Tokyo - Cat Cafe

Is this Heaven? No, it's a Cat Cafe.

If we each had our own personal paradise, and if said paradise could descend to Earth and take corporeal form, mine would be just like this. It's a Cat Cafe -- a somewhat recent trend in Japan that happens to be exactly what it sounds like: a cafe with a bunch of cats inside that you can play with for an hourly fee.

The cafe pictured below is near Ueno Station in Tokyo and has no fewer than fifteen extremely tame cats. It also offers its patrons unlimited coffee and tea for 315 yen, but that's hardly the point. The point is -- well, if you even have to ask, you either haven't looked at these pictures yet or you don't understand the joy that is an endless parade of felines in silly hats. Maybe it's just because I miss my own cats so much -- and because I haven't lived without cats since I was in fourth grade -- but visiting a cat cafe gave me the kind of inner peace most people feel after a religious conversion.

I love cat cafes. After viewing these pictures, I hope you understand.

This is what the cafe looked like on the inside. Small, intimate...and crawling with cats. There were cats in baskets. Cats in boxes. Cats asleep on top of the coffee vending machine. Cascades, forests, swamps of cats. All of them were exceptionally chill -- with the exception of a Scottish Fold named Miruki. About whom more later.

Two cats fast asleep, curled into adorable balls of inordinate cuteness. What more is there to say?

Miruki (Milky) the Scottish Fold. His ears are supposed to be like that -- it's the defining characteristic of the breed. In case you couldn't tell by the goofy expression on his face, Miruki was kind of a character. He hammed it up in front of Ryan, reeled him in, seized him by the heartstrings...and then turned into a bite baby and gave him a cut on his finger. MIRUKI! You treacherous swine!

Another shot of Miruki, chest puffed out in pride after once again biting the hand that feeds him.

This cute WANTED poster was intended as a warning to the cafe's patrons -- it basically said to be careful around Miruki because he bites. Unfortunately, Ryan and I couldn't read it, and by the time the cafe's proprietor delivered a verbal warning, it was too late. (And yet Ryan couldn't get enough of this cat).

Beppi, a much more trustworthy feline companion.

This is Champ (Chanpu). True to his moniker, he endured the shades and head piece with extraordinary grace. Probably he was too exhausted to care.

I never got this cat's name, but he and I spent a lot of time together at the cafe. Notice the sign in the background with Miruki front-and-center. He kind of sits like my cat Toby.

This is Mepuru (Maple), another cat with a hilarious face. I swear, half of the appeal of cats for me is their funny faces.