An owl café

by Emily Sturtevant

Emily Sturtevant

Photo Essay

Japan is well known worldwide for its animal cafes. These cafes, typically featuring domesticated animals like dogs or cats, allow people to observe and interact with animals while enjoying a beverage or small meal. A lesser-known subgenre of these cafes is exotic animal cafes, where exotic animals like otters, capybaras, or owls reside.

An owl café named Kamakura Owl Forest is located in Kamakura, Kanagawa. This café is part of a chain of exotic animal cafes featuring owls, with this specific store boasting a total of 22 unique owls. I visited this impressive establishment on December 13, 2024, at 12:00 PM. The line to enter was surprisingly short despite the busy hour in Kamakura, and the building was easy to find thanks to the poster of owls placed in front of it.

The inside of the building led me up a large staircase towards the owl enclosure. The ticket price was a modest 700 yen, but I only needed to pay 600 yen thanks to a coupon I had obtained from the Shiba café next door. After passing through the gift shop, I entered the area with the owls. Each owl sat on their own individual perches, most equipped with a small rotating fan used to keep the owls cool. Their feathers billowed in the wind as they awaited the customers. Most owls allowed you to pet them gently on the head with one finger, but those who didn’t want to be touched had a sign warning the customers to avoid touching them. An Indian Eagle owl named Jen was particularly uninterested in human attention and rather lively, often stretching and opening his beak like he was waiting for a moment to bite. On the contrary, a snowy owl named Les Paul appeared very comfortable with being pet, his eyes closing with each stroke.

The experience of going to an exotic animal café was very unique, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone visiting Japan.