From nuclear disaster to a cat cafe…
Tokyo is full of weird and wonderful experiences – one of which is the Hapi Neko or Cat Cafes. Here for a 1,000 yen (£8) for half an hour you can spend time stroking a bunch of cats in a cafe. You get a drink included in the price. There are rules – you have to use antibacterial wash on your hands and can’t pick up cats when they are sleeping. Being some cat lovers amongst us we were pretty excited about the prospect of this – but I wasn’t sure by the end whether the cats were as pleased to have visitors. One of the cats called Lela apparently had a taste for chai tea latte (good taste) and polished off the remnants of one of the other customers’ drinks. At the end Mimi the cat was not best pleased about saying goodbye.
This is pure speculation but I wonder if the fact that these cafe’s exist is also about escapism like the pachinko parlours appear to be. Apparently the typical tokyo living space is extremely small and many people live on their own in one room in a bed-sit style set up.
Mimi says ‘soyanara’
