Its been a while since I have posted, so might as well return with my longest and most extensive post to date.... There is much to admire about Japan: wonderful cuisine, an admirable degree of social cohesion that has been more evident than ever in the recovery from last year's disasters, a culture that seamlessly mixes old traditions with trendsetting fashion and a sense of modern urban cool, etc. Perhaps less well known is the fact that Japan is a great cat loving nation. I'm not really sure why - if you Google "why do Japanese people love cats" you find explanations such as cats are fastidious, amenable to living in tight quarters, etc. And please, lets not even get started with Hello Kitty, which has always kind of annoyed me. I'm talking about real cats, as AMACA2Cs followers know we try to celebrate the wild, not quite domesticated aspect of the cats that live amongst us humans, as opposed to cartoonish cute stereotypes. If you casually browse through cat photos on Flickr, you will quickly come across some great photos from Japanese cat photographers. My personal favorite is "Rampx", check out his excellent photos of somewhat "ferocious" Japanese felines
here
Anyway, back to the subject at hand which is Japanese cat cafes. AMACA2Cs recently had an opportunity to travel to Japan and visit 4 of the over 30 cat cafes in Tokyo and 100+ cat cafes in Japan. For a general introduction on cat cafes, check out
this CNN piece, and you can find an invaluable map of all the cat cafes in Japan
here. The basic concept of nekocafes (neko = cat in Japanese) is that they offer a place for cat aficionados whose circumstances may not allow for keeping a cat at home to relax with kitties of various types and stripes. They also are a place to get caffeinated, meet and hang out with fellow cat-loving humans, or perhaps just chill out, read, or who knows - maybe take a few photos of cats! I must say that I was intimidated by the hardware of the fellow cat photographers I encountered at these cafes. Obviously the Japanese are somewhat camera-obsessed, and I left my DSLR at home in the spirit of traveling light (and due to a recent shoulder injury) and therefore felt somewhat underclassed and "outgunned" with my tiny point & shoot vs. the formidable hardware displayed by the local neko photographers. But the photos were workable, so I humbly present the following opinionated photo review of the 4 neko cafes that I visited.............
First off was
Nekobukuro , which is actually listed as an attraction the the Lonely Planet guidebook.
Although Nekobukuro has friendly staff and an attractive layout, I must admit I was a bit disappointed as it was sort of Disney-like instead of a relaxing cozy cafe type environment that I expected. They also didn't appear to be selling coffee or tea or have comfy seating, so you can't really call it a cafe. They did have some interesting cats, though, including this "curly" haired kitty:
Here is the display of their full roster:
I arrived within 15 minutes of their opening on Saturday morning, so I was surprised that this gentleman was able to get in there, get comfy and fall asleep by the time I arrived!
There did seem to be quite a few kids and families at Nekobukuro, so I will give it kudos for being family friendly. One more Nekobukuro photo before we move on:
Next up and just a few blocks away was
Cat Relaxation Cafe 299. This is my attempt at an English translation, but 299 is actually an interesting play on words that relate to a cat's paws. Anyway, this cafe was quite the opposite of Nekobukuro, it seemed its primary clientele was canoodling couples. The space is dark and cavernous, with plenty of couches and cats.
Here you can see a couple getting to know one of the kitties, perhaps as they cat to know each other. Quite a nice venue for a first of second date, I would imagine!
The problem from 299 from a cat photographers perspective, however, is that this was the only window in the whole place. With flash photography not allowed, that severely limits the lighting possibilities! So I hung out by this window, and was able to snap a few more photos:
So after a cup of coffee I was on to another cat cafe that was only a block away,
Nekorobi
Nekorobi is actually "purr-fect" for cat photography, a corner location with windows on two sides that allow for ample natural light. And an interesting roster of kitties as well. Each had their own photo book:
There was also a guest book that had some interesting scribblings in it:
This was an interesting perch for the kitties (and human patrons!) to watch the activity of cars and humans scurrying below:
There is plenty of seating to hang out, an eclectic clientele, and all the drinks from the vending machine were free! I reluctantly left this urban cat oasis after my hour was up, but not before snapping these pics:
The three prior cat cafes were all clustered around the Ikebukuro train station, which is one of Tokyo's many transit and shopping hubs that link the city center with the suburbs. For the last cat cafe AMACA2Cs traveled to Shinjuku, which is sort of like the Times Square of Tokyo. The
Calico cat cafe is the largest cat cafe in Japan (by # of cats, not square feet, a staff member helpfully pointed out), and has a spacious duplex configuration. The specific location is quite interesting as it is actually right next to Kabukicho, the infamous red light district of Tokyo. It was pouring rain so unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the outside placard that was advertising the cafe, but it was similar to placards on the same block advertising "hostess club" establishments. The only difference was that Calico's placard had pictures of cats instead of sexy ladies!
Here is a photo of the upstairs area, where there were a bunch of kids playing video games and not really paying attention to the cats.. I quickly proceeded to the much larger downstairs area.
You can see from this photo that Calico is one of the few entertainment establishments in the neighborhood whose clientele are mostly female!
You get a sense of how spacious the cafe is here:
A pretty grey kitty:
Like many of the cat cafes, Calico also has a nice collection of manga (japanese-style comic books) which these ladies are perusing.
This cat had particularly short legs - an interesting breed for sure!
What stripes!
This cat is so comfy and so oblivious to the swarming and adoring humans that his eyes are shut so tight you can't even see them!
A cat hanging out in a cardboard fire truck, with his short-legged lieutenant by his side. Note the license plate.
Cat soup!
Although there were many more cat cafes I could have visited, I was rather happy with the cross-section and diversity of the 4 that I visited. So I ventured off to a more conventional tourist destination, the temple-infused seaside town of Kamakura. It was a nice day, and I took this photo of a shrine that appeared to be dedicated to cats - do you see the two stone figurines?
I hope you enjoyed AMACA2Cs first international foray - more to come!
