Cat cafe

For my birthday I (finally!) went to a cat café, or neko café in Japanese (猫カフェ). And what can I say really: it turned out exactly as well as one could expect.

Prices depend on the cafe itself. I remember walking round Tokyo and passing by a few cat cafes which put me off by their prices per half an hour. This one was relatively wallet-friendly: 30 minutes cost Y500, and 45 minutes, which my friends and me ended up buying, Y700. And after buying this first instalment, every next 20 minutes would set you back by another Y100 (or Y200, can’t remember), but 45 was just right.

Because of what it is – a café where you play with cats – we had to be instructed before we could enter. Nothing outrageous: no flash photos, no picking the cats up, warning that we may get scratched or weed on, wash your hands before entering, just a few small health and safety things. In this particular café they only had bottled drinks and no food at all, but there are some where you can eat or have some proper coffee – it depends on the place.

And after passing this ritual almost, we could finally go through the door to the magical world of cats. Or to the room where they lived.

There were ten or twelve in total – I didn’t count and some of them slept somewhere in the corner and one had to look for them to find them. They were all adult cats, between three and five years old, no kittens which surprised me a bit. In a cute-obsessed country like Japan surely kittens would attract more customers? Maybe that was due to today being Wednesday and weekends having more clients – or maybe it was another health and safety thing and trained adult cats are less prone to suddenly attacking or weeing on someone? I don’t know and if I ever manage to go back there, I’ll probably ask about that.

What is noticeable almost instantly upon entering, other than the impression of looking into my own future as a crazy cat lady? Behaviour of the cats themselves. You can tell that they’ve been spoiled by this lifestyle and customers spending extra Y100-200 for treats because the moment you’re at the door, you’re greeted by a few and after that they always looked to our hands first – some of them left us as soon as they realised we’ve not brought anything. And when some while later another pair of customers arrived, who have bought some treats, they almost couldn’t get rid of some of them. Typical spoiled cats, that’s what they are.

Everything else would really end up being me talking about each cat’s character, which I’d rather avoid coz there’s a chance I’d never stop. I definitely think that such a café is a piece of Heaven on Earth, even if I’d have to be severely depressed or be promised playing with kittens to buy more than the 30-45 minutes which are just fine. Although there were some toys, the cats were clearly uninterested in them and preferred either to sleep, or to allow us to pet them, or to play with new things, like camera straps. And as relaxing as petting cats is, when they’re not your own, an hour tops really is enough.