Tokyo, March 25

1:10AM JST - “Spending a day in a cat cafe!”

Man my motivation to write is just really not here. I do want to share the stories with all of you and I also write them for my own sake so I’ll have to commit a few days more.

I’ll start with a banger. Our return flight home has been cancelled today :) Jo-Anne got a notification that this flight isn’t going anymore so yeah that’s meh news. Well anyway we can rebook a flight for free of course and there’s another flight going on the same day but just a bit earlier than we wanted tp fly. Our original flight would depart at 1:45PM but now we’ll have to leave around 10:20AM. It not a big problem but we’ll have to rebook. It will be okay XD We’ll come back home eventually.

For today we went to Mitaka. We woke up late again. Especially because I had stayed up so late to write yesterday’s log, I needed those extra hours. We got ready and took the metro to it. We wanted to go here because there is this really cute cat cafe located in Mitaka. We first got some lunch. We stopped by a small shop where they sold Katsu-don with miso soup and salad. We had to wait for a spot to open up for us since the place wasn’t really big but that was no problem. We didn’t have to wait for long and the sun shone nicely so it wasn’t super cold outside!
Once inside we both ordered the regular set which consisted of 3 fried pork cutlets on top of rice, miso soup, salad and another small bowl with some weird vegetable I can’t name. It tasted really good and it was super cheap too. We just stumbled upon this and I love how you can just randomly decide where you want to eat and you’ll be guaranteed to eat delicious food no matter where you enter :D The Japanese kitchen is just really tasty!

After that we went on our way to the cat cafe. This cat cafe was fairly big as you entered the place you were met with a special architecture. It was like a small castle but then cat themed. Super cute! We first went up the stair and entered the souvenir shop. We wandered around there and bought some stuff without even having entered the actual cafe yet XD We went down again after the purchase and entered the cafe. We had took take off our shoes and went to the counter. The girl behind it couldn’t speak English unfortunately so it was a little struggle to communicate. We used translate and discovered she was saying that there weren’t any vacant tables anymore :,) But! Hopes’ not lost! Turns out they have a second facility a few streets further which is of the same branch and design. So we walked to the second cat cafe to try our luck for a table.

This cafe was om the third floor of another building but it had the same architecture inside. Lucky us! There were vacant tables. We got a number where everything we ordered would be put on and you’d pay for everything when you leave. We had to put our shoes away again and we could also put our jackets away before we entered the cafe and so we did. Then we could finally enter the cafe!
It was adorable! We got a seat at a small table and on the bench where I was supposed to sit already lay a cat :D Her name was Kuroame and she was a Maine Coon, super fluffy and tame too. I can’t really describe the interior well since it had such a different architecture than normal cafes but I’ll try. It looked like the walls were formed with just clay. There was a small ‘house’ in the middle which was very round and there were a lot of small platforms sticking from the walls and stuff where the cats could climb on and lay on. The platforms looked a bit like those mushrooms who grow on the side of trees but then thicker and further apart.
We both ordered a drink and a small bowl with cat treats which we could give to cats and lure then to us so we could pet them~ There was a map on our table which had all the cats’ information in it so you could recognize who’s who. There were many different species and all were equally as adorable. You could also very easily pet them as they were very calm and weren’t super shy of strangers unlike the Shiba Mames’ in Osaka. You were allowed to walk around to approach the cats as they were everywhere. At one point we were busy with petting and admiring a siamese cat and then we turned around to go back to our table and Kuroame had decided that our table was the perfect spot to lay down on XD We didn’t mind it though as that gave us the chance to pet her and take some photos.
The cafe does not set a specific time for when you have to leave. Once you enter you’re allowed to stay as long as you want! And we sure made use of that XD we spent the whole afternoon there. It was just so relaxing and nice there that we didn’t want to leave.

We pet a lot of cats and one even came to sit on my lap for a while! You weren’t allowed to pick them up but if they approached you naturally of course they could stay. The drinks were also nice. I got a green apple soda and Jo-Anne got an Iced Chocolate drink. Mine was really bubbly and they had put in dried rose leaves in there as decoration and a slice of lemon. Really cute~
I even video called with my parents for a bit and they got to see a bit of the cafe and the cats. That’s also when we got the news that our flight was cancelled :,) Well at least I let them know immediately XD

It was almost 6 ‘o clock when we wanted to leave and oh boi do I have a story for you. This was bound to happen once this trip because we’re such klutzes. We were about to pay and we wanted to pay separately. So I paid my part first and then Jo-Anne goes: “I can’t find my wallet...” I’m like maybe you left it at the table. So she goed back into the cafe while I pay her part to as to not hold back the cashier. Jo-Anne comes back empty-handed and now we start sweating a bit. Where is the last time you saw it? It’s really not in your bag? What were you doing? And such questions went around. I remember that she definitely had it when we entered the building because when we put away our jackets she had put her wallet on the counter so her hands were free. So I asked the girl behind the cashier with translate if they maybe found a grey wallet and she says she’ll look for it in the back. Jo-Anne is such a klutz XD and I was like “You always check if you have the important stuff right?!” Well apparently not.
It took a while for the girl to come back and we were afraid Jo-annes’ wallet would really be gone but see there! She came back with Jo-Annes’ wallet in her hand and Jo-Anne could take a deep breath again. Shaken up but relieved we thanked the girl and left the cafe. Just as we were relaxed and calm from petting the cats we get shaken up again with such an event XD Unbelievable.

For dinner we went to Shin-Okubo once again because last time we ate there we had also seem something else on the menu we wanted to try! So we went back to the same restaurant and here too we had to wait for a bit before there was a free table. No problem and we got seated soon enough. We got 4 big slices of pork which were getting grilled for us right on our table. It got served with 4 side-dishes and lettuce leaves. The pork slices got cut into smaller pieces and we could start eating. The intended way to eat this is to grab a lettuce leaf and put a piece of pork on top of it. Dip the pork in sauce or add some side-dishes on top of the pork and wrap the lettuce leaf around it as if you’re making a small package and pop it in your mouth! You’ll assemble everything with your chopsticks but you can wrap the lettuce lead with your hand because that’s impossible to do with your chopsticks + it’s allowed to eat this with you hands. Ta-da! A typical and popular Korean dish! It’s one of my favorite things if I get to eat Korean food. Such a thing is also on ShabuShabu’s menu in Apeldoorn but instead of pork they have beef slices~ Try it out the next time you have dinner at ShabuShabu! It’s delicious~

So that’s a bit about what we did today. A really chill and well-needed day. For tomorrow we’ll figure stuff out with KLM and we want to go to Yokohama which is about an hour and a half away from Tokyo. It’s considered as the biggest Chinatown here so I’m looking forward to visiting it!

For now sweet dreams and till next log!

- Yaru