Owl Cafes

Most people in Japan are already familiar with the concept of “Cat Cafes”, quirky establishments where customers can sip on a cup of coffee while watching or playing with cats that live on the premises.  In the last couple of years, another type of café, the “Owl Café”, has been quietly increasing in popularity.  These establishments are similar to cat cafes, except that the stars of the show are owls.

In the latter part of last year, I had the opportunity to visit an owl café located in Minoo City, Osaka Prefecture.  The café was on the second floor of a quite ordinary building in a shopping area, and was not particularly conspicuous from the street level.

Looking closer, I saw what at first I thought was an owl doll placed in the window.

Although it didn’t move, it wasn’t a doll.  It was an actual owl.

The café had seating for only twenty customers (we had to wait almost one hour to get in), including six seats facing a glass showcase that housed five owls. Although the showcase was brightly illuminated, the owls did not move.  Some even appeared to be sleeping despite the lights.  The customers sitting in front of the owls took close-up photos with their smart phones and seemed very satisfied to watch the birds despite the lack of movement.

The owls were secured to perching stands by ropes attached to their legs.  I did not see any of the owls move from their perches, and I do not believe that they had any freedom to do so.

There were also four owls stationed on a shelf located along the window near the entrance of the cafe.  Like the owls in the showcase, these owls were also secured with ropes and did not move from their positions.  Under supervision of the café staff, customers were allowed to pet these owls.  Based on information cards placed near the owls, it appeared that the owls were pets that belonged either to the café ownership or to regular customers.  I don’t know whether the owls were hand-raised, but I suspect that they are hand-fed, and I doubt that they have many chances to fly.  (Assuming that they know how to fly.)

Adding to the quirky atmosphere of this establishment, there was a mysterious mannequin in one corner that had a man’s body and an owl’s head.

This café’s culturally-mixed food menu included pasta (Italian), croissant sandwiches (French), yakisoba (Japanese), and crepes (French?).  Drinks included not only coffee and tea, but also wine, beer, and cocktails.  The business hours of this café was 12 noon to 5 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to midnight.  (I wonder if they tone down the lighting after sundown.)

The first cat café is said to have opened in Taiwan in 1998.  The idea apparently caught the fancy of Japanese tourists and moved to Japan around 2005, and most recently spread to England and the United States.  Could owl cafes be the next fad to cross the ocean?

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit in October, 2014.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.)

Suma Aqualife Park

Suma Aqualife Park is located in the popular Suma Beach area in the western part of Kobe City.  The facility is designed as a complex of separately standing structures that each house different exhibits, and the arrangement of these separate buildings requires that visitors sometimes walk outdoors to get from one exhibit to another.  There are numerous food concessions, mechanical carnival rides, souvenir shops, and even an entertainment attraction.  These features, along with the park’s location next to a sandy beach create a theme park atmosphere that seems most appropriate for a summer visit.  

Impressive Fish Tanks

Immediately after entering the main building, visitors are greeted by a massive “Big Tank” that spans an entire wall.  This large tank is home to a number of sharks, large jacks, rays, and small open water fishes.  It is quite impressive, and watching the sharks swim back and forth can be quite hypnotic. 

This is the “Big Tank” as viewed from the second floor. Somehow it doesn’t seem quite as large as when you view it from the first floor.

Proceeding past the “Big Tank”, visitors will enter an area featuring a series of marine tanks holding various ocean fishes and recreating various saltwater environments.  These exhibits are quite well done.

Freshwater Environments

The next building houses the “Fish Live Theater” and “World Fish House”, two separate exhibits which somehow feel like one.  The tanks in these buildings recreate freshwater environments found in Japan and also in other parts of the world.  The large tanks holding the Piranhas were particularly impressive because of the large number of the fish with sharp teeth.

The below exhibits featured freshwater fishes found in Japan.

Turtle Pond

Outside of the “World Fish House”, there was a pond full of turtles.  There must have been well over one hundred individuals.  To be honest, seeing that many turtles in one area was somewhat creepy.

Amazon World

The next building housed a series of exhibits dedicated to freshwater environments found along the Amazon River.  The simulated environments in this building were attractively designed. 

This section also included a tubular tunnel exhibit which is said to have been the first of its kind in Japan.

Penguin House

This area housed Humboldt Penguins (Spheniscus humboldti) and Magellan’s Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus).  Visitors could see the penguins both underwater and above water.

Sea Otter House
This building was a solidly constructed structure complete with sufficiently strong air conditioning, a big plus on this hot summer day.  It obviously cost a great deal of money to construct and maintain, and thus seemed extremely luxurious for the two sea otters housed in this exhibit.  Most likely, this facility was built with the thought that it would house a greater number of sea otters, but the number of sea otters in captivity in Japan is decreasing every year.  One big reason for this is that they are an endangered species and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.  It is difficult to import younger sea otters from other countries to replace the elderly otters in Japan aquariums that are slowly aging and dying off.

Dolphin Live Pavilion, Dolphin Lagoon

There is not that much to say about the Dolphin Live Pavilion.  The main pool looked like it was only about 25 to 30 meters wide and maybe about 15 meters from front to back.  It was so small that I wouldn’t be surprised if one day a dolphin jumped out of the pool.  Also, it looked like there were night quarters hidden behind the stage, but I was not able to see how large those pools were.

Behind the “Dolphin Live Pavilion” building, there was a “Dolphin Lagoon” pool that might have been about 25 meters long and maybe about 10 meters wide.   The pool water was only about 50 centimeters deep on the shallow end, and maybe a few meters on the deep end.

Apparently, this pool is used for a dolphin touching attraction.  For 500 yen, visitors can enter the pool and touch the dolphin. This event is limited to 100 participants per day.  For 200 yen, visitors can touch the dolphins from poolside.  This attraction is limited to 150 visitors per day.

This area haunted me for two reasons: first, the pool seemed to be too small and too shallow for the dolphin in the pool; and secondly, there were no visible staff or security watching over the dolphins.  The pool was located immediately next to the “Amusement Park” area that has rides and a food concession stand.  Visitors could approach to within half a meter from the pool, and if any troublemakers were so inclined, they could easily toss human food, paper rubbish or even harmful items into the pool.

Educational Efforts

On the second floor of the main building is a lecture hall with educational exhibits. 

Also, throughout the aquarium, there are many explanatory sign boards.  Unfortunately, the explanations do not contain much English.

Opportunities for Animal Encounters

In addition to the dolphin touching attraction mentioned above, visitors could also interact with animals at the rooftop playground located on the third floor of the main building.  According to the park’s in-house publicity paper, the “Rooftop Plaza” area, which was opened in March, 2015, was designed to be a nostalgic throwback to the days when department stores used to maintain rooftop playground animal attractions.  (I don’t know of any Department stores that do this anymore.  Maybe they finally decided it isn’t such a good idea.)  This rooftop plaza area is basically a petting zoo for the entertainment of young children, and whatever educational messages there might have been were drowned out by the screams and shrieks of excited children.  Additionally, the environment here did not seem optimal for animal welfare.  Some of the activities subjected the animals to a great deal of touching – and most likely large amounts of stress.

There was a footbath where visitors could sit and relax their feet in water while watching a Capybara only a few centimeters in front of them.

There was a touching pool with small sharks.  The sharks appeared to be all huddled in one corner of the pool – but there was no escaping the hands of the enthusiastic children.

A few meters away from the touching pool was a sea turtle pen that was only a few meters wide, a few meters from front to back, and maybe a meter deep at its deepest point.  I counted 10 sea turtles in this small tank.  The largest had a shell that was almost one meter long.

Visitors could feed the turtles for 100 yen per capsule of food pellets.

There was a single seal in an enclosure that was maybe 3.5 meters wide by 3.5 meters long.  The water appeared to be very clean.  The seal appeared to be somewhat lonely.

There was also a corner where visitors could touch and feed land turtles.  A small crowd gathered at this activity, and it ended up looking like a touching free-for-all.

Lastly, in front of the “Dolphin Live Pavilion” there was a “Seal Lagoon” where visitors could take a photo with a harbor seal for 200 yen.  (There were two photo sessions scheduled for 11:30 and 14:30.) The “lagoon” was not very big, and the pool in the bottom portion of the enclosure appeared to be only about the size of a Jacuzzi. Turning animals into photography props is very popular among zoo visitors in some countries – especially in Asia - but is also a matter of controversy because of visitor safety issues and possible  negative effects on the animals.

Food and Souvenirs

There were many different food concessions and many places to sit and eat.  Even on this very crowded day in the middle of the Obon Holiday season, I had no problem in finding a seat to have my lunch. 

This was my 790 yen lunch: hotdog (350 yen), French fries (280 yen), a bottle of green tea (160 yen).

There were souvenir shops with an abundant variety of souvenirs.

Getting There

From Kobe, ride the local train on the JR Sanyo line westward until Suma Kaihin Kouen Station.  Exit the station on the south side and look for the T-intersection immediately in front of the exit stairs.  Pick the road heading southeast and walk about 5 minutes until you come to the four-lane highway.  You will see the Suma Kaihin Park and the aquarium across the street in front of you.  Admission was 1300 yen for adults, 800 yen for minors 15 to 17 years old, 500 yen for minors in intermediate and elementary school.  Admission for children below school age was free.

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on August 13, 2015.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)