VI
EN
There are hundreds of cat cafes around the world, and throughout Japan, but only one is dedicated exclusively to black cats. The castle town of Himeji is the only place in the world where customers can enjoy drinks and read books alongside about a dozen black cats. Nekobiyaka opened in 2013 and has since become a popular tourist attraction in Himeji.
The owner, Ms. Yagi, came up with the idea for a black cat cafe as a way to increase the chances of these creatures finding a permanent home. Like most places in the world, the rate of abandoned or stray black cats being adopted in Japan is much lower than that of cats of other colors. This is due to the many legends surrounding black cats, which are believed to bring bad luck in various cultures around the world.
At Nekobiyaka, visitors can interact with black cats and discover that the stigma or bad luck associated with black cats is simply absurd and humorous.
As of April 2020, 321 black cats had been adopted by new owners, who are referred to as "graduates" from Nekobiyaka. However, there are always at least 10 black cats in the cafe, each wearing a different colored collar so that visitors can easily distinguish them. The owner even created a cat menu listing all the cats in the cafe and their corresponding collar colors.
Before entering the cafe to interact with the black cats, visitors are required to wash their hands and remove their shoes. Admission costs approximately 1,000 yen (about 219,000 VND) for the first hour and an additional 500 yen (less than 110,000 VND) for every 30 minutes thereafter.
Besides enjoying drinks, guests can browse and choose from a wide variety of comic books and magazines, most of which are cat-themed.
Recently, due to the impact of the pandemic, the number of visitors to Nekobiyaka has decreased significantly. Things have gotten so bad that owner Yagi has considered closing the cafe, but that would also mean the black cats would have nowhere to live.
This woman appealed for help from netizens and was incredibly surprised by the overwhelmingly positive response. As of the end of last month, Nekobiyaka had received over 1.2 million yen in donations, and the number of people wanting to donate continues to grow.
