Totally irrelevant info from Japan, the land of the rising sun

In Japan, now back firmly in recession, the economic situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent months. But the Japanese still like to use their money to have fun, as it turns out.

Japan’s cat cafes lay on luxury accommodation for their felines In pictures Lola – or Rora – to give her a slightly more Japanese pronunciation – is a beauty and she knows it. Customers pay by the hour for her company. Usually they just want to stroke her, but as a special treat for favoured clients, she will lie back in a chair, close her eyes and pose for photographs.

Lola is a Persian cat who works at the Ja La La Cafe in Tokyo’s bustling Akihabara district. It is one of a growing number of Cat Cafes in the city which provide visitors with short but intimate encounters with professional pets.

One of the customers, in his early 30s, was attempting to bond with an Oriental Longhair by means of a rubber mouse. Yutsuke, who speaks with a lisp, is normally rather shy with people. He longs for a cat of his own but frequent business trips make that difficult. Besides, he lives alone, so the Ja La La is his solution to the problem.

The right pet

It costs about £8 ($10) an hour to spend time in a Cat Cafe. Here’s the details of some Cat Cafes if you want to check them out yourself.

Cat Cafe Nekorobi – http://www.nekorobi.jp/english/
Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toyoshima-ku, Tokyo
Telephone : +81 (0)3 6228 0646
Open 11am – 11pm

Nekobukuro – http://www.petfirst.co.jp/amusement/ (Sorry, this site is in Japanese only)
Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toyoshima-ku, Tokyo
Telephone : +81 (0)3 3980 6111
Open 10am – 10pm

Neko JaLaLa – http://www.nekojalala.com/ (Sorry, this site is in Japanese only)
Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan
Telephone: +81 (0)3 3258 2525
Open 11am – 7pm

tags: cat cafe, culture, rent-a-friend

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