain went on to span over two dozen locations, with lines out the door as fans came to love the novelty of singing staff. However, five years later, stores began to close, one after the other, until, in Febru…