Hey Hive!
So if you missed the last couple of posts, we're currently on another journey to Japan after we finished our final semester of college back in January 2019! And it was coincidentally around Valentines' Day too! We initially talked about wanting to visit South Korea but a Delta Airlines deal kinda changed our plans so.. to Tokyo once again!
But this time we were staying somewhat outside Tokyo in an area called Omorimach! And last week, we took a break gaming with our friend and chilling/snacking in Ginza after our long day in Kawaguchiko photographing Mt Fuji!
I couldn't finish writing last week's post since it was getting quite long, so let's continue on our special trip to a brand new experience in.. a mameshiba cafe!
16 February 2019. Saturday.
We were in Akihabra and didn't really know what else to do, and we saw there was a mameshiba cafe pretty close by and since we've never been we thought we'd check it out!
Unfortunately I didn't manage to take a picture of the store front, but I believe it looked something like this:
Source: omotenashi
I remember it was on the upper floors of this pretty cramped building, and you had to take an elevator up to it and when the doors opened you were right in front of the cafe. It was also pretty dark in the hallway so it was hard to take a photo.
There were these instructions and admission is 1,100 yen for adults (13 years or older), 880 yen for children (4 to 12 years old), and free for children under 3. The tickets also come with a drink from the vending machine. I think we got a lemon tea or something like that.
But anyway, you'd get tickets like this with your allocated timeslot. Since it was pretty late when we went, we actually just barely got into the last timeslot. But thankfully there were vacancies available.
They let all the humans into the playpen and we were to deposit our shoes and belongings in these cubbies along the sides. I guess it's so the doggos don't chew on them and stuff. But after we were all settled on the tatami mat, they brought out the puppers!
If you're not familiar, a Mame Shiba Inu is basically a miniature Shiba Inu dog. In Japanese, mame translates to beans. So Mame Shiba Inus are "bean-sized" dogs. Apparently they are shiba inus that has been intentionally bred to be smaller. As for the health and well-being of these pups and how long they live, I'm not sure. But these puppers seemed to be well taken care of at least.
I am not a dog owner, nor a dog expert, so please don't write hate comments below.
It was our first time ever going to a dog cafe and they were soo adorable!! I just wanted to hug them but I didn't touch them unless they came close to me since I didn't want to scare any of them.
The other humans were pretty chill too, which was good since we didn't want to aggravate any of the puppies. It was definitely nice to see everyone smiling and having fun with them!
You just couldn't be sad looking at all these cute doggos! I think most of them were getting sleepy though since it was getting late, but there was one doggo in particular that kept walking around and exploring! I guess he was just really excited!
It was definitely a serotonin booster being in the presence of so many cute puppers!
We just sat there taking pictures of the puppers near us and petting those that came close to us. I think some of them were scared though. It must be quite difficult to train them not to be scared of so many humans everyday, so kudos to the caretakers!
They were all so cute though! I was content to just sit there and watch them as they sniffed and looked around. They didn't bark that much either!
I'm not sure what the conditions are like for these puppies, but they seem to take to the staff well so I guess they're well taken care of at least.
We tried to engage some puppies but I think they weren't very interested in us.
It had been a while since I encountered a doggo though, so I was still happy just being around them.
There were quite a lot of them gathered on the other side of the room for some reason though. I wonder if that's where they normally get treats or where they go to sleep.
But they started to walk around and some of them just stood around and they always gathered around the staff. Their fur was so soft to touch though!
Even though these cafes can be quite controversial, I feel like it's still a really unique experience, and at least these puppers get some good times interacting with humans.
Omg I couldn't handle all the cuteness!
Soon the earlier timeslot was ending so the humans went to pack up our stuff while the puppers stood around.
There was a mameshiba in the window and I think it's a mama mameshiba cos there were smaller puppers beside her! They were so small and cute!
Look at this adorable model!
They looked so sleepy I bet they were just waiting to go to bed.
especially this cute lil boi!
Man it was like now that we were on this side of the room all the puppers moved to the other side!
But it's okay because we had these cuties here!
But soon it was almost time for us to leave!
We tried to hang around as much as we could so I could take more photos without humans around, but soon it was time for us to leave too.. sad.
After that we went to Bic Camer and there was a huuuge Nintendo section! We definitely don't have this in Singapore, so I was pretty excited as a Nintendo fangirl.
And of course I had to take a photo with one of my favourite fighters!
And Sean with his - Zero Suit Samus, who is actually doing this exact pose:
There were a lot of Mario Odyssey merch including these kinda cursed-looking plushies of Mario and Peach.. just look at Peach's face geez.
So many plushies! And the Mario Kart toys actually reminded me of a remote control Yoshi kart we used to have way back when.
There were even Kirby stuff!
and of course Pokemon!
I think if it weren't for my practical brain I would buy almost every single one of these. But thank goodness I didn't. All these plushies are so irresistible!
But that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed all the pupper pics!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #130 (Japan 6.0): Visiting KitKat Chocolatory and getting Scrumptious Snacks! 🍫
