[category]
[title]
Damp mist hangs over the verdant mountains all around us when we step off the Chuo line at Uenohara, a single-platform station overlooking the Katsura River, just west of the Tokyo-Yamanashi border. Strolling across the rain-drizzled town, we head for the foothills, following a narrow road through a Ghibli-esque tunnel and past unwieldy greenery.
After a 20-minute walk, we arrive at our destination: a kindergarten where time appears to have stopped. There’s a reassuringly sturdy-looking yellow gate, trippy vintage playground equipment in the yard, even boxes for students and teachers to put their outdoor shoes in when changing into the uwabaki slippers kids throughout Japan wear every day in school.
But only in five-year-olds’ dreams do kindergartens have a neon popcorn sign. And this particular preschool no longer teaches kids how to wash their hands and fold origami. It’s been painstakingly transformed into CineYama – a destination for film fans of all ages, who come to expand their cinematic horizons in a place defined by a love for movies.
Out with the bugs, in with the boom
The one-screen movie theatre is set in a building that formerly housed the city’s Sawamatsu Kindergarten. The structure had been left to decay after the school’s closure a decade ago and was in rough shape when Matthew Kelson, CineYama’s proprietor, first came across it. ‘It looked pretty from the outside,’ Kelson says, ‘but the interior was moldy and rotten, with insects skittering all over the place.’
But Kelson wasn’t about to be discouraged by the squalor. Back in his native Detroit, he got his start in the film business by opening a cult cinema in a shuttered school. In Uenohara, where he moved from Tokyo with his young family at the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic, the former Netflix man has returned to his roots of converting former educational institutions into movie theatres.
Rejuvenating the ex-kindergarten took two years, a dogged DIY spirit and plenty of help from the local community, with Kelson doing the lion’s share of the work himself. The result reflects both his passion for cinema and eye for quirky detail.
In the screening room, the powerful sound of Altec-made Voice of the Theatre speakers, the go-to model for American cinemas from the ’50s onward, envelops viewers in the 43 deep-green seats. The same colour scheme, intended to evoke CineYama’s forested surroundings at night, extends throughout the interior, from the lobby to the loos.
The decor is equally thoughtful: warm lighting, vintage posters on the walls, tables made from repurposed film reels – not to mention the strategically placed kaiju figurines in the bathrooms.
I know, it’s eclectic
As for programming, Kelson hopes to combine ambition with accessibility. ‘I want to show a wide range of stuff from around the world; movies that are challenging and interesting to watch,’ he says, ‘and create opportunities for people to get a taste of different cultures.’
In recent weeks, CineYama’s schedule has included films by David Lynch and Werner Herzog; Joel Schumacher’s The Phantom of the Opera (2004), a documentary about local currencies in nearby Fujino; and Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s latest anime drama A New Dawn, among others. From June 12, it’ll be time for an Andrei Tarkovsky retrospective – alongside a Bluey in Cinema special.
‘The line-up is going to stay mixed,’ Kelson says with a smile, ‘because I’d like [CineYama] to be more than an arthouse theatre. I hope it can be a place where families want to come with their kids, and a place where older local people can enjoy cinema too.’
No matter your age, you’ll have a hard time resisting the temptations of CineYama’s snack counter, where you can customise your organic popcorn with half a dozen seasonings, grab a bag of sour gummies and some craft beer, or savour smooth coffee from Hayama’s acclaimed Dark Arts.
Sit down, stay a while
After three months in business, CineYama is establishing itself as a community hub in Uenohara. The charmful atmosphere and quality movies are complemented by a programme of restaurant pop-ups on some weekends, encouraging locals and visitors alike to mingle and linger – just as Kelson had envisioned.
‘For me, a cinema is more than somewhere you go to watch a movie and leave,’ he says. ‘It should be a place where people can come together, meet each other and have conversations – and it’s great to see that happening here.’
CineYama can be reached on foot, by taxi or rental bike from Uenohara Station on the Chuo line. The train ride from Shinjuku takes about an hour. Free parking is available at the venue. See the official website for the screening schedule and Instagram for updates.
More from Time Out Tokyo
Tokyo’s hydrangeas are now blooming – and they’re gorgeous
About 10.6% of Japan identifies as LGBTQ+ in 2026, survey suggests
One of the world’s best burgers is right here in Tokyo
Shibuya’s Hands store will close in November after 48 years in business
3 of the world’s 100 greatest movie theatres are in the Tokyo region
Want to be the first to know what’s cool in Tokyo? Sign up to our newsletter for the latest updates from Tokyo and Japan.