tokyo cat cafe

Something we had heard about and wanted to experience in Tokyo were their cat cafes. If you don't know what a cat cafe is, it is a place you can go, that sometimes serves drinks like a cafe, where there are tons of cats to pet. The Japanese love their cats, but the small apartments of Tokyo aren't always conducive to having pets, so cat cafes are there for cat lovers to get their fix. Since we had been missing our cats, it was perfect for us as well.

The cafe we went to was 1000 Yen for the both of us (US$10--cheaper than most of the cat cafes--some were expensive!) and was unlimited on time. As soon as we entered the cafe, we were greeted by the first of many cats we would become acquainted with that day.

At first the cats were a little stand offish.

This guy was a ragdoll, and from some angles, reminded us a lot of our kitty, Whiskey

But then we learned that, like most cats, they wanted you to come to them.

Some cats where marked as bad cats, meaning you need to pet them carefully.

Other cats, you could just tell they were bad cats.

The cats at this cafe were shelter cats, so there were a fair share of scared cats as well.

But there were plenty of nice cats who loved to be petted - and we loved petting them.

The whole cafe was set up with things for the cats to play on and high places for them to survey their territory.

They rotated the cats, so the ones not in the room were back in their private rooms which you could see through windows on the walls around the main room. The below cat never came out to play, but we heard they called him Grandpa and he was the largest cat I have ever seen. A child could have laid on that bed he is on.

They even had set up places to take pictures of the cats at their most regal.

By the end of our few hours there, the cats had really warmed up to us, even the mean ones.

 After an afternoon of frolicking with cats, we had worked up an appetite and went to a restaurant where you order your food from a vending machine outside, then the cook prepares it right in front of you inside.

We could absolutely not figure out what to do with this machine at first. We pressed random buttons until we got it to do something, and a nice passer-by mimed what to do the rest of the way. (No idea what the "No Dangerous Goods" means.)

This is what we ended up with from the vending machine!