キャットカフェ- Where dreams come true

I promised cat cafe, and here I deliver.
I was set back a few days because of obviously-super-important planning for my birthday...and sheer laziness, though let's pretend I was doing something adventurous and innovative.

So, when I first heard of the existence of a place where you sit down and drink coffee while petting a cat, unsurprisingly I wanted to get me a piece of that. Here I warn that I am somewhat of a crazy cat lady, and have been in serious withdrawal since coming to Japan and being catless. Sure, I got my fill a bit in Turkey with all the wild-and-dirty-but-friendly kitties roaming the streets, but I really missed the soft, playful sort of cat I can squeeze and cuddle to my face until I start sneezing.

So I had ever-helpful Yuki google the nearest cat cafes, and I was fairly surprised about how many there are in Japan. There were 2 within 15 minutes of us, so we picked one and hopped on the train towards our goal.

When we got there we had to knock on the locked door to be let in, so the cats could not escape (but boy did they still try!). We entered and had to take off our shoes of course, and the main area was just a small, comfortable room. When we first arrived there were 2 male workers (I assume they were both workers) just playing with the cats. Why isn't this my job, I would be SO good at this.

The main area. A small but cozy place.

Anyway, we were led to a back room where we could hang our coat and cubbies to put our belongings. We then got to pick a tiny can of juice for our drink (kinda lame), and we chose to only stay half an hour. A half hour (drink included) cost 700 yen, and an hour was 1000 yen, but since Yuki didn't want to go in the first place I figured I'd save him a few hundred yen.

Once my depressingly small can of grape juice was chosen, and the worker explained that we weren't allowed to pick up the cats, I immediately sprung gleefully amongst them. A couple were definitely curious and sniffing us, though they weren't jumping into our laps excitedly like I'd hoped. Still, I got a toy and began playing with them, though they seemed a bit bored. Of course, after having so many customers pawing over them day after day, I guess they got a bit picky. Get off your high horses, you cats! I was surprised that a couple were quite skittish and shied away when I tried to pet them. The worker said most were adopted from shelters though, so that's understandable.

(All pictures possible because of Yuki's nice camera phone)

Screaming "LOVE ME!!!"- but the cat just didn't give a damn. Look at that smug look on his face, he knew exactly what he was doing to me.

(While we were playing with the cats the workers disappeared so I could comfortably squee with joy without being too embarrassed.)

One of the fluffy, black cats looked just like a cat I saved from home last summer, and weirdly enough it had a hurt leg just like the cat I had saved! But this one was born with a twisted, shorter foot so it walked with a limp and was totally adorable in its gimpy-ness.

On the left, a cat that would play but not be petted. On the right- Gimpy, who was very friendly.

Don't let the neck-scarves fool you, these cats were hunting machines.

Front view of the shop with Yuki, the newest cat lover.

The sign says 'feel free to use blankets'. Oh Gimpy!

I tricked this one into my lap using my master cat-luring skills.

Though there were more cats than the ones pictured, some were sleeping and others were keeping a respectable distance. One of them flat out ran from me when I went up to it, so I guess not all of them are the friendliest. Regardless, when our 30 minutes were up I was not ready to leave.

Although I am cheap by nature and spending money for 30 minutes to play with cats is not something I will probably do again, I really enjoyed it. One of the few clear ambitions I have in life is to open an animal shelter one day, and maybe I'll make it a cat cafe. I think it's a great way to get cats adopted faster, and I don't know why someone hasn't tried it in the states. Though, I'm not certain Americans would pay to play and cuddle with cats, but who knows? I wonder why they are so popular in Japan. Maybe less people have pets because of the smaller, more cramped living spaces.

There have to be others like me out there in the states though, especially in the city where people might not be able to keep pets. Maybe I will turn it into a full-scale coffee house, where you can come, get a cup of coffee and stroke a cat as you do your homework. I'm dreaming big, you saw it here first!

Well, that was the cat cafe extravaganza. Next I want to go to a maid cafe, where you ring a bell for 600 yen and they kneel and call you master.

In other non-cat related news, I tried my new camera today and started to record a new video blog. A few things happened. First off, I aimed and started shooting and didn't replay the videos until the batteries died minutes later (something I had been warned about but have still yet to go buy good quality, rechargeable batteries).  I still got a bit of my talk in and figured I could finish tomorrow after an adventure to the store. HOWEVER, upon reviewing the video on the computer I was greatly disappointed. It is a good quality video, don't get me wrong, but the focus went in and out with every gesture or movement I made. It is extremely distracting and as of yet I don't know if there's a way to fix it. If there's not, I will probably return it. But as I've never returned anything in my life I'm sure it's going to be a big mess. Alas, since it's been so long since I posted a video, I will try finishing this one up tomorrow and posting it anyway, regardless of the annoying in and out of focus. Because you're worth it (whoever is reading this right now, yes YOU).