{"id":2150,"date":"2025-01-04T08:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T08:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2025-01-04T21:10:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T21:10:56","slug":"last-full-day-in-tokyo-part-1-harry-harajuku-animal-cafe-in-asakusa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/?p=2150","title":{"rendered":"Last Full Day in Tokyo – part 1 – Harry Harajuku Animal Cafe in Asakusa."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

January 3rd, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally I had set this day aside for a day trip out of the city, but there was so much to see here in Tokyo on the checklist for the boys that we decided to pivot again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mural outside Asakusa station<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We started the day with a trip to an “animal cafe.” Full disclosure: philosophically, I have trouble with the concept of an animal cafe, which is essentially a tiny zoo (and smells like it, too!) We went because the kids really wanted to go. My opinion has not changed, and I will not go again. It was a neat experience being able to interact with the animals up close, but I also feel that as humans, we don\u2019t really have the right to keep them in such a small area for our entertainment. They did seem well fed and taken care of by the staff though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had 17 otters, 8 hedgehogs (2 different types) , 1 prairie dog and one free range meerkat who was wearing a harness and wandering around the cafe. There were also two types of owls and 4 staff members visibly on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were there an hour – 30 minutes would have been plenty for me. We bought 3 snack packs to feed the animals (different types for different animals). We saw other people pay extra to go into the an adult otter pen to play with them directly in closer proximity. There were opportunities to interact up close with each animal individually, including holding the hedgehogs with gloved hands, and a supervised petting of the otters as one of the staff constantly fed them treats. You could also pay extra to have the owl perch on your arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Erez smiling just before otter second from the right bit his thumb.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo credit: Noam Kassirer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lots of merch, of course.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next stop is in the next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 3rd, 2024 Originally I had set this day aside for a day trip out of the city, but there was so much to see here in Tokyo on the checklist for the boys that we decided to pivot again. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.koren.korenscreativearts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}