Tokyo has paved the way for unique café in the world. One sub-genre of themed cafes that exists in Tokyo are animal cafes. The idea of getting to sip on good coffee or tea while playing with cute animals appealed to many, so Japan made it happen. Now, dozens of animal cafes exist within the city of Tokyo, each of them having something new and creative to appeal to guests such as unlimited beverage counters and different animals to stand apart from the competition.
While the idea of animal cafés seems harmless in theory, the ethics of many businesses has been called into question by animal rights activists. So before getting into what the experience is like at one of these cafés, it is important to take a look at what activists have to say.
Seisen International School student Leina Pham-The calls for café goers to ask certain questions before deciding if a cafe is supporting the health and well-being of its animals in her article, Ethics of Animal Cafes and the Rise of Cruelty-free Animal Cafes | HS Explorer Student Groups. She poses these questions:
- Are there hiding places for animals so that they can rest?
- Are shop owners forcing animals to interact with customers?
- Are there strict guidelines for customers when interacting with animals? If so, are people following them?
- Are visitors asked to sanitize their hands before entering?
She also provides a list of cafés that are going the extra mile to be cruelty-free establishments for those wishing to partake in the animal cafe experience responsibly.
With that said, here are a few more animal cafes that have a good reputation within Tokyo. In Akihabara, one neighborhood is a hot spot for themed cafés of all kinds, and this is where a popular puppy cafe and cat cafe are located.
On the second floor of the building, puppies eagerly run in circles anticipating the arrival of guests visiting Puppy Cafe Rio, a café that lets customers sit down and sip on a wide variety of unlimited beverages including tea, coffee and soda while spending time with the puppies. A few dogs such as a Shiba Inu, an Italian greyhound and a Pomeranian are popular dog breeds at this café.
Upon entering, customers are asked to remove their shoes and place their belongings in a locker before entering the room where the puppies are. In the puppy room, a gate separates the playgrounds from a sink for guests to wash their hands before and after interacting with the puppies and a refrigerator stocked with unlimited beverages for visitors to enjoy. After washing hands and putting on a clean pair of slippers provided by the café, guests are then able to enjoy the main playground with their drinks and let the puppies approach them with the help of treats that are also provided by the café.
It is an adorable sight to see each of the puppies chasing each other up and down the room and to see them showing off the tricks they know to the customers like sit and paw. The atmosphere at Puppy Cafe Rio is as lively as ever, and it offers its guests a space to have fun playing or relaxing. Guests can also let a pup cuddle up next to them, letting visitors leave feeling rejuvenated and eager to return!
Another animal café just minutes from Puppy Cafe Rio featured a much calmer but just as popular atmopshere is Cat Cafe Mocha. For those who consider themselves to be more of a cat person, Cat Cafe Mocha is the perfect destination. The vibe here contrasts greatly from the puppy cafe by being much more relaxing and quiet. It is easy to see that the cats here are not being exploited or forced to interact with visitors as there are many places to distance themselves and embrace their true independent nature.
This café has a beautiful interior with a neutral color scheme and gold platforms hanging from the ceiling that many of the cats chose to perch on. Entering this cat café is also a very similar process as the puppy café. Guests check in, change into slippers and wash their hands before entering the room with the cats. An unlimited beverage machine is also available here with a difference being that while Puppy Cafe Rio served canned drinks, Cat Cafe Mocha guests watch their cup get filled by a vending machine style drink dispensing machine that serves hot and cold drinks. Guests just pop a lid onto their cup and then are able to enter the cat room with it.
The most pleasant thing about Cat Cafe Mocha is being approached by the adorable variety of cat breeds that reside here such as Scottish folds, Ragdolls and Persians to name a few. Guests can also purchase different treats to feed the cats like paw-shaped ice pops.
Sitting down at Cat Cafe Mocha is by far the relaxing café experience that someone can have. There are many places to sit and toys to entice the cats to play and guests find that if they sit down and calmly enjoy the space, a cat will soon make their way to their lap to be pet and played with.
With a quick internet search, it is easy to find an abundance of animal cafés in Tokyo, but not all are the same or treat their animals fairly. For anyone interested in spending time at an animal cafe, there are few out there that have ethical business practices and treat their animals with the respect and care that they deserve. Going to an animal café is truly an unforgettable experience that is most definitely worth it to animal lovers everywhere.
