Cat Cafe Trial Run

Creative Day 01/31: blog post

Ol' Sourpuss didn't want to play

The dream when visiting Japan is visiting a cat cafe — a cute space where cats frolick and patrons enjoy a coffee or tea while entertaining or being entertained by the cats. I had been curious for a while as to exactly how this experience pans out, and luckily enough, my friend L and I stumbled upon a neko cafe called My Cat. Its outside advertising wasn't the flashiest, but the experience was certainly interesting...!

Happily devouring taiyaki with azuki (red bean) inside

We started the day by exploring Osu, a neighborhood just south of the main downtown part of Nagoya. A local expat magazine called Nag Mag did a July issue feature on this neighborhood, including an interview with a locally famous Westerner known as the "Wizard of Osu." There were tons of recommendations in the article, but we were happy just to wander the outdoor arcade shopping area. When I spotted this taiyaki shop, I burst out to L that we absolutely HAD to try some. The baked pastry with red bean (azuki) inside was as great as expected, and brought back many memories of San Francisco's Japantown!

Kitten!

We then wandered around some more, even coming across a local temple. Curious, we tiptoed through the open gates into a small graveled courtyard and looked at each other as if to say, "Are we supposed to be here?" No one told us otherwise, so we poked around the courtyard. We heard some mewing sounds and carefully investigated the source: about 7 or 8 cats in the bushes, just relaxing! There was a tiny kitten under the bush (his older counterparts aren't pictured), and we cooed over him before the grown-up kitties started growling irritably.

We wandered more around the area, stopping for a bubble tea (me) and beer (L) before making our way back home. We proclaimed that if we saw a cat cafe, we weren't going to pass it up. Much to our delight, we soon spotted a sign in all Japanese with a picture of a cat on it. I stopped to see if I could read any of it, and I made out the words "Neko Cafe My Cat" in katakana. We immediately walked up the stairs to the second floor location.

L with a curious kitty

We laid down ¥700 (about $7) for a half hour with the kitties, took off our shoes and ignored the mildly sour stink of cat pee — we were too excited to care! This cat cafe was pretty dark inside, and didn't get any natural light. We also soon discovered that, although we were happy and ready to play, the kitties weren't! It was kind of hilarious how uninterested they were in playing with us; I even nicknamed one of them Sourpuss because s/he didn't come out of her cage much at all, and took a lot of cajoling to even play with the most fun toy...! When Sourpuss adventured out on tiptoe, I congratulated her heartily, but the other cats soon put her in her place!!!

One of the livelier cats!

We did our best to bring a little fun into these jaded kitties' lives, but they were far more interested in the cafe owner, who obviously feeds them every day, and the other patron who soon came in and bought them some dried fish snacks. Those cats literally swarmed him!!! I thought to myself, if their love can be bought so easily, they don't deserve my love! Next time I think we will try to go to a dog cafe, or a cat cafe with a better reputation in Nagoya. Nevertheless, this was an interesting first experience, and definitely both fun and funny.

This cat looks kind of mad... I swear that's just his ears'
natural position! He didn't mind... really...