Some days, living in Japan feels more like training for a show like “The Amazing Race” or “Survivor,” except that I’m the only competitor in the race. Today was one of those days.
Without a car, getting around in Japan can be tough. Especially if the weather takes an unexpected turn for the worse, like it did last night.
Today was my first day at a new school, Sawa High School. I was determined to get there as early as possible because it was my first day and punctuality is highly valued in Japanese society. In Japan “on time” usually means 10 or 15 minutes before you are supposed to be somewhere. So this morning I told myself I would make it to my new school on time, even if it killed me, which I feel like it almost did.
Rewind to last night. I couldn’t sleep at all because out of nowhere (the weekend weather was warm and comfortable) it got really windy and cold. The wind banged against my windows and doors, keeping me up for part of the night. I knew that getting to school was going to be difficult.
My journey to Sawa began at about 7:00am. I had two options for getting to the train station: biking or walking. It was so windy outside that I thought the wind might blow me off my bike as I rode to the station. But there was no way I was going to walk the 25 or 30 minutes to get there in this weather... or so I thought.
18 April 2010
01 April 2010
JaLaLa Cat Cafe, Akihabara, Tokyo
I don’t know what gave it away first: the entrance
door handle shaped l
ike a cat paw, or the sleeping
cat with a fluffy head rested against the main window. In any case, Neko JaLaLa Cat Café was easy to find.
The café is nestled in a quiet area away from the booming electronic stores on Akihabara’s main streets and it looks more like a small house than a café. But even so, there are plenty of reasons why this cat café deserves recognition.
This café provides humorous English (actually more like “Engrish”) bios of the cats. One bio emphasizes the size of a cat by saying something like, “He’s big like a cheeseburger, big like Tokyo Tower!”
JaLaLa is also unique because it has customized pillows, curtains, and even key chains that feature the cats. The pillows and curtains decorate the café and the key chains are sold for about 500 yen near the front counter. And that's not all!
The day I was there, customers were presented with a small souvenir on the way out, a JaLaLa calendar featuring…guess who?
While paying, I couldn’t help but to admire the huge cat sprawled across the front counter, sleeping in the same position as when I had arrived. The cat looked completely at ease as it rested, unknowingly attracting passerbys and drawing visitors into JaLaLa.
door handle shaped l
ike a cat paw, or the sleeping cat with a fluffy head rested against the main window. In any case, Neko JaLaLa Cat Café was easy to find.
The café is nestled in a quiet area away from the booming electronic stores on Akihabara’s main streets and it looks more like a small house than a café. But even so, there are plenty of reasons why this cat café deserves recognition.
This café provides humorous English (actually more like “Engrish”) bios of the cats. One bio emphasizes the size of a cat by saying something like, “He’s big like a cheeseburger, big like Tokyo Tower!”
JaLaLa is also unique because it has customized pillows, curtains, and even key chains that feature the cats. The pillows and curtains decorate the café and the key chains are sold for about 500 yen near the front counter. And that's not all!
The day I was there, customers were presented with a small souvenir on the way out, a JaLaLa calendar featuring…guess who?
While paying, I couldn’t help but to admire the huge cat sprawled across the front counter, sleeping in the same position as when I had arrived. The cat looked completely at ease as it rested, unknowingly attracting passerbys and drawing visitors into JaLaLa.
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