Tokyo: Cat Cafe Calico

You can eat dog in Korea, so perhaps a cat cafe in Japan serves cats? No! While planning my trip for Tokyo I came across an article about the Cat Cafe Calico. It's a cafe (serving tea and coffee) where you can go to enjoy the company of well-groomed, well-behaved cats. Many people in Tokyo aren't allowed to have pets because they live in apartment buildings, so this cafe caters to a specific cat-loving, cat-deprived niche. A trip to the Cat Cafe was an embarrassingly high priority for me. I miss my cats and was more than willing to pay the 800 Yen (~$7.50) entrance fee to play with cats for an hour. There were at least 10 cats and they were all different breeds. Check out the cute cats!

Look at the munchkin kitty's stubby legs!



A Japanese woman from the hostel informed me that it is now a "fad" in Japan for cats to curl up in bowls. No joke- check out youtube. She had heard of the Cat Cafe before and wanted a full report on my visit.

Aww!

Cat Cafe Calico has a website (you can check out short videos on the cats) but nothing was in English, so I e-mailed them for directions. They replied promptly and said they would have information in English prepared for me. When I arrived the attendants looked a bit shocked, but they quickly found the notebook with the rules written in Japanese and English. My favorite rule: If cat be hating, let it go.

Rating: 5 stars