新宿のきゃりこ猫カフェ || Neko Cafe in Shinjuku

土日雨。アプリでも、ウエブサイトでも見たら、どこでも天気予報同じ。でも、土曜日またイタリア人のお友達と一緒に遊ぶ予定ので雨だと東京どこに行けば楽しいの？と考えていた。

インターネットで調べて、ツイッターでも、フェイスブックでも聞いたら、おすすめの場所教えて暮れた人がいたのに、残念ながらお友達と話したら、やっぱりちょっと違う所が良い気がしただから結局新宿で待ち合わせして、お昼ごはん食べて次どうするの一緒に考えることを決めたのです。

新宿も、渋谷みたいうるさくて、人が多いだから自分のお好み場所じゃない。実は、2010年から四回しか行ってないので、行った時に毎回駅で道迷ってしまった(笑)。

お昼ごはん久しぶりにお好み焼き食べた！大坂から引っ越したら全然食べなかったので美味しくて懐かしい感じだった(＾ω＾)。

食べ終わったら、インターネットで新宿のこと調べて、ねこカフェのデータ見つけた。ねこカフェ行ったことがなくて、自分にも、旅行してるお友達にも面白そうだと思って、行ってみることを決めた！

地図を見たら、調べる時にいた場所から本当に近い気がしたので２分くらい歩いたら、すぐ見つけた！

ねこカフェきゃりこは、富士ビルの５と６階であります。入口はビルの６階です。６０分のエントリーフィーは週末で１２００円です。レセプションにいるスタフさんが英語喋りますのでカフェのルールの説明紙も、日本語のも、英語のもバージョンがあります。平日のこと良く分からないが、土曜日の３時カフェ満員だったので、予約がなかったら、一番早い入ることが出来る時間５時４０分だった。その時間にカフェで６０分の予約しました。そのあとで歌舞伎町にもどって、ひまの時間を潰すためにカラオケとドンキー行った(笑)。

５時４０分カフェに戻ったら、靴ぬいで、手荒って、お部屋入った。

実は、カフェが自分のイメージと全然違った。カフェより、見た目普通の部屋だったので、皆フロアで座って、猫と遊んだ。５階へ行ったら席があったので、ドリンクとか、デザートとか注文出来るやことがあったので、上の部屋より、ちょっとカフェの感じしてた。w 

ニヤンさんたちいっーぱいいました！大きや小さい、毛が長いや短い、黒い、白い、オレンジ・・・色んなタイプいて、皆可愛かった。

自分が一番気に入ったポン子っていうのニヤンさんがすごいGRUMPYな感じしてた。残念ながら、あんまり友達になりたいタイプじゃなくて、撫することあんまり出来なかったので良い写真を取るでもすごい時間かかった。

ちょっとガッカリしたことは、「私の」グランピーキャットみたい、他の猫たちも、ほとんど冷たかった。少しだけでも触ってみたら、すぐ逃げる子が多かった。他のは人と遊ぶの興味がなさそうな感じしてた。撫してくれたら幸せそう猫２匹しか見てなかった。実は、今まで日本で出会った家がない猫たちが、この子たちよりフレンドリーだった。でも、結局、毎日違う人に触れたら、だれが嬉しいの？

４０分くらい頑張ったら、やった！グランピーちゃんとちょっと仲良くになった！良かった、良かった！笑

下の部屋でマンガシェルフもあるので読むのは無料です。 食べ物や飲み物自分注文しなかったので、美味しいかどうか正直に教えることが出来ないですが、値段は２００円から５００円までにします。今考えたらと、やっぱり、何かを注文した方が良かったね。もしいつかも一回きゃりこに行ったら、このセクションぜひアップデートします！

結局自分にとって、ねこカフェの楽しさのレベルすごい高いわけじゃなかったが、きっとinteresting experienceになりました。帰りに皆フリードリンクチケット貰ったがまたいつか行くことになるかどうか分からないです(笑)。

行ってみたい人のために、きゃりこのウェブサイトはこちらです↓

http://catcafe.jp

Thanks for reading!
English:
Rainy weekend. Applications, websites- wherever I looked the weather forecast was mostly same, giving no hope at all for a sunny Saturday. I was going to meet up with my Italian friend and her husband again, so I really wanted to find a place which would be enjoyable even on a rainy day. I tried googling for ideas and asked for recommendations on social networking sites that I used and got a copuple of interesting ideas, but in the end, my friends didn't seem too excited about them so we just decided to meet in Shinjuku, eat lunch and work something out spontaneously.

Just like in case of Shibuya, I am not the biggest fan of Shinjuku, since it's crowded and noisy and, to be honest, I have been there only four times since 2010. Moreover, every time I went there, I got lost at the station. 

Being already in Shinjuku, we had okonomiyaki for lunch. I had not eaten it since I left Osaka, so the taste was a little bit nostalgic ;).

After the lunch, we sat down outside and asked google-sama about some interesting places to visit in Shinjuku. To be honest, there was nothing much beside department stores and other shopping places, but we found that neko cafe (eng.- cat cafe) and since none of us have ever visited one, we decided to give it a try. Luckily, the cafe was really close to the place we were and it took us only 2 minutes to find it.

The cafe, Kyariko, is located at 5th and 6th floor of Fuji building. An entrance fee for 60minutes on weekends costs 1,200jpy. Lady at cafe's reception speaks both; Japanese and English, and there also is a set of written rules telling what customers can and cannot do in the cafe available in both languages. I am not sure about working days, but at the time we visited Kyariko on Saturday (about 3pm), the cafe was already full and we were told that we need to make a reservation and the earliest time to enter it would be 5:40pm, but since we had nothing better to do, we made our reservation and went to kill the waiting time at karaoke and Don Qixote, a cheap japanese shop with literally everything possible.

At 5:30pm we went back to the cafe, washed out hands and entered the cat room. To be honest, what I saw surprised me a little since I was expecting a cafe, and where I was, was a normal room with several cats inside. People were sitting on the floor, giving the cats some treats and trying to pet them.There was a possibility to go down to the 5th floor, where one could order a drink or dessert. 5th floor looked a little bit more like cafe than the 6th.

Downstairs, there were even more cats! Big and small, long and short furred, black, white, yellow... all of them cute. I really loved a persian cat with a very grumpy face expression, named Ponko, so I tried to get friendly with him but unfortunately it didn't seem to be interested at all. It actually didn't seem to be interested in anything around. Taking a good picture with Ponko took me ages! I followed nearly everywhere, like a real stalker with no effect, haha.

Actually, most of the cats in the cafe were like that and that was my personal disappointment about it. Touching most of them even a little bit made them bend their backs down and leave the place you were, in order to avoid more touching. I saw only two cats that seemed to be pleased people are there to pet them and thought that all the homeless cats I have met in Japan were much friendlier than the ones here. But at the other hand, I sort of understand why the things ate like that; nobody would be pleased with tons of strangers trying to touch them everyday, in the end. Anyway, finally, after around 40 minutes of trying I succeeded in getting some attention of Ponko san. Lucky me!

Speaking of the cafe itself, there is a shelf full of mangas to read for free downstairs. Of course in Japanese, that is. Personally, I cannot say anything either about drinks ore desserts because I did not order anything which was a little silly of me and I regret it. The prices were from around 200 to 500jpy although, which means not expensive at all (probably because of the entrance fee). If I decide to go again, I will make sure to update this section!

In the end, the cafe wasn't something I would call the best fun in the world, but it surely was an interesting experience! As a goodbye present, we got some free drinks tickets for the next time we visit Kyariko, but I am not sure if I will. Maybe! 

PS: For people interested in the cafe, up, in the Japanese version of my post, there is a website address, so checking it out might be a good idea!

Thanks for reading!