Theme Cafes!! - Gabriela & Sarah

Calico Cat Café:

First theme café of the week!! The Theme: CATS!! Cute cats! The café is arranged in a way that allows both cats and visitors to move freely around the store.

The café has an entry fee of 1000¥ (~10CA$) for an hour of stay. We considered this price to be fair in exchange for the opportunity of hanging out with more than 20 cats!!! :D

We didn’t have the chance to try the drinks as we were quite distracted with the kitties, but they were available for an additional fee.

The café also had a set of rules of how to interact with each of the cats. Overall, a nice and unique experience although the cats weren’t as friendly as we expected, they will only come close to you if you had food for them (which you could buy at the café).

The cats looked really healthy and well fed, which was really nice to see!! J

Owl Cafe:

Among Cat Cafes, there are also many other animal cafes in and around Tokyo.  We had the opportunity to go visit an owl cafe during our day trip to Kamakura, which was guided by our conversation partners.  

Entrance fee was reduced by showing student ID's (yay saving money!) and was then followed by rules and instructions for interacting with the owls.  They detailed such things like sanitizing your hands before petting, or to only touch with the back of your hand/ fingers and pet only from the head to the back.  Each owl had its own perch it was tethered to, with a short description plaque beneath.  




There was around 12, maybe a few more, owls situated in this little forest-like habitat that had been created for them.  All the owl had a good disposition (ever though there was a slight feeling that some were a little less comfortable than the others) and looked well-fed and well-cared for. 

The owl cafe was certainly an interesting experience, and we hope to visit another owl cafe and possibly a rabbit one as well.  There might be an impromptu update later in the week as we visit some of the other animals cafes and compare such things like rules, interactions, and settings of the different cafes.  

Pompompurin Café:

Another themed café we were able to explore this week while in Japan starring Pompompurin as the main attraction! Pompompurin is one of the characters from the Sanrio brand.

As we have discussed before, themed cafes are famous for exploiting an idea in order to attract customers. This café featured food and desserts, drinks and a variety of decorations, such as lamps, napkins and chairs, all featuring Pompompurin.

The food is extremely well presented and really attractive to the eyes! Every plate is so CUTE and pretty that I almost felt bad for eating what I ordered hahaha!

From what we gathered from other people visiting the café, the presentation of the food seems to make the plate tastier. However, setting the adorable presentation aside, the quality of the food is very good but it is not the main reason why people keep visiting this place.

We found the prices to be quite reasonable too! 500 – 1500 ¥ (~5 -15 CA$)

In comparison with the Cat Café, there is no entrance fee for Pompompurin café, which is great!! and there is no time limit!

Our conclusion? Themed cafes are a really good way of experiencing Japanese entertainment while eating really cute looking food!

Pokémon & You - Myles & Taylor

Hello everyone! Taylor and Myles here to talk all about Pokémon and the effect the franchise has had on the world and us.

Pokémon has a rich 20 year history behind it. Starting February 27^th, 1996 was the launch of Pokémon Red and Green in Japan on the Gameboy, with more the more polished Red and Blue versions being released in North America in 1998.  Since then it has spawned a long running game series and has developed into a multimedia empire. The year after it's creation, Pokemon spawned a long running children's anime. On the day of writing this blog entry, 922 episodes have aired in Japan. In January of 1999, the game moved to tabletops around the world as the Pokemon Trading Card Game was born. Today, 69 sets have been released for the TCG. From this point on, Pokemon exploded into all forms of media. Multiple spin-off games, including Pokemon Pinball, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Conquest, the infamous Hey You, Pikachu!, and the recent Pokken Tournament have been released. 20 Pokemon movies have been made, world championships for the more popular games and the TCG are held every year, and Pokemon merchandise has been made for everything one can imagine.

In North America, Pokémon is as beloved as ever. As said earlier, Pokémon debuted with Pokémon Red and Blue, followed soon by the anime, the adventures of Ash Ketchum. Followed by Pokémon Yellow in 1999 the franchises spot in North America exploded. Myles was sucked into the Pokémon vortex with the purchase of Pokémon Blue before he could even read. Taylor was forced into the Pokémon world by her anime-loving heart, then later reintroduced to her love of Pokémon with the release of X & Y in October 2013. 

However, no where in the world has Pokemon had a greater influence than in Japan. Japan takes Pokemon merchandising to a whole new levels and many of the best Pokemon players in the world are Japanese. Since coming to Japan, Myles has worn a different Pokemon shirt everyday and, everyday, the Senshu University students recognize them and comment about their interest in them. The characters of the Pokemon universe are instantly recognizable and have helped us cross the language barrier when communicating with our fellow students many times. One of the most interesting things we've been able to do is share the English names of Pokemon and learn their Japanese names in return. Myles' conversation partner, Takeru, told him his favourite Pokemon is カメックス (Kamex), which is Blastoise in English. Myles' knowledge of commonly used competitive Pokemon's Japanese names also helped him talk with Kazuki about competitive Pokemon at nomikai.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to meet with the members the Senshu University Pokemon Club yet. However, today, we took a trip to the Mega Tokyo Pokemon Centre in Ikebukuro. Myles immediately ran to it squealing in delight as he caught a glimpse of the entrance and Taylor was right behind him. The experience was something a person could never experience in Canada. Every wall was covered in Pokemon merchandise. From plushies, to games, to clothes, to utensils, to chopsticks, everything you could imagine was sold there with a Pokemon slapped on it. While you might think Pokemon Centers might just serve as tourist attractions, this was definitely not the case. At least 80% of the people in the store, which was absolutely packed, were Pokemon loving locals (though I think they all had a laugh at the ridiculous amount of goodies in our baskets). 

Pokémon is such a huge popular culture phenomenon, it is simply amazing how far reaching the franchise is. Gotta Catch Em All - Pokémon!