Are you a cat person? If you are, there's an excellent place for you to visit. It's called “Neko Cafe”. The “Neko Cafe” is a kind of cafe where many cats are being kept, so you can enjoy both having coffee and spending time with cats.
Most of the cats there had been abandoned by their families. After medical examinations and treatments by a vet, they were brought to the cafe. Another important aim of the cafe is that it is designed to help those cats to find new homes.
In Japan, the first “Neko Cafe” was opened in 2004 in Osaka. Since then it’s gradually become popular all over the country.
In August, I visited one of those cafes which is located in the downtown of Fukuoka city. There were more than 20 cats in the clean and tidy tea room and they appeared to be very healthy and happy.
How to enter the "Neko Cafe" ? There're some rules you must follow. First, take off your shoes at the entrance and put on the slippers. Second, disinfect your hands with rubbing alcohol. Now you are ready to touch the cats and order something on the menu.
You'll feel relaxed while you are there either playing with them or just watching them sleeping. As the cats in the cafe are looking for their foster parents, if you want to keep one of them, you can take her or him home after you have been interviewed by the owner of the cafe.
When you feel tired, why don't you visit the "Neko Cafe"? You'll be surely healed.
(by a members of Fukuoka SGG Club / Sep.5, 2013)
