Gakusei Travels

On Monday, Sam and I went out for Golden Week. Monday was the day after Children’s day, so we had no class again. I feel like I haven’t been to class at all at this point lol. Sam wanted to visit a dog cafe. In Japan, these animal cafes are a pretty popular attraction. They don’t necessarily serve food (in most cases) outside of a few complimentary drinks, but you can play with a bunch of animals like dogs, cats, or guinea pigs. I have even seen a mini pig cafe, but that seems a little…much for me. I’m lowkey scared of most animals even if they’re harmless. I will just watch from afar.

We went to Dog Rio Cafe in Harajuku. It is located in Takeshita Street. When you enter, they have you take off your shoes and borrow a pair of slippers. This particular cafe charged per 10 minutes. If you wanted to, you could also buy food to feed the dogs. At first, Sam and I were just going to play with the dogs, but the dogs are honestly too smart. T^T. They know that guests will give them food, and they knew that we didn’t have any food, so they practically ignored us! We couldn’t even coax them two us, so we eventually had to buy one of the little meals to feed the dogs. Once we had the food, however, we were literally mobbed by the dogs. The dogs wearing clothes apparently had an allergy, so you weren’t supposed to feed them. Even still, they knew we had something and kept following us around wanting us to give them some.

I highly recommend not wearing something that exposes your legs too much like a skirt or shorts. Because my legs were bare, when the dogs jumped on me, their nails kept scratching my skin and it began to hurt after a while. The cafe had different breeds from toy poodles, to yorkies, to shibas and Pomeranians. My favorite was this cute little toy poodle with curly brown fur. It’s name was Pua, and I wanted to take her with me lol. She kinda made me miss my own dog, Cocoa, at home a bit. She was very hyper like Cocoa, and greedy when it came to wanting food. Then the pug, his name was Umeboshi, was just so unbothered. He just sprawled out on the floor while these two dogs were just fighting in the background. I have no idea what started it, but the poodle started chewing on the chihuahua’s leg, and they began tussling around. It was funny to watch, but at one point I asked Sam, “should we be concerned?”

We stayed for around 30 minutes. For the two of us and buying the food, it cost 2820￥ or about $18. Overall, it was pretty fun, and if you’re a dog person, you’ll especially love it. Next, Sam wants to go to a cat cafe, but I told her she’ll have to go alone, because I’m allergic. She’s now trying to convince me to go to one of the other animal cafes, one with small pets like rabbits and hedgehogs…I said I’ll think about it.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around Takeshita Street and doing some shopping in Harajuku. Overall, they day was pretty fun, and I’m starting to get used to maxing out at least 10,000 steps everyday. Who needs a gym when all you have to do is walk around Japan for a few hours.