Japan has become quite the popular spot for unique, themed cafes. Among those themed cafes that are particularly popular are the animal cafes! It all started with a single cat cafe in Tokyo, where locals were able to visit, grab coffee and get soothed by the presence of cats. I’m personally deathly allergic to cats and don’t like cats in general (sorry!) so I wasn’t ever interested. But when other animal cafes started introducing dogs, rabbits, snakes, owls, hedgehogs and parrots, that definitely perked my interest!
While I was in Tokyo this year, I was able to check out 2 different animal cafes (the other one coming soon!) and this particular one is called the Kotori Cafe (Kotori = Small Bird) which is a bird cafe. They have different types of household birds like the budgies, love birds, parrots and more!
Where & When: Located in Aoyama close to the Harajuku area, it sits in a quiet street with a charming exterior. Unlike other animal cafes, the Kotori Cafe doesn’t require a reservation although you can still make one. During the weekend, I definitely suggest making reservations. But during the week, you really don’t need one. My Mom and I visited on a Wednesday afternoon to an almost empty cafe. More information about the Kotori Cafe is provided at the bottom!
How It Works & Pricing: Another unique aspect of the Bird Cafe is that there’s no entry fee or hourly fee like most animal cafes. The minimum order is a drink which gives you access to a table and time to enjoy the hirping birds surrounding you. A drink costs Y800 ($8 USD) and comes with a little cookie!
One of the best parts (in my opinion) about this cafe is their beyond adorable Cake of the Day. They bring the cake in a vintage bird cage for picture purposes and after a much needed photo shoot, they’ll take it away for ease of eating. My particular cake was an almond tart – so delicious! The quality is just as good as the decoration which is no surprise, since they order their cakes from a patisserie nearby. The cake cost is Y800 ($8 USD) but if you get a drink and cake set, it’s Y1,500 ($15 USD).
Now if you want to play with some of the birds, you can. As I mentioned in above, they have a select number of birds that customers can play with, supervised by one of the employees. This experience will cost you Y500 ($5 USD) per 5 minutes. During the 5 minutes, you can either choose 1 bird for the entire time span or 2 birds for 2.5 minutes each.
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| My Mom loving this cutie! |
Bird Merch Heaven: The Bird Cafe has a section dedicated to bird merchandise, a complete heaven for bird lovers! You’ll find anything from bird shaped cookies, jewelry to plushes and phone holders, which is what I got! You’ll see a photo of it on the bottom where our real bird is attacking it, haha!
Bonus Fun Fact: If you don’t watch my Instagram Stories while in Japan, you may not know that my family own a little blue budgie named Lucky. Lucky was originally gifted to my brother but when he moved out for his job, my parents kept her at home. Now Lucky brings so much joy to my retired parents and my brother and I love visiting with her. If you’re not into birds, it may seem weird but they’re just as loving, quirky and tame as a dog. Lucky let’s us pet her, she flies over when called, always wants to be with a human (especially my Dad) and chirps to converse with us.
Here’s our family budgie, Lucky:
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| Lucky attacking her enemy that I bought at the Bird Cafe, haha! |
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| Lucky chilling on her favorite human (my Dad)! |
Information:
- Address: 6-3-7 Minami Aoyama Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 107-0062
- Phone: 03-6427-5115
- Hours: 11:00AM-7:00PM
- Website: http://www.kotoricafe.jp
- Additional locations in Kichijo-ji (Tokyo) & Osaka
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I can't get over the fact that so many of those birds fly free around Australia! I grew up going to an eye doctor who always had cool birds in their office. That treat looks way too cute to eat.
Omg that's the best eye doctor I've ever heard of! Thanks for stopping by, Kathryn! xo
I am a huge fan of cafes, especially themed ones. I think a trip to Japan is in order. I've only been ONCE and that was for a layover. #FlyAwayFriday
That cake is so cute!
I love that Tokyo has so many animal cafes. I'd love to go & check them out. I think I'd skip this one though, as birds aren't my favorite haha. It looks like a lot of fun though. 🙂
#FlyAwayFriday
What a colorful and unique cafe! I'm not sure how I'd feel about animals and food in the same place, but it certainly makes for a unique experience.
How cute is that cake?! And Lucky is pretty cute, too. I've never had a bird myself but one of my neighbors up the street growing up did and all the neighborhood kids would come over to see it all the time. #FlyAwayFriday
This is all so cute, from the tart to the actual birds. While growing up, I had tons of cockatiels (we had a gigantic cage for them). Therefore, I can see myself enjoying the company of this cute birds. I do not get along with cats either (but seems like half of my coworkers are covered in cat hair, why?). #FlyAwayFriday
What a wonderfully cute and unusual cafe! I've heard of cat cafes, but not bird cafes! If I ever make it to Japan, I think I'd really love to check this out 🙂 #FlyAwayFriday
This is so cute! I love how the shop is decorated too – and lucky the budgie is very sweet! If I ever go to Japan I worry about how much time I would spend in animal cafes haha! #FlyAwayFriday
Oh no! You definitely need to visit Tokyo for a week or more! Thanks for stopping by, Cherie! xo
Haha totally understand. Cat cafes started this animal cafe craze and I HATE cats so I would never go! I'm sure you'd find one you love though! Thanks for stopping by! xo
Haha true! At least for this cafe, they're not flying in your space – they're in their little rooms. Other cafes though, kind of gross huh?! Thanks for stopping by Amanda! xo
Awww! Birds aren't everyone's cup of tea but once you have them, it's addicting! They're super tame, they love you and do tricks – just like dogs! xo
OMG! I love that you had cockatiels! Hahaha I love that about your coworkers – seriously, why are they?! I'm sneezing just thinking about it 😀 ox
Yes you should! They also have dogs, hedgehogs, reptiles, bunnies, cats and probably a lot more 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, Sam! xo
Lucky is so awesome, I miss her every day! Hahaha I love it – I know, there's so many awesome animal cafes! I'd be broke if I tried to go to all of them! 😀 xo
Not gonna lie – not a bird fan. But that cake is adorable! Okay, and Lucky's a pretty handsome budgie, too. 🙂 (Oddly enough, our Chief Barketing Officer is named Lucky, too!) So, not our kind of cafe, but cool none the less! #FlyAwayFriday
Aww I love that your CBO is named Lucky too! Great minds think alike 😉 Thank you for stopping by! xo
So so sweet! Lucky is definitely a fortunate bird. I would love to visit this cafe and have noted it for future travel to Japan 🙂