There are hundreds of cat cafes around the world, but only one is dedicated to black cats. The castle town of Himeji, Japan, is the only place in the world where people have opened a cafe where customers can enjoy drinks and read books with about a dozen black cats. Nekobiyaka opened in 2013 and has since become a tourist attraction in Himeji.
Owner Yagi came up with the idea of a black cat cafe as a way to increase the chances of the creatures finding a forever home. Like most places in the world, the adoption rate of abandoned or stray black cats in Japan is much lower than that of other colored cats. This is due to the many myths surrounding black cats, which are believed to bring bad luck in cultures around the world.
At Nekobiyaka, visitors can come into contact with black cats and may discover that the stigma or bad luck associated with black cats is simply absurd and humorous.
As of April 2020, 321 black cats have been adopted by new owners, which is what people call “graduating” from Nekobiyaka. However, there are always at least 10 black cats in the shop, each with a different colored collar around its neck so that visitors can identify them. The owner even designed a cat menu listing all the cats in the shop and their corresponding collar colors.
Before entering the cafe to interact with the black cats, visitors are required to wash their hands and take off their shoes. The entrance fee is about 1,000 yen (equivalent to about 219,000 VND) for the first hour and an additional 500 yen (about less than 110,000 VND) for each 30 minutes after that.
Besides enjoying drinks, guests can consult and choose from a variety of comics and magazines, most of which are about cats.
Recently, due to the impact of the epidemic, the number of visitors to Nekobiyaka has decreased significantly. Things have gotten so bad that owner Yagi has considered closing the cafe, but that also means the black cats will have no place to live.
The woman appealed to netizens for help and was surprised to receive many positive responses. As of the end of last month, Nekobiyaka had received more than 1.2 million yen in donations and the number of people who wanted to donate is still increasing.
