My kind of cat house

February 14, 2005 3:03 PM

Nekobukuro is a place in the Ikebokuro neighborhood of Tokyo where people without pets can pay 500 yen to hang out with cats.
posted by gottabefunky (28 comments total)

Heh. Cats. I don't give a *!@# how much you paid, no, you can't touch me.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:24 PM on February 14, 2005

No, seriously. No touchy.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:27 PM on February 14, 2005

This reminds me of "Cat Coffee Ship Michael" from What's Michael. How funny to see it come to life!
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:31 PM on February 14, 2005

"Neko" means cat, doesn't it?
posted by alumshubby at 3:35 PM on February 14, 2005

alumshubby: correct.
posted by GeekAnimator at 3:43 PM on February 14, 2005

found on the site: cat cam list (pops/resizes window)
posted by pmbuko at 3:47 PM on February 14, 2005

am I the only one a little creeped out by hairless cats?
posted by killy willy at 3:52 PM on February 14, 2005

I had no idea that kitties are so expensive in Tokyo.

Yet another rarely pondered, cultural trivia gem!
posted by marsipan at 3:55 PM on February 14, 2005

There was an animal shelter in Brooklyn (Williamsburg area) where petless people could "temp-adopt" some of the animals for a couple of hours. It was an ingenious idea, really: the adopters would give them walks and play with them, the shelter got some free man-hours out of it. And if you "fell in love" with an animal, you could just adopt it outright.

It didn't cost nuthin', neither.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:56 PM on February 14, 2005

oops. sorry. still getting the hang of things.
posted by killy willy at 3:57 PM on February 14, 2005

Cute idea, but works better with dogs, doncha think? Someone posted a Japanese rent-a-puppy article a while back, but I couldn't find it...
posted by Specklet at 4:01 PM on February 14, 2005

Note that the kitty listed as expensive is an Abyssinian (probably pedigreed) from a pet store. If Japan is anything like the US, you could probably get a cat for free or very cheap from a shelter. Cats breed rapidly, so I doubt that there's a scarcity of felines!
posted by unreason at 4:09 PM on February 14, 2005

C_D, the bastards! They were using people who just wanted a temp pet and they knew the people would fall in love. That's just, just, just........brilliant!
posted by fenriq at 4:13 PM on February 14, 2005

Hey, that's my old neighborhood! I lived in a freezing student/foreigner dorm kinda place and probably would have paid the yen just to get warm. About the same price as a cuppa joe. (Exaggerating only slightly.)
posted by kozad at 4:15 PM on February 14, 2005

my old hood, too, kozad. i think billyburg is rapidly becoming lots of peeps' 'old hood'.

everytime i go to the beach, i wish there was a 'rent-a-dog' stand. frisbees would be optional.
posted by gnutron at 4:39 PM on February 14, 2005

gnutron, I think kozad was talking about Ikebukuro.

The name of the place is pretty funny. It's clearly a pun on Ikebukuro but, it winds up being "cat (猫) bag (袋)". Brings something like this or this to mind.
posted by mexican at 5:07 PM on February 14, 2005

That's just, just, just........brilliant!

Tell me about it. Another brilliant consequence was that shy people could go "borrow-a-pup" and meet loads of strangers on the street to help overcome their introversion. It was one of those few all-around-good-for-everybody things I wish there were more of.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:27 PM on February 14, 2005

Does this mean my kitten can finally start pulling her weight around the house?
posted by dougunderscorenelso at 5:38 PM on February 14, 2005

The Buke has long been famous as a place where one could pay to hang out with pussy.
posted by shoepal at 5:57 PM on February 14, 2005

See also the Katzenboot in Amsterdam... (on Singelgracht) a very cool place... though I can't find any decent links about it.
posted by pompomtom at 6:11 PM on February 14, 2005

In other news, up here in Columbus, Ohio, I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of Aya, my three-year-old black cat that my brother Larry is bringing all the way from central SC. He's getting his house back to blissfully cat-free status and I'm getting my cantankerous apartmentmate back with me where she belongs. I've really missed her this last couple of months. I can appreciate why people would blow some serious coin to spend a little time around a cat.
posted by alumshubby at 6:16 PM on February 14, 2005

I got both of my cats free. The first one was from a litter of kittens one of my co-workers found outside her door. The other one was a stray that kept hanging around and finally moved in.
posted by mike3k at 6:25 PM on February 14, 2005

I cannot have a cat in my apartment, and I miss my old cats terribly (they were only mine by proxy).

What's 500 yen in usd? Like 3 bucks? I would totally pay that to sit with cats for an hour or two.

They make me really happy.
posted by exlotuseater at 8:44 PM on February 14, 2005

Try $5 ($4.75). The dollar and the yen are close to even.
posted by mexican at 8:53 PM on February 14, 2005

well they are close to 100:1

And ya if I couldn't have cats I could see spending $5 at this place. We used to go down to the SPCA shelter to just hang out with the kittens before we got our two cats.
posted by Mitheral at 6:24 AM on February 15, 2005

I would so pay to go there. And I even have two cats.

'Course, the last time I went to hang with our neighborhood cat lady and came home smelling like all sorts of strange pussy, one of my cats peed on a chair in an utter jealous rage. Next time I'll have to decontaminate before going home.
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:52 AM on February 15, 2005

There is a place like this near Nikko. It's called "wan-nyan-mura" (literally the "arf-meow village"). Despite it's run down state, my boyfriend and I always talk about going. Maybe I'll finally do it, though I'll be depressed if the animals aren't well cared for.

Has anyone been there? Is it fun?
posted by Alison at 9:36 AM on February 15, 2005

I said "no photos!"

Makes me wanna go home and play with my kitties.

C_D: That's a great idea the shelter in Brooklyn had. I should suggest that to some of our shelters here. Lord knows it's worked for our family every single time someone's asked us to look after a pet "until they find it a home". (Must it always be my home?)
posted by aine42 at 2:08 PM on February 15, 2005