"If you want the best seat in this house, MOVE THE CAT!"

Last weekend, Ben and I read this sign as we washed our hands, preparing to spend time at our last cat cafe, 'Curl Up Cafe,' in Meguro. The cafe was SO cute. I loved how simple the outside looked. The building was made out of brick and there was a bay window with little white curtains in the front. The bay window was filled with kitty things and of course, an actual kitty. I was very impressed with this cafe. The owner and cats were very friendly. And the best part was the old man in the cafe, whose belt buckle had a picture of 2 little orange cats on it. When I asked him if he liked cats he told me that he loved them. A true cat cafegoer!

Welcome!

This 3-month-old kitty really knows how to curl up!

Our time card.

I bet this cat won an award for those blue eyes!

All the cat furniture in this cafe is made out of cardboard. The owner of the cafe showed me a flyer he got from the company who makes it all - so neat! 

Sleeping cats on a cardboard couch.

Cat Show awards!

Special 'Curl Up Cafe' slippers.

Living a World Away

::Things I Miss From Home::                                     

Nice, predictable weather                                        
Wheat bread                                                                             
Granola bars                                                                             
Dessert aisles (brownie mix, cake mix, frosting)                                                                              
Target                                                   
Deli sandwiches                                                                       
Mexican food (TACO BELL)             
Trader Joe's                                                             
Cereal                                                    
Good cheese                     
The pumpkin patch  
Christmas decorations/food/celebrations
Having space
Central heating          
Driving and listening to the radio                
::Things I Love About Japan::
Rilakkuma
Convenience stores
Delicious, fresh food (always!)
Strange Kit-Kats and Caramels
Great service
Purikura (picture booths)
Cool Toilets (clarification: some are cool, some are scary)
Cleanliness
Daiso (dollar store)
Good fashion
Cute umbrellas!
Kimonos and yukatas
The quality and convenience of the trains
Seasonal foods and activities
Sunrises and sunsets
My kotatsu (heated table)
Omiyage (souvenirs)
Cat cafes and theme restaurants...
                  


Deep Blue restaurant in Tokyo,
Floors and tables are covered with sand and each booth has a private aquarium



To be continued...

Holy Land

Recently, Ben and I took a trip down to Osaka and Kyoto, which are southern areas in Japan.  Our Osaka travels brought us to a cat cafe called Holy Land.  It was a little dirtier than the cat cafes we've visited in Tokyo, but the cats here looked really interesting.  Ben thought one cat had eyes that looked like an aliens and we saw the biggest cat we've ever seen - no joke. The cats also got pretty excited when the food came out which made for a good, and at times frightening, experience.



Photo: http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~mokei/image/japanmap.gif

 

We're ready when you are, Ben!

Is it time yet?!



Score!



Check out my tail!



JaLaLa Cat Cafe, Akihabara, Tokyo

I don’t know what gave it away first: the entrance
door handle shaped like 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.

Relax Bearing in Cat Cafe #2!

Last weekend, Ben and I checked out a different cat cafe called Calico (how appropriate). He had been there before but it was my first time. This cafe was a 100x better than the first one we went to in Harajuku.  Here's why:

--> this cat cafe is two stories.
--> it houses 20 different cats, representing 17 different breeds!
--> there's a separate little room with huge glass windows and bar seats for people who want to eat while they cat watch.
--> you can actually feed the cats at Calico- this definitely made the experience more worthwhile.  Our little containers filled with shredded chicken created some intense competition!

There was only one problem with this cat cafe: it was kinda hard to pay...

I wonder which one will be next?

"I'll have an iced tea with my cats, please"

Last Sunday, my friend Ben and I FINALLY found the cat café in Tokyo that we’ve been trying to locate for a while (It’s on the 5th floor of a building that’s hidden down a tiny alley in Harajuku -no wonder why we couldn’t find it for so long!)

The café, called Chamamo, was much smaller than I had imagined, but totally cool nonetheless. In this particular café there were nine cats “on staff”. It cost 1200 yen (about $12) to get one drink and spend one hour in the café. Before entering, we were instructed to wash our hands and change into slippers that the café provides.

The girl who works there introduced us to some of the cats (one of them is named “Lunch”). She told us we could pet the cats and play with them, but we weren’t allowed to pick them up.

The cats at Chamamo even have space to roam around in the ceiling.  Skinny pieces of criss-crossed wood decorated with leaves are situated about three feet under the actual ceiling so the cats can climb around up there if they want.

Ben and I wrote in the guest book we found on a table in the café. We found entries from people all over the world, like Germany and Taiwan. Our entries were among only a few written in English. The best part of the guest book was scoping out the different sketches of cats that visitors had drawn.

Before heading out, we groomed ourselves with the lint roller they provide at the front desk. Ben said that at a different cat café you can actually feed the cats-that’s where I’m going next.