♪ Hello everyone! ♪
While I was staying in Kyoto, I had the opportunity to visit a Hedgehog Café, named 'Toms Mr Hedgie’ (･ω･)ﾉ This was of course an extremely cute and fascinating moment, so I thought that I would dedicate a blog post to talking about this place & questions that you might have, as the 1st part of my new 'Kyoto travels' miniseries! ♪( ^-^)/★,｡･:･ﾟ
★ So what is a hedgehog café? ★
The purpose of Hedgehog cafés, or rather any animal café you can find, is for you to pay to spend time with either one or all of the animals (´∀｀●)
Not all will serve food and drinks, but in some animal café you will have to buy something in exchange for being there. In this café, they actually didn't sell any food/drink, just for the hedgehogs! (although this is unusual, but probably because Hedgehogs are a bit rarer than say, a dog or a cat, and maybe keeping drinks or food near them is dangerous ~♪)
★ What happens when you go there? ★
As soon as you walk upstairs to the entrance to the café, you will be asked to take your shoes off & wear slippers~ you then choose how long you want to spend with your hedgehog (I chose 30 minutes!) and are taken to a seat. You are given gloves to wear while handling the hog, and in a little tub your hedgehog is brought to you!! ★⌒(●ゝω・)ｂ
★What is there to do there?★
As well as spending quality time with your hog, there are some really cute other hogs! They can be found eating, sleeping and exercising (they do this a lot! ᕙ( * •̀ ᗜ •́ * )ᕗ) You can also find lots of cute little props and stuffed toy hedgies around the table, which is cute for pictures~
While I was staying in Kyoto, I had the opportunity to visit a Hedgehog Café, named 'Toms Mr Hedgie’ (･ω･)ﾉ This was of course an extremely cute and fascinating moment, so I thought that I would dedicate a blog post to talking about this place & questions that you might have, as the 1st part of my new 'Kyoto travels' miniseries! ♪( ^-^)/★,｡･:･ﾟ
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| Our assigned Hog! |
The purpose of Hedgehog cafés, or rather any animal café you can find, is for you to pay to spend time with either one or all of the animals (´∀｀●)
Not all will serve food and drinks, but in some animal café you will have to buy something in exchange for being there. In this café, they actually didn't sell any food/drink, just for the hedgehogs! (although this is unusual, but probably because Hedgehogs are a bit rarer than say, a dog or a cat, and maybe keeping drinks or food near them is dangerous ~♪)
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| One of the little cuties in a tube ^^ |
As soon as you walk upstairs to the entrance to the café, you will be asked to take your shoes off & wear slippers~ you then choose how long you want to spend with your hedgehog (I chose 30 minutes!) and are taken to a seat. You are given gloves to wear while handling the hog, and in a little tub your hedgehog is brought to you!! ★⌒(●ゝω・)ｂ
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| How to correctly handle the hog!~ |
As well as spending quality time with your hog, there are some really cute other hogs! They can be found eating, sleeping and exercising (they do this a lot! ᕙ( * •̀ ᗜ •́ * )ᕗ) You can also find lots of cute little props and stuffed toy hedgies around the table, which is cute for pictures~
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Someone having a little sleep~
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★Is it ethical?★
As an avid animal lover & veggie, I can guarantee these hedgies are treated really well! The order of Hogs taken out is planned so they have loads of time to sleep, relax, exercise and eat! The staff make sure to tell you what to do & all the cages were spotless! ^^ Plus no flash photography was allowed, and the lights were dimmed for the hedgies sleeping~ I was so impressed!
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| The little nose!! |
★My thoughts ★
Although my favourite animal is a rabbit, going to this café made me really love hedgehogs; they're just so sweet!
As for why these cafes actually exist, I guess its because a lot of apartments in Japan don't allow pets, plus a lot of these animals are high maintenance, meaning it's hard to actually meet these cute creatures. I saw a few mothers bringing their kids to see hedgehogs irl for the first time! so it also acts as an educational place (≧v≦●)
★Interested in visiting the same café?~ Here's their website!:
English: http://tomsmrhedgie.com/english/
Japanese: http://tomsmrhedgie.com/
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for more Japan travel adventures (Kyoto, Tokyo, Hakone and more!♪)
Evie xox
