I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Japan is weird and wonderful.
Among an obsession with efficiency, cleanliness, and order, an adoration of cats and cute cartoon characters, and bizarre fashion and food trends exists this realm of strange theme cafes. Animal cafes are one variety.
Animal cafes started as a way for people who couldn’t have pets at home or were simply lonely to spend time with animals.
Then tourism clawed its way in. Now, these cafes overflow with tourists (literally, lines snake down several flights of stairs and onto the sidewalk outside at most of them).
But every “top 10 things to do in Tokyo” list included a visit to an animal cafe, so we added it to ours.
Choosing an animal cafe
The original animal featured in these cafes was cats, but animal cafes have expanded to snakes, owls, sheep, goats, hedgehogs, and more.
We debated which variety to visit, and finally decided on a Shiba Inu Dog Cafe in Harajuku.
What’s a Shiba Inu? It’s a Japanese breed of adorably fluffy dog.
More commonly, it’s that dog in the meme you see all the time.
Getting into the animal cafe + price
These animal cafes are so popular, they charge you for entry based on the half hour. This particular cafe was 880 yen per person per half hour time slot ($8.04), which included a drink.
So we lined up, and were let into the cafe with about 12 other people. It’s a tiny space and it was pretty hot inside with the sun blazing in the window. Eight or so Shiba puppies were lying around in various positions.
We used antibacterial liquid to clean our hands and removed our shoes before stepping over a short gate into the main cafe area.
We watched a video that gave a rundown of rules (don’t break up dogs if they’re fighting, scratch them from below, don’t feel them, etc.) and then were able to get drinks from a vending machine before sitting down on the ground.
First impressions of the dog cafe
The dogs were super cute, but incredibly lethargic. It was sad. They looked like they dreaded being touched, with most shirking away from people touching them and trying to lie near the edges of the room or under the tables.
Based on the size of the cafe and the amount of people who must come through every day during opening hours, we realized quickly that these dogs were sad.
It’s not like they’re abused… they seemed to really like the staff and would run to them every time they walked by, but all of that attention from various people all day and such a small space to run and play in must be awful for them.
The 30 minutes couldn’t pass fast enough
We sat there, not petting any dogs unless they came up to us, which only one did briefly. The staff would walk around and actually turn dogs over onto their sides so people could pet their bellies. At one point, a staff member lifted a puppy up for us to pet, which we did reluctantly so that they’d put it back down.
We all hated it.
They had a little room off to the side with cages in it where the dogs must sleep at night. I also think they had more dogs in there that they would trade out for ones who had been out for a while.
All in all, not a great life for a dog.
Should you visit an animal cafe?
I hadn’t really thought it through before going, but in hindsight, I wouldn’t go to an animal cafe. I’ve heard similar reports from other travelers we met who went to a rabbit cafe (only one bunny could be out at a time or they’d fight) and a hedgehog cafe (where you can only hold them for a few minutes for a photo).
The only positive one I heard was from two travelers who went to a cat cafe. They said the cats just really don’t care and wouldn’t approach people if they didn’t want to.
I will leave it up to you to decide. But, I will say that it was incredibly sad to see dogs – usually so sociable and people-loving – just wanting to be left alone but not being allowed to.
Again, what started as probably a good idea from a good place has turned into something bordering on (or already at) animal cruelty.
What you could do instead
Go to an ethical animal cafe (Tokyo contains a few). At ethical cafes the dogs, cats, and other critters you sit with roam freely and are up for adoption (if you are a Japanese resident).
If you can’t make the trip to one of these, then I’d suggest skipping animal cafes altogether. The less demand, the fewer cafes like this will pop up.
Moral of the story: We were happy when our 30 minutes were up, and happy to never do one of Tokyo’s themed cafes again.