If you visit Miysis Cat Café in Yokohama, you’ll find the staff wearing brown t-shirts with ‘No Cat, No Life’ printed in light pink on the sleeves. Sadly, the t-shirts are not for sale. I asked.
But that’s okay, because an hour at this café is enough to leave a lasting impression, or at least it was for me. While the café itself wasn’t the cleanest and the ambiance resembled those of other cat cafes, there was one thing that set this one apart.
The cats here (for the most part) were actually interested in their guests! Ben and I were shocked when we reached out to a beautiful grey colored cat a few minutes after entering the café, and the cat responded by jumping on our laps and even trying to sniff our drinks. But we had to make sure the cat didn’t drink them. According to one of the guidelines at this café, ‘Drinks are for homo sapiens only’. You can’t forget reading something like that.
Later, an orange and white cat played with me for a bit before passing out on my lap. I didn’t have the heart to remove the cat from my lap until right before we left.
While I’m not a huge fan of cats, I will admit that in the right atmosphere, they can be relaxing companions. And yet, rarely do I ever feel totally relaxed at a cat café. It’s not so relaxing when you’re trying to find a cat who actually craves your attention. But at Miysis, when the orange cat fell asleep on my legs as I softly stroked its back, I closed my eyes for a minute and took a deep breath, and it was then that I finally began to understand the cafés mantra, ‘No Cat, No Life.’
