And I don't just mean that they love their Wagyu beef. Which they do.
I mean they LOVE animals, like they want to love them and pet them and call them George.
Maybe it's because of the Kawaii culture in Japan. Have you heard of Kawaii?? It indicates a love for all things...cute. Like Hello Kitty, or Pikachu...or...well...animals!
So the Japanese love their animals and want to hang out with them as much as they can. Did you know that there are 58 cat cafes in Tokyo alone? And maybe that number is higher now, since that is as of 2015. What's a cat cafe? you may ask. A cat cafe is a place where you can pay to go in, even get a coffee if you wish, and hang out with cats. That's it! A simple but intriguing concept. So of course, we had to go to one. I'll get back to that in a second.
But first, note that we were in Japan for 9 days. Two of those were travel days, so that leaves 7 days for real tourism. And how many animal experiences did we have?? 5. 5 animal experiences, with 7 different types of animals. So that's one animal a day. And you may think that we sought those experiences out...and we did, kind of, but the fact is--it was really easy.
Our first animal experience happened on our very first full day in Kyoto. Niccolo actually found this experience when we were planning back in the United States. He discovered a monkey park where you could visit with free-roaming snow monkeys, and even feed them. We had to climb up about 1,000 stairs to get there:
But when we did, we were rewarded with all sorts of scary-looking snow monkeys, just waiting to attack you and claw your eyes out.
(Monkey lying in wait)
No, I'm kidding. No one got their eyes clawed out. But there were signs everywhere saying not to get too close and NOT to look them in the eye. !!! I once dated a guy in Italy who had a dog you couldn't look in the eye. What's up with these ferocious beasts?
Anyway. The monkeys were super cool, and just sort of wandering all over the place. I kept a good distance and kept my eyes below the belt. Not my fault. The signs prohibited me from looking higher, and they do have those fancy red behinds, so....not my fault.
We also got to feed the monkeys. For 100 yen, you could get a little packet of fruit or peanuts to feed them. Who knew monkeys liked peanuts? I thought it was only elephants. Actually, feeding them bananas was the best, because you would give them a slice, and they'd take it with their kawaii little hands, and peel it before quickly devouring it. Now we had to do this from inside a cage, since we couldn't get too close. I thought that was hilarious. The monkeys were roaming free and we were in the zoo!
It was a good thing, too, because one of the kids in our group tried to hand a monkey a piece of fruit and accidentally dropped it. The monkey immediately went ape-shit (no pun intended), and hissed at the child and thumped his chest. It was pretty crazy. He was definitely displeased with us. I dared look him in the eye from the safety of my cage, and I saw the monkey rage.
Anyway, that was animal experience #1.
The second experience actually came the very next day (see? one a day) in nearby Nara. Nara has a huge deer park where scruffy little mini-deer roam around like squirrels. You can spend 100 yen there, too, for deer food to feed them with. The deer food actually looks rather like the bread wafers you get at communion in church. I guess they are holy deer. We had a great time hanging with the deer, and trying to get selfies with them.
Sorry for all the pictures, but these deer were frickin' hilarious! We even tried to get one to pose in one of our Ironic Trump Hats (Make Japan Great Again!!), but even he was opposed to Trump:
So 2 days in, and 2 animals down.
Then we had a sort of dry spell until we got back to Tokyo. And then the magic really happened.
I mentioned that they have 58 cat cafes in the city. Well, it turns out that you can combine a cafe with basically any animal! They have cat cafes, dog cafes, owl cafes, bunny cafes...even a hedgehog cafe!!
And we went to 3 of them.
First, we went to a cat cafe. The one we chose was super nice, but sadly, only allowed in kids older than 13, so that meant only Niccolo. He and I decided to go in. It's worth recounting the experience, so I will.
You go in, and like everything in Japan, it is extremely clean. The first thing you do, after paying, is remove your shoes, and retrieve a pair of slippers from a machine that sanitizes them. Then you have to sanitize your hands. You get a locker where you put your shoes and bags and things, and then you can go in.
And they have all sorts of comforts. It's a quiet peaceful space with cats lounging everywhere. There are video games to play, books to read, chargers of every sort for your phones, even blankets. And drinks. We had opted to feed the cats, so again in the name of cleanliness, they escorted us to a designated part of the room and laid down a tarp. They then had us put on aprons. We could then feed the cats treats from a little spoon and a cup. So fun! We had a blast just hanging out with all the felines.
Oh! And how could I forget? This is Japan, and you have to be kawaii. So they had little fuzzy cat ears you could wear. And you better believe I put them on!
So, well, we couldn't leave the other kids out, and we felt bad for them...so we found another cafe where they could go in as well. An owl cafe!!
Now I didn't actually get to experience the owls, since they snuck off to this cafe while we were stroking...cats. But I do have photographic evidence, so you must believe that these exist.
Finally, on our last night, we decided to make a pilgrimage to Roppongi to experience the Holy Grail: the Hedgehog Cafe. And we are so glad we did.
The Hedgehog Cafe was a triple-whammy: hedgehogs, bunnies and chinchillas. Chinchillas!! For a few bucks, we got to hold, pet, and get pooped on by adorable little fuzzy things. In fairness, they did give us blankets and diaper pads for that very reason.
I mean, can you even bear the cuteness?? The sheer kawaii of it all?
I can't.
I mean they LOVE animals, like they want to love them and pet them and call them George.
Maybe it's because of the Kawaii culture in Japan. Have you heard of Kawaii?? It indicates a love for all things...cute. Like Hello Kitty, or Pikachu...or...well...animals!
So the Japanese love their animals and want to hang out with them as much as they can. Did you know that there are 58 cat cafes in Tokyo alone? And maybe that number is higher now, since that is as of 2015. What's a cat cafe? you may ask. A cat cafe is a place where you can pay to go in, even get a coffee if you wish, and hang out with cats. That's it! A simple but intriguing concept. So of course, we had to go to one. I'll get back to that in a second.
But first, note that we were in Japan for 9 days. Two of those were travel days, so that leaves 7 days for real tourism. And how many animal experiences did we have?? 5. 5 animal experiences, with 7 different types of animals. So that's one animal a day. And you may think that we sought those experiences out...and we did, kind of, but the fact is--it was really easy.
Our first animal experience happened on our very first full day in Kyoto. Niccolo actually found this experience when we were planning back in the United States. He discovered a monkey park where you could visit with free-roaming snow monkeys, and even feed them. We had to climb up about 1,000 stairs to get there:
But when we did, we were rewarded with all sorts of scary-looking snow monkeys, just waiting to attack you and claw your eyes out.
(Monkey lying in wait)
No, I'm kidding. No one got their eyes clawed out. But there were signs everywhere saying not to get too close and NOT to look them in the eye. !!! I once dated a guy in Italy who had a dog you couldn't look in the eye. What's up with these ferocious beasts?
Anyway. The monkeys were super cool, and just sort of wandering all over the place. I kept a good distance and kept my eyes below the belt. Not my fault. The signs prohibited me from looking higher, and they do have those fancy red behinds, so....not my fault.
We also got to feed the monkeys. For 100 yen, you could get a little packet of fruit or peanuts to feed them. Who knew monkeys liked peanuts? I thought it was only elephants. Actually, feeding them bananas was the best, because you would give them a slice, and they'd take it with their kawaii little hands, and peel it before quickly devouring it. Now we had to do this from inside a cage, since we couldn't get too close. I thought that was hilarious. The monkeys were roaming free and we were in the zoo!
It was a good thing, too, because one of the kids in our group tried to hand a monkey a piece of fruit and accidentally dropped it. The monkey immediately went ape-shit (no pun intended), and hissed at the child and thumped his chest. It was pretty crazy. He was definitely displeased with us. I dared look him in the eye from the safety of my cage, and I saw the monkey rage.
Anyway, that was animal experience #1.
The second experience actually came the very next day (see? one a day) in nearby Nara. Nara has a huge deer park where scruffy little mini-deer roam around like squirrels. You can spend 100 yen there, too, for deer food to feed them with. The deer food actually looks rather like the bread wafers you get at communion in church. I guess they are holy deer. We had a great time hanging with the deer, and trying to get selfies with them.
Sorry for all the pictures, but these deer were frickin' hilarious! We even tried to get one to pose in one of our Ironic Trump Hats (Make Japan Great Again!!), but even he was opposed to Trump:
So 2 days in, and 2 animals down.
Then we had a sort of dry spell until we got back to Tokyo. And then the magic really happened.
I mentioned that they have 58 cat cafes in the city. Well, it turns out that you can combine a cafe with basically any animal! They have cat cafes, dog cafes, owl cafes, bunny cafes...even a hedgehog cafe!!
And we went to 3 of them.
First, we went to a cat cafe. The one we chose was super nice, but sadly, only allowed in kids older than 13, so that meant only Niccolo. He and I decided to go in. It's worth recounting the experience, so I will.
You go in, and like everything in Japan, it is extremely clean. The first thing you do, after paying, is remove your shoes, and retrieve a pair of slippers from a machine that sanitizes them. Then you have to sanitize your hands. You get a locker where you put your shoes and bags and things, and then you can go in.
And they have all sorts of comforts. It's a quiet peaceful space with cats lounging everywhere. There are video games to play, books to read, chargers of every sort for your phones, even blankets. And drinks. We had opted to feed the cats, so again in the name of cleanliness, they escorted us to a designated part of the room and laid down a tarp. They then had us put on aprons. We could then feed the cats treats from a little spoon and a cup. So fun! We had a blast just hanging out with all the felines.
Oh! And how could I forget? This is Japan, and you have to be kawaii. So they had little fuzzy cat ears you could wear. And you better believe I put them on!
So, well, we couldn't leave the other kids out, and we felt bad for them...so we found another cafe where they could go in as well. An owl cafe!!
Now I didn't actually get to experience the owls, since they snuck off to this cafe while we were stroking...cats. But I do have photographic evidence, so you must believe that these exist.
Finally, on our last night, we decided to make a pilgrimage to Roppongi to experience the Holy Grail: the Hedgehog Cafe. And we are so glad we did.
The Hedgehog Cafe was a triple-whammy: hedgehogs, bunnies and chinchillas. Chinchillas!! For a few bucks, we got to hold, pet, and get pooped on by adorable little fuzzy things. In fairness, they did give us blankets and diaper pads for that very reason.
I mean, can you even bear the cuteness?? The sheer kawaii of it all?
I can't.
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