Kitty Café

By Yuko Aoki


Hello Kitty was created in Japan and is popular all over the world. It seems like Japan likes to stick with cats. When I heard about a Kitty Café, I doubted my ears and eyes. It was on CNN international news and they were introducing the fascinating café. Well, I cannot understand what is so fascinating about it.

During my winter break, I went back to my home country of Japan. I visited one Kitty Café which is one of 55 existing stores all around Japan, 11 stores in Taiwan, and 3 stores in Korea. I paid about $9 to enter the café and bought a drink to just see cats in the approximately 18 ft. x 16 ft. room. Most of the cats were bored with toys, so I could not play with them. What interests them the most is FOOD.

The picture below shows you the café is popular and they are doing good business. I also watched people who were in the café and I found weirdness of social activity. Most of the young couples were just inventing a new place for their date plans, so I felt freshness from their atmosphere. There was one family with an elderly mother. The mother was having fun watching and feeding the cats. For those elderly people or people who have limitation to move around, this place might be a suitable place to change their environment and refresh their minds. Somehow this place acts like animal therapy. An adult couple who seemed socially awkward to me was having really few words with each other. They were in the room and kept watching the cats for a long time. Often people say a child is an anchor, but for them, cats are an anchor. None of the people were talking outside their groups this time but it might be used as a place where people meet.

I will never go back to a cat café again because I cannot see the value and I like dogs more. By the way, I googled to see if there is a dog café in Japan. Sure, there is more than one dog café existing!

Image: taken by Yuko Aoki