Cat & Bunny Cafes

The day I had been looking forward to for so long, when I’d get to go to my first cat cafe, finally arrived this morning as we made our way to the Curl Up Cafe which I’d read about in La Carmina’s book.

It was the most relaxed cafe I’d ever been to with sleeping cats everywhere and from the second I sat down, an adorable little cat curled up on my knee and fell asleep. I didn’t want to wake the kitty up but I was keen to play with the other cats too. Luckily it woke up when my coffee arrived and it started licking the remains from my milk capsule.

The cafe was filled with shelves, cubbies and hiding spaces for the cats to curl up in and there was a cat flap to the outside world, so they could escape from pesky customers. There were cat toys everywhere and a giant TV which I’ve read plays bird videos on repeat.

We could have spent all day with the cats but our hour flew by quickly and it was time to go and explore the rest of Tokyo.

Like every good tourist, Tom wanted to stop into McDonald’s to see what was different about the menu. They serve a shrimp burger, which he ordered and it was pretty tasty.

We headed back in to the centre and wandered around Shinjuku where I got to live out my dream of pretending to be a fashion photographer for FRUiTS. Tom was excited because you’re allowed to drink alcohol in the street here and it was the perfect day for drinking an ice cold beer.

Tom had mentioned wanting to find a good craft beer pub when we passed by the Watering Hole, which looked like his ideal place.

The waiter was excited when we told him we were from Scotland and pointed to a giant Brew Dog poster on the wall. They’ve just opened their own bar in Tokyo and I was surprised by how big they’ve grown in such a short time.

The menu was made up from business cards for each of the beers and there was a huge selection. Tom ordered me a fruity beer and we shared some sweet potato fries which were bright purple.

We then wandered through Yoyogi Park on our way down to Harajuku. It was amazing how peaceful the park was and it was hard to imagine that we were still in the middle of Tokyo.

After the cuteness of the cat cafe, we couldn't resist trying out a bunny cafe too, so we headed to R.a.ag.f which had the tagline "rabbit and grow fat".

The bunnies were a lot more hyperactive than the cats and were also a lot harder to take a good photo of.

We ordered some drinks as some rabbit food and the bunnies started crawling on us. Unlike the cats, the bunnies are rotated in small groups so that they don't fight with each other.

Luckily we had the place to ourselves near the end, so we got plenty of fluffy attention. Some rabbits liked different food from the others so it was fun working out who wanted to eat what.

We headed to Shibuya afterwards where it was prime crossing-the-street o'clock, so we headed upstairs at Starbucks overlooking the crossing to get one of the more iconic Tokyo photographs.

We had reservations at Alkatraz Er in the evening, a prison and hospital themed restaurant.

After punching in our blood type to enter, a waitress dressed as a nurse showed us to our seats at an operating table. Some of the tables in the next room were in stacked jail cells across two floors which looked awesome.

Tom's cocktail came served in a Man's brain while mine was dispensed from a blood bag. We ordered fried noodles, garlic fries served in a kidney bowl and takoyaki which are octopus balls we'd been told to try. We weren't sure why the balls were called takoyaki roulette until Tom munched in to a ball filled with wasabi and his eyes almost popped out.