Go to petting: Nekotama

Tokyo often seems no place for humans to live, let alone pets, especially in those 1 room apartments where there is little enough breathing space for a man without having to worry about his best friend too. For this reason “air dogs”, those yappy small dogs with faces like constipated rats that get carried everywhere are quite popular. Big dogs, though you do see them around, are a lot rarer and cats seem to get the sharp end of the stick in mythology and folklore being harbingers of doom and death. Those cats you see with stubby tails haven’t been cruelly treated、by the way, they are born and bred that way,, but even still, cats don’t get the love and affection dogs do.

The foreigner in Japan may rightly feel uneasy about getting a pet. You won’t have to social networks here that allow you to travel while a neighbour looks after the animal, and trips to the GP are scary enough, I can’t imagine the vet won’t suffer from the same communication barriers too. And without a cuddly fur ball to keep you company what is a man to do?

Luckily some entrepreneur in Japan has realized the potential of fuzzy therapy and has opened a petting zoo. Neko-Tama, in Futagotamagawa, on the south border of Tokyo, is one of these and offers not only the opportunity to cuddle a cat but also for cat lovers to rage at the treatment of the poor things. A small cat-themed village street has cats of various breeds in little rooms with large glass windows and little plaques with their photo, name and details on. “This is Tama-chan, 3 years old, our star attraction. She loves salmon and playing with children” next to which a photo of a cat with a look so miserably inconvenienced as only a photographed cat can manage.

A few of the meeker ones are let loose and hide under the cat-shaped benches. At the end of the street is a play room where up to 10 cats are let loose to mingle with the visitors. Or rather, that is the idea. In reality it is a battlefield of badly behaved children running after a few stressed-out cats that climb up to the highest possible areas where they hide, shaking and nervous. Though the proprietors like to portray the cats as if they were idols the kids and their parents simply have no clue how to treat them. The only cat that was safe from the onslaught was a massively fat bundle of fur, an ancient feline who just didn’t have the energy to be scared anymore. I guess the kids left him alone because he didn’t squeal so amusingly when his fur was rubbed the wrong way, or jump up when you clapped your hands right behind his ears. The very unlucky ones may even be dressed up in “cute outfits”, a horrendous fad that most pets in Japan sooner or later have to deal with, with pet clothes stores littered around Tokyo.

Visiting Neko-tama is a double-edged sword for the foreign cat lover. On the one hand it is nice to interact with cats occasionally; on the other it will just upset you to see how the poor things are treated. There are dog versions of this too but I have never visited those. I presume they fare a little better as dogs are more respected pets in Japan, and besides, they are dumb enough creatures to not get stressed out by maltreatment.

Location: Futagotamagawa is on the Hanzomon/De-emtoshi line towards Chuorinkan.
Website: Neko-Tama (the website contains printable coupons that offer half-price entry)
Map: here, though the website has maps to any of its many petting zoos.


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