After enjoying a delectable dinner with some friends, the six of us ventured down the street to visit one of Shoko’s favorite places, a “Neko Café” or as the Japanese would translate it in English, “Coffee House of Cat”, OR as I lovingly refer to it as, “The Cat Brothel”. Wait, what’s that? You’ve never been to a neko cafe?!? Well, please, allow me to paint you a mental picture.

Once inside we were asked to take off our shoes and place them in the cubbies provided. We were also asked to wash our hands before we handled any cats, fair enough. The small, carpeted cafe is filled with anime books on shelves that just about span the circumference of the room. A cat tree or two share some floor space with quite a few chairs and a couple of tables. They also had a couple of fountain drink machines for your thirst-quenching pleasure (350¥ for all you can drink). Once your eyes adjust, you begin to see cats everywhere. They’re on top of the cat tree, lounging on the unused shelf space, napping on the fountain drink machines and glaring at you from under the tables and chairs. I’m not entirely sure how many cats this place ‘cares’ for, but on the menu (see image in gallery below) I noticed that they had numbers up to 22. I sincerely hope they don’t have 22 cats prowling about. My best estimation would be that there were about 10 lazy cats lounging around us. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t more in the back room. My guess is that they may work in shifts. I mean, one cat can only deal with so many strangers forcing attention upon it. I kept wondering how a business like this might do back in the states, assuming they could get past PETA.