Cat Cafes :: Meow!

During my friend Kathy's visit, I finally made it to a cat cafe. Tokyo has a lot of themed restaurants and cafes. I'm sure you've heard of maid cafes and the ninja restaurant. Cat Cafes are only kind of popular here and after visiting one, I think I know why they haven't gotten popular. BECAUSE THEY ARE WEIRD AND BORING!!!

I should mention that I am not a cat person. I've grown up with dogs my whole life so cats just don't appeal to me. People like to say that cats are great because they are independent and don't need you. That does not sound interesting to me. If I wanted that, I'd go get a career oriented girlfriend.  

The cafe we went to is called Nekorobi in Ikebukuro. There are a lot of cat cafes in Ikebukuro, so people often call it Nekobukuro. (Neko means cat in Japanese.) You pay 1,000 yen an hour for all you can drink vending machine drinks and candy. They also give you a small bag of cat food to feed the cats. That is basically the only way you can get the cats to play with you. Once you run out of food, you're boned. Check out the action:

Cats just sleep! That's it. I mean...this guy up here who is looking perky, I was only able to get this picture by bribing him with the last of my food. He quickly scampered off to some other lonely woman in the corner once he realized I was of no use to him. Even the cafe owners know how boring it can be! They have a Wii that you can play during your hour...in case you get bored...which you will.

It was pretty silly and Kathy and I got lots of giggles in, but it's also a pretty sad place. It's more like a kitty nap room than a cafe and it was sad to watch all the excited kids be disappointed by the lame cats. It is even more sad to see the middle-aged women trying to coax the uninterested felines.

No thank you cat cafes. I will stick to reading Corgi Style magazine at the bookstore and drooling over the sedated puppies at the pet stores like a creepy dogophile.

*** I wanted to link "sedated puppies" to a pet store called Wan's Style in Roppongi. When I went to Google it, the first post came up with my own blog. Apparently, I have already talked about my disgusting pet store visits.