Geek It! Otaku Out and About: Owl Cafe in Japan

So we’ve been to shiba dog cafes, cat cafes and a zoo cafe featuring meerkats, capybaras, hedgehogs etc. Let’s try something different, shall we? It’s time to go to an … OWL CAFE! Hoot-hoot!

Here at CtrlGeekPod, we’ve been wanting to interact with owls for ages. To be honest, our owl obsession probably stemmed from Harry Potter. Like, who doesn’t want an owl like Hedwig?

With over 5000 reviews and 4.9 star rating, we decided to visit Tokyo’s infamous ‘OWL CAFE AKIBA FUKUROU TOKYO‘. Located 10 minutes walk from Akihabara Station, the cafe was easy to find … especially with its decorative exterior display.

Look at the many types of owls and their chosen names! Spring Onion? White Bait? Tacos? Wizard? Mr President? Lelouch Vi Britannia??? We’re so amused by this!

As we waited outside the premises, it suddenly dawned on us that we didn’t know what to expect from this experience. Do the owls just sit there? Can you ‘play’ with them? Will they be flying around out of control?

The moment we walked into the cozy cafe, we saw a bunch of owls sitting on a bird perch. There weren’t just one perch, but many! Owls to our left; owls to our right; and owls literally above our heads!

After settling in our seats, visitors were given a brief introduction about the cafe and instructions on how to ‘handle’ the cafe’s owls. If you want to ‘pet’ the Owl, you will need to gently caress the head in slow motion. If you want to ‘hold’ an owl, you have to horizontally stretch out your arm and make sure you hold onto the string (attached to their leg) to keep them firm on your arm.

It sounds easy but it’s definitely not that simple!

So we chose the Barn Owl as our first Owl. Boy, we’re not even sure why we didn’t go for the small owls first! As expected of our luck, the Barn Owl decides to make things difficult for us — it kept hopping along our arm…until it aimed for our head. At one point, the Owl sat on our head until we called for help. It was the most unnerving feeling ever — it probably pooped on us!

Although we didn’t learn much about the owls (e.g. eating habits, sleeping patterns etc), we learnt a few things from just interacting with them. Our favourite owls are probably the baby ones — you can literally have them as your arm-companion all day.

Overall: Our first Owl Cafe visit may not be hands-on like the other pet cafes but the fact that we got to meet these majestic creatures in a close up environment — for what it’s worth, it was a very enjoyable experience.

Whether you’re a fan of owls or just looking for a unique experience during your trip to Tokyo, we highly recommend you to check out Owl Cafe Akiba Fukurou. We hope you like it too!

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