Adorable Owl Cafe in Harajuku

I recently got to spend some time in Tokyo again and wanted to visit animal and theme cafes that I haven’t been to yet.
Cat cafes are great, but I wanted to try something else this time, so together with Ali (Haikugirl) I went to a super adorable owl cafe in Harajuku.

I stumbled upon this owl cafe by coincidence. It just recently opened and not many people seem to know about it yet.
I made a reservation the night before, but it wasn’t necessary. We had the owls all to ourselves.

Keep an eye open when leaving Harajuku Station. They’re promoting their newly opened cafe there. Sometimes they haven have a real owl with them, so you won’t miss them.

Fukuro no Sato: Owl Cafe in Harajuku

The owl cafe is called “Fukuro no Sato Harajuku” (ふくろうの里原宿) and is only a 1-min walk away from Harajuku Station (Takeshita Exit). It’s in the 4th floor of a building. Really easy to find. They also have a small map on their website.

It’s actually a cafe and a bar. They’re open from 11:00 – 17:00 as a cafe and from 18:00 – 20:00 as a bar.

Currently they’re running a Christmas discount campaign, so you can get 30 minutes for 1000 yen and 60 minutes for 1500 yen. That’s really not expensive.

I was a bit biased about visiting an owl cafe. I’ve gotten used to cat cafes and I know there are cafes with bunnies, goats, reptiles etc.

What to expect in an owl cafe

I was really surprised by this particular cafe. Of course, I cannot speak up for all owl cafes in Japan.
However, I had the feeling that the staff is taking care of the owls well.

The owls are in a separate room. There are several rules you have to follow in order to not disturb the owls.
If you stick to the rules I think the owls aren’t overwhelmed. The room with the owls is really tiny, so not too many people fit in there at the same time. Unlike some cat cafes where people line up and the cats have to deal with crowds of people, I had the feeling that the owls there didn’t have to deal with that kind of stress.

Your time with the owls is also limited to about 30 minutes. After that you leave the room and have your tea or coffee. You can still see the owls through the glass windows. I quite liked the setup.

You can take photos and videos of the owls (no flash, of course).

You can pet most of them, you can let them sit on your arm – and you can even feed them for a small extra fee.

We decided not to feed them, but instead watch the staff feed them. It was so adorable and quite the experience.
(Note: They got to eat raw chicken meat.)

Yes, the owls were chained, but mostly because some of them would start to fight each other.
I’m not an owl expert, but they all looked healthy.
(By the way, you can see the Yamanote Line running in the background from up there, a small extra bonus. *g*)

Is it worth visiting an owl cafe?

I’d say it totally depends on you and your interests. If you enjoy other animal cafes and have the slightest interest in owls, I’d say it’s quite a nice experience. :)

Each owl has a name. They will introduce all the owls to you with additional background information. My favorite was Bob (on the right photo) who was also the biggest and liveliest among the owls there. ^___^