06/05 - Fukuro Citttayyy!

What would summer be

but an unbearable fire

without sunshowers


It's great making friends,

especially when they are

of the owl ilk 


Today was definitely one of the coolest experiences I've had so far in Japan, and one that I certainly couldn't have in most countries. I went to an owl cafe with my friend Clayton and two of his friends. You might be wondering what an owl cafe is. That's perfectly natural. Here in Japan cat cafes, dog cafes and rabbit cafes are quite popular. They are literally just cafes where you can go and have a drink and hang out with animals. You pay by the hour or half hour to spend time with cats, dogs or rabbits. I have no idea why this is so popular, but it is. I really haven't had any desire to go to any of these cafes, especially when I see dogs and cats on the street all the time, and my home rugby ground of Jericho Beach in Vancouver is absolutely covered in rabbits. Recently though, some owl cafes have been opening up, which definitely intrigued me. My friend Clayton said he'd love to go check one out with me, even though he's "scared of birds". I met him and his friends after work and we headed to an owl and parrot cafe in Asakusa.

When we walked in through the door, soaking wet because it is the rainy season here now (more on that in an upcoming blog), we could immediately see several different types of owls. We arrived a half hour before closing and a woman gave us instructions, which were hard to pay attention to considering there were owls staring at us already. The easiest part to take notice of was when she said that lots of the owls and birds bite, especially the green one. We put on some jackets to protect us from rapidly descending fecal matter and headed into the owl area at the front of the cafe. The owls were so cool. There were three small ones and a large Rock Eagle Owl. There was also a falcon, that looked fairly threatening. Everyone was a bit apprehensive to get too close at first, before getting comfortable and approaching and even petting some owls. After about ten minutes we headed into the parrot room, immediately after being given a warning about how loud it would be. It was certainly loud, but I'm not sure why they didn't warn us that birds would start landing on our shoulders and heads as soon as we went in. Somehow that seems like a more important warning. Just seconds after entering, Clayton's friend Sara had a bird on her head trying to eat her barrette. We had been warned to take off all jewellery, but still. I sat down on a bench and had birds darting past my face, landing on my head and fighting to eat the string of my borrowed poo-protecting camouflage jacket. It was easy to get some birds on your hand or arms, the difficult part was getting any birds off of you that you didn't want clinging to you anymore. At one point Clayton stood in the middle of the room with his arms outstretched and announced "I'm going to see how many I can get on me!" Scared of birds my arse!

About 10 minutes into our time in the parrot room the woman working inside started to open a cage down by the floor. It was the aforementioned green parrot. The one fond of biting people. I stayed away and instead spent some time trying to get closer to the large-beaked bird who flew from one end of the room to the other with such a swift swoop that it was hardly visible.

After eventually getting all the birds off of me I headed back out to the front area to spend some more time with the owls. They are truly remarkable. I got to see some incredible head twisting and their eyes are absolutely transfixing when they stare right at you. One of the small owls was sleeping, one eye open, the other winking at me. I didn't want to disturb him, so I went and sat with the large Rock Eagle Owl. The woman working there came and gave me some information regarding the owls. There were babies in some plastic protective containers just behind us that she told me about, before shocking me with the information that the largest owl, the Rock Eagle Owl I found so cool, was only three months old and would live about twenty years. He had already reached full size. The only real telling sign of his young age was that the long feathers or tufts that grow on top of his head above his eyes were much shorter than they would be on an older owl of the same species.

Our half hour with the owls and birds was definitely worth the 1000円 or about $10 Canadian that it cost. It was an incredible experience, although many people have expressed some negativity towards the keeping of birds of prey in areas like this. I can say that the owls were definitely well treated by the staff, though I'm not sure all the patrons offer the same kind of care. We were also told that many owls had been sold that day. Most of the owls are bought fairly quickly to be taken in as pets. It is generally unadvisable to have an owl as a pet, so I'm not sure how great this system is, but it does mean that the owls are not kept at the cafe for long after being nurtured to health after they hatch. I will say that the falcon looked quite unhappy chained to the fence he was on, leading me to feel quite sorry for him. The others all looked quite content though. I felt honoured to spend some time in the presence of such noble creatures as owls.