Hirosaki Owl Cafe - Japan Travel

Hi thar! Long time no post! I started off by having a couple of rough days, and then I just completely fell off the wagon and couldn't get back on track. My bad, guys.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year too! Mine was filled with a LOT of sleeping...so much that I fell asleep at midday 2015 and woke up in 2016 ._.

So! To start off the year, this post will be a travel-related one. (Completely different from schedule, but eh. More overthinking and such resulted in more questioning of this blog, and blah blah blah...anyway, travel!)

In early December, the mister and I went on a road trip to the city of Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture. I'd received a Facebook post from my Mum about an owl cafe (!!!), so naturally I sussed it out and discovered that it wasn't in Tokyo, but in Aomori (which is a lot closer to me), and that pretty much prompted for us to go on a trip...not to mention we do enjoy our random adventures here and there.

 

It had snowed a bit, but as we approached the border to Aomori, snow increased, and soon we were driving through magical white tree tunnels. As beautiful the scenery was, the frozen roads were a tad scary...slipping and sliding while driving a van isn't my favourite thing. (We may have passed a few cars that had slid off the road and tipped over...)

 

 

 

Soon after we arrived in Hirosaki, we took a quick trip to a private onsen (hella good in the cold weather), had a short sleep, then ventured off to the owl cafe. We arrived and parked at a supermarket across the road (as there wasn't really sufficient parking elsewhere for cafe patrons). The cafe was on the corner of an intersection, with large owl pictures on the side of the building.

 

 

 

Upon entry, there was a large white owl on a perch, sitting quietly. The mood of the cafe was quite calm and light, with owl-themed pictures and merchandise  for purchase. We were seated and waited upon by one waitress, purchasing a drink each and the option to touch and hold some owls (the cost being 1000yen, or around 12AUD, each). We were then left to walk around the room and look at the owls, giving them all a pat (so much softness, uugghhh).

 

 

 

There were 14 owls of different species, sizes and colours inside the cafe, all perched with a small leash on one of their legs so they don't fly around everywhere. They were all so nice to look at, with beautifully patterned feathers and gorgeous eyes. One owl, named Conan, reacted rather strangely to my bear hat...maybe I looked like food.

 

 

 

After about 20 minutes of looking, patting and photographing owls, we asked to hold some. I had a go at holding the first white owl we saw (which also happened to be the biggest), but he seemed a little cranky so I felt bad for him. The mister held two smaller owls, and I tried one small owl. They weren't super timid, probably because of the constant exposure to people and daily human contact.

 

 

 

As we were the last customers for the day, we took some last photos, then paid our bill and left. Following our owl cafe adventure, we went to chow down some cheap bento dinners and began to make our way back home.

 

Overall, the owl cafe was an interesting and pleasant experience. I guess it was a little pricey though, since we only had a regular tea drink each and no food. But the environment was pleasant and the service was great.

 

If there's anything I'd point out is the welfare of the birds. I'm sure they're well taken care of, but I can't help but worry about nocturnal animals having their sleep patterns changed to stay awake during daytime hours. Also I don't know if they have the freedom to fly around during the cafe's closed hours. The image of a cute and innocent cafe where customers can handle beautiful owls seems to be more of a priority than the welfare of the animals...but that's just my personal opinion. Who knows, I could be completely wrong and they could be hand-raised orphaned owls. I thought I'd give it a go once for the experience, but I might not choose to go again.

 

And that concludes our little trip to Hirosaki Owl Cafe. Hope you enjoyed this post! I'm thinking about writing more about travel in Japan and such, since it seems to be more interesting than other things I write about. Maybe I'll throw in some mental health related things since I'm all about that mental health support and such. So yeah, let's see how this goes!

 

Until next post!