Cat Street Cafe

Cat Street Cafe

Relaxation can be a contagious state of being. For me, that is much of the appeal to visiting Japan’s famous cat cafes. Cat Street Cafe, in Nagoya’s Sakae area, is one such lovely cafe. It can be tricky to get into Cat Street - I have tried twice and only gotten in once. In the heart of a busy city sector, Cat Street is usually fairly busy with patrons. There is a waiting list one can join if the cafe is full, but they do not hold reservations. After a quick introduction to the rules (don’t pick up the cats, wash your hands before entering, no shoes), my friends and I were treated to one of the finer cat cafes we’ve been privy to (and we’ve been to our fair share.) The cat area is expansive and impeccably clean, with floor to ceiling windows allowing for optimum kitty sunbathing, a bevy of crinkle toys and feathers wands, and a highway of cat trees, perches, and high up runways to give the varied and numerous feline staff members to be out with the customers but still seek their own personal space if needed. Each cat staff member has their own name, breed type, and personality, which the human staff are happy to detail for you. The cats are all friendly and eager to play, snuggle, or just lounge in your general vicinity while you enjoy their calming company. A small sectioned-off space in the back offers patrons coffee mugs they can fill from instant coffee dispensers boasting coffee, cocoa, espresso and the like, plus cute kitty cup-toppers that keep cat hair from your drink when you bring your beverage back out into the main cat area to enjoy. And a small cut out in one wall (reminiscent of a mouse home, but slightly bigger) allows the cats passage to their toilet area, keeping any unpleasant smells out of mind. We paid 700¥ for half an hour, though you can pay 500¥ to extend for consecutive half hour time slots, and I could definitely see this as a nice way to carve out some quiet time for sketching, studying, or enjoying some time with a big fluffy purr-machine, or all of the above.