24th November 2019

Tokyo is my favourite city in the world. Okay I haven’t been to all the cities in the world, but of all the ones I’ve been to, Tokyo wins hands down. There is something so unique about the culture and the people that I am incessantly drawn towards. The food is wonderful, and everything just works. All of these reasons, plus the completely batshit crazy things you can experience in Tokyo are why it’s my favourite city in the world.

While planning our Tokyo trip, one of our friends said “oh my God, we have to go to the owl cafe!” What? What on earth is an owl cafe, I wondered. My inner animal activist was horrified, I know all around the world there are places that simply exploit animals for money and I didn’t want any part of that.

With over 2,000 5 star reviews on TripAdvisor and an Instagram account that tells the wonderful stories of these owls, I started doing further research which made me feel more at ease about going ahead with a reservation.

The owl cafe isn’t hard to find, as it’s just a few steps from Akihabara station but we took a taxi as we’d had a bit of a heavy night before. You have to arrive on time, the groups are very small and they only open and close the door once per group. Once we got inside, I realised why this place was so well reviewed. It’s basically a library, you cannot be loud at all, no squealing (a bit hard for me), and you must at all times listen to what the carers are saying. It was spotlessly clean, with all the owls chilling out on their branches. Some were missing, as they regularly rotate them throughout the day and take them upstairs to rest. Upstairs is actually where the owners live, so these owl rescuers basically keep these owls as pets and let you pat them. Cute.

Your entry fee of ¥2,000 (about S$25) allows you to hold 2 owls in the 1 hour duration you are there. They teach you a lot about owls, I mean these owls have a better life than I do. They are fed, groomed, whispered to (bit weird), patted and played classical music to all day long. I DOVE for sweet potato, the ridiculously cute owl I’d seen on their Instagram weeks beforehand. This real life furby was mine for the next 30 minutes.

Okay so you have an owl on your arm, now what do you do? Stare at her and take pictures of course. Owls are essentially CATS WITH WINGS which means they will either hate you, or love you, or both at the same time. Sweet potato seemed really chilled on my hand, I was terrified she’d fall off as she is such a small little thing, weighing a few HUNDRED GRAMS only. The owl man (carer? Guide? Rescuer? Owner?) said that because she closed her eyes, she felt very safe on me. INTERNALLY SCREAMING.

It was really amazing to get so close to these animals. I’ve never actually seen an owl in the wild, let alone been able to stare at one in the face without it attacking me. You really appreciate how delicate and cute they look, but how strong they are.

Once it was time to leave, they took a cute photo of us with our owls and printed it straight out and laminated it for us to take home. THE BEST. I didn’t want to leave, but felt comforted that all of the owls seemed incredibly happy and are clearly very well loved and stress free. If you are looking for any type of unique but ethical animal experience in Tokyo, this is it. Book well in advance on their website. Enjoy!

By reservation only

67 Kanda Neribeicho
Akiba Fukurou Bldg. 1F
Chiyoda 101-0022
Tokyo Prefecture

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