1. Hoot Hoot Owl Café: Fluffy snowy owl (like Hedwig from Harry Potter!). Sharp tawny owl. Peering barn owl. Sweet mottled owl. These are your coffee-mates at Café Hoot Hoot. Of course, it is an owl café where, well, live owls raised by humans. While you sip your coffee and chew on crunchy toast, you can also take a lesson or two in raising owls.
Where: ８-12 Shinsencho, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0045, Japan
2. Ninja Tokyo: If you're a ninja fan, head straight to Ninja Tokyo for good food and fine ninja entertainment. Resembling a ninja village, the restaurant has all things ninja on the menu. Devour a ninja curry complete with a shuriken (small star-shaped throwing blade)-shaped dollop of rice, or a shuriken-yaki, an okonomiyaki formed in the shape of the small weapon. Step inside one of the ninja huts (private rooms) lined up near a pond with a waterfall and croaking frogs. While you're there, practice some ninjutsu techniques including learning how to use shuriken and a fukiya (blowgun).
Where: Akasaka Tokyu Plaza 1F, 2-14-3 Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku
3. MiPig Café: This is Winnie the Pooh come true. MiPig (Micropigs) café, Japan’s first piglet café, is home to mini-pigs or ‘teacup piglet’, pigs so small that they can fit into a teacup. Remember, this is not a specific breed of pig. Rather, these are just small or very young pigs, who do grow up and get bigger.
Where: 4 Chome-11-3 Meguro, Meguro City
4. Vampire Café: If watching Twilight or playing Diabolik Lovers isn’t enough to satisfy your thirst for vampires, perhaps the Vampire Cafe in Ginza may do the trick. Sink your teeth into their food, savour their bloody drinks, and immerse yourself in the creepy-cool atmosphere of this themed cafe. Opened in 2001, the 22-year-old Vampire Cafe is Tokyo’s most iconic vampire-themed cafe. Its dim interior follows a distinctive black-and-red colour scheme, representative of a vampire’s dark bloodlust. This theme extends into the restrooms where basins are stained with ‘blood’.
Where: Chuo City, Ginza
5. Alice’s Fantasy Restaurant: This is almost like stepping into the pages of Lewis Carroll’s book Alice in Wonderland. The restaurant’s interior perfectly reproduces the world of Alice, and every last detail is exquisitely designed, from the enormous clock table in the Main Hall’s Never-Ending Tea Party, to the tables, chairs, walls, and floors. Alice’s world is further enhanced by the staff, who serve guests as if they truly were in a picture book world. The restaurant’s cheese fondue is the crowd-favourite.
Where: Shinjuku City, Kabukicho
6. Avatar Robot Cafe Dawn: Time travel to the future at Avatar Robot Cafe Dawn where the waiters and baristas are robots. These robots are actually remotely controlled by human staff ‘pilots’ with disabilities, as part of the cafe's aim to promote inclusivity.
You can choose one of two types of experiences:
OriHime Seat: The order is served by Avatar Robot OriHime and for the next 30 minutes, you can even chat with the pilots who are controlling the robots.
Tele-Barista: Be guided by the Pilot Barista through the different coffee beans available, and watch them remotely operate the OriHime and NEXTAGE (the large barista robot), to drip your coffee of choice.
Where: 3-8-3 Nihonbashi-Honcho, Chuo-ku; Japan Nihonbashi Life Science Building 3 1F
7. Muscle Girls: Muscle Girls is a Tokyo-based women’s gym that doubles as a fitness-themed bar staffed by a group of young, muscular women. The country’s first and only bar dedicated to female weightlifting, Muscle Girls was founded by a young fitness enthusiast who goes by the name of Eri Muscle.
Where: 2 Chome-41-2 Ikebukuro, Toshima City
8. Planetarium Starry Café: The Planetarium Starry Cafe, as the name suggests, is basically a cafe with a built-in planetarium. Situated near the Haneda Airport in Haneda, Tokyo, this café/restaurant is dimly lit with reddish-orange lamp lights to support the 360-degree projection of the figures on the ceiling. A variety of films ranging from short animations, informative videos about the universe and the stars, Japanese movies are also projected on the ceiling.
Where: 2 Chome-6-5 Hanedakuko, Ota City
9. Moomin Bakery and Café: At this Moomin-themed café, you can sit with Moomin and his various pals: giant plush Moomin toys will be seated right across, or beside you as you sip on your latte. The menu also features Finnish cuisine so diners can try all sorts of popular dishes from the Nordic country. This one is really popular, so be prepared for waiting time to dine with your favourite Moomin pals.
Where: Tokyo Dome City, 1-1-1 Kasuga, Bunkyo-ku; 1-Chome-1-2 Oshiage, Sumida
10. Panda Café: A small, cozy little café with literally panda-themed everything. Like, everything. Panda spoons, panda tissues, and little panda figurines throughout the café. The panda-drawn café au lait or hot cocoa/latte art is very popular here. There are sweet sets with panda cookies and more!
Where: 3-31-14 Asagaya Minami, Suginami-ku
11. Fishing Restaurant Zauo: In Zauo, you could literally fish for your own dinner. Diners are seated in a boat-like area overlooking a moat of sorts where they can net up their finds, pass it to the waiter, and have them cook it up into how you want your fish: sashimi style, grilled, boiled, deep-fried, tempura style, or sushi.
If you do not know angling, don’t worry. There’re even how-to fishing guides. Not so keen on fishing? You could order directly from the menu.
Where: Main outlet in Nishi-Shinjuku, 3-2-9, Shinjuku-ku.
12. Maid Cafés: Step into Maidreamin maid cafe and be transported into a world where you become a master or lady for a day. Waitresses dressed in cosplay maid outfits welcome the guests. Choose your drink or meal depending on your package and get ready to perform a small chant led by your host maid before you dig in.
Where: Several locations
13. Swallowtail Butler Café: Think of it as a male twist to the maid café. Think young, charming butlers. Swallowtail provides each table with a bell they can ring to summon their attendants, since a true lady would never resort to shouting to get their attention. Reservations are required at Swallowtail, with lunchtime seatings lasting 80 minutes and dinnertime ones 90 minutes.
Where: Ikebukuro
14. Soineya: Cuddle Cafés: A cuddle cafe is a place where you can pay to go and cuddle someone for an hourly rate. Some clients go for a quick 30-minute cuddle sesh while others will spend large amounts of money to cuddle all the way through a 10-hour night’s sleep. Other add-ons include head petting, spooning, sleeping in the girl’s arms, staring at each other for 1 minute, and getting the girl to change her clothes once. Sexual advances are, of course, strictly prohibited.
Where: Akihabara & other locations.
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