A Review of Cat Cafe Nanny and Neko Jelala, both near Akihabara

Today was a momentous day. Not only did I recover my Uniqlo shopping, which I'd left on a bus on Monday, from the Lost and Found Office, but I also visited two new cat cafes, bringing my grand total up to five!

These two places are just a few minutes walk apart in distance, but worlds apart in experience. Read on for copious pictures of cats.

Neko Jelala Cat Cafe

I admit I didn't take as many photos here as in the other one, but that was mostly because this place was pretty bleh. There were some lovely cats with their own personalities, but the place was just the one room and while the cats were all in excellent condition they didn't have as much room to roam about as I've seen in the other places I've been.

This guy is (I think) an Abyssinian, so had a kind of ruff around his/her neck.

She was asleep in the car bed when I arrived but I spotted her waking up and then my camera strap did the rest.

Beautiful green eyes! Then there were the sofa residents. The one on the left is a curl eared cat and there was a note saying he was the friendliest and most easy going of cats.

I swear he didn't move a muscle the whole time I was there although I did hear him purring when I stroked him for a few minutes. Japanese cats don't seem to purr as much as English ones. The one on the right was long haired and loved having his/her fur stroked all along her body. When she looked up to see why I'd stopped I found she also had lovely green eyes.

There were a number of other residents...this first one got up and walked across the room and I swear she/he was the same size as your average dog. Huge!

...but it just didn't compare to my preferred Nyafe Melange in Ebisu.

Cat Cafe Nanny

Now you're talking - this place was awesome.

One of my two criticisms is that it was on the 4th floor (3rd floor in english lingo) and there was no lift. Not exactly a killer but, you know. As soon as I walked in this little guy woke up and started waving his paws at me.

When I lent in to stroke him he started licking my fingers then wanted to play. He was one of three clearly quite young cats who were very sweet and playful, but then so were the older residents. I had an explore before settling down to play and this was one of the two upstairs rooms.

There were only two cats on this whole floor and the first was adorable, and very happy to be stroked.

Then the second meandered towards me. It was a tiny lion!

I know she's just had a summer haircut...but...it's a tiny lion! Again my camera strap proved irresistible.

Do you not just want to hug her and stroke her and call her Bert? Awesome.

Back downstairs, the young trio, two of which were definitely from the same litter, were at play.

They didn't stay still often, and I never managed to get all three of them in shot.

One of them decided something was hiding under my maxi skirt.

They were adorable and so playful! They reminded me of Nickerjac's little boy who is also highly energetic! Again, the camera strap was the attraction and one of the older cats, who was very beautiful but not keen on being stroked, joined in.

There were other residents:

Crazy sideburns:

Check out these eyebrows:

The little cats were clearly fully accepted by the older ones and loved cuddling up to them. These two were particularly snug.

As were these two:

The grey cat being used as a pillow was beautiful. She loved having her chest stroked and used her paws to hold my hand there.

She was so blissed out she was hanging half off the table. Hard to believe she was really comfortable! I spent most of my time sitting at the table she was laying on and stroking her and the little one.

The things that made this cafe my absolute favourite was the space, the daylight, the sleeping options for the cats and the attitude of the cats to me. Sometimes you get the feeling you are bothering the cats and that's a definite no-no. Here they were actually pleased to see me and wanted to interact, and when they'd had enough there were plenty of places for them to go off to.

I said at the start that I had two complaints and only gave one - my second is that they told me at the start when my 'hour' started but you know I never remember that kind of thing so I accidentally overstayed by 5 minutes but got charged for an extra 30 mins because that's the way the charging goes. My bad, but at Shirokane and Ebisu they give you your start time in your lanyard so no-memories like me can work out when they need to go.

Will I be coming back to Akihabara for cat action? Yes! But only to the second place. Cat Cafe Nanny is about 40 mins door to door whereas Nyafe Melange is about 15 mins walk to that still wins for convenience and, of course, for Bruiser...

...but when I fancy more of an excursion I'll be coming back here again.

A Review of the Cat Cafes of Asakusa

I have been doing rather well cat-wise recently. Two new cat cafes last week, a visit to my 'regulars' at Ebisu, and now two new cat cafes this week PLUS a return visit to one of the previous week's ones. During one visit I picked up a leaflet advertising an exhibition of cats in Edo era art (I blogged about an exhibition of this I went to). Looking it up online I found it was 3.5 hours away from here, and briefly pondered a day trip. I wonder if I could have fast-onset CCWS (crazy cat woman syndrome)? I do seem to have overdosed.

Calaugh Cafe

There are nine cats at this place which is definitely the most 'cafe' like of these places I have been.

You are sat at a table to start with and given a drink menu. There is no charge for the first hour - you just have to order a drink - which was admittedly twice the price of a normal drink but then also cheaper than a normal hour at a cat cafe. You then find a cat and let the rest come naturally.

A number of cats were on shelves that ran around the top of the room, under their own personal spotlight sun-lamps. Others were just chilling out.

Some were playful, while others were sleepy.

This one reminded me of our beloved family cat Sweep who died about 12 years ago now. I've been watching "The Blacklist" recently and at one point Red says "You're not really dead as long as you are remembered" but I digress. All in all this was a nice place and you get a drink. But it's not what I'd call a classic cat cafe.

Asakusa Nekoen Cat Cafe

My review in five words? I would not advise visiting.

There is nothing actually wrong with this place. The cats are all in good health and look well cared for. They have all the facilities, places to sleep, toys, affection and so on. But there was a smell. Like the place needed a really good airing and someone had done something on the carpet a while ago and it hadn't been cleaned up properly. Also there was cat hair everywhere. That might seem like an odd thing to say but all the other cat cafes I've been to have been very clean. Obviously cat beds and toys get hair on, but the floors are cleaned and hoovered regularly. In this place it was all over everything. But. There were three kittens and a remote controlled mouse. OMG.

I managed to get the three of them in shot all at once.

The kittens seriously loved that mouse. They were going nuts, chasing it all over the place. They would catch it and knock it upside down and then look at you, waiting for you to turn it the right way up so they could set off after it again. After the mouse ran out of batteries they frantically chased and play-fought with each other.

So tiny! And then suddenly all three of them were worn out and had gone to sleep in different places. One inside a play tube, one on a cat bed much too big for it and one on this scratchable chaise longue.

Once they fell asleep I was out of there - the smell and cat hair got to me.

My way home took me close to the cafes I visited last week so having been a bit disappointed with these two I went back to Cat Cafe Nanny, blogged about last week. Those kittens - the ones who tried to get under my maxi skirt last week and are older than the ones above but still quite young - this time made a beeline for the skirt of my shirt-dress. I was kneeling on the floor and one of them dived under while the other two, confronted with a small, moving shape behind fabric, proceeded to attack. Hilarity and slapstick-in-miniature ensued.

The little lion was upstairs, sunning herself.

So adorable! I also got a better look at the cat with the crazy sideburns.

His fur is crinkled - brindled? Is that the word? It is like stroking a sheep. He was interested in the comic I was looking at, which was in the bookcase there.

All the stories feature cats!

I have to keep an eye out for this one. When I got back downstairs to the kittens I found two of them had managed to get up on top of the sleeping cage and bookcase. They were loving it up there!

I tried to lift one of them down but he was having none of it. I think they were enjoying being so much higher than everyone else for the first time.

I have a few more cat cafes to visit before giving my verdict, but so far Nanny is my favourite cafe of all the ones I have visited. If only Bruiser were there it would be my number one, but he's not so I won't be leaving Ebisu's Nyafe Melange behind any time soon.