Day 12 - Shibuya - And She Was

We went to Hachiko Square in the Tokyo district of Shibuya to visit the memorial for the most beloved dog in Japan named Hachiko. This is so sad that it makes me cry every time. This dog belonged to a university professor who took the train for work. Every day, the dog would come to the train station in the evening to greet his owner. One day, the professor died at work. Hachiko waited at the station for the next ten years until he also died. The professor’s family attempted to take him home multiple times but the dog always broke free and returned to the station. People at the station made sure to feed and love the dog. Now there is a memorial that the Japanese and tourists visit.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/hachiko-dog

We walked around the market in Harajuku starting with the Anakuma Cafe – you enter your order into a screen and in a few minutes, a bear paw sticks a sign out from behind a curtain to silently acknowledge you and ask questions like where you are from. It also pops out to give treats and tokens and then your order. It is absolutely adorable.

https://anakuma.jp/pages/menu

The next place we went was a Capybara Cafe where you can pet not just a Capybara but also a fennec fox, a hedgehog, a ferret, and a prairie dog. We had a lot of fun. The animals were well cared for and there were restrictions on how to hold or how long we could interact.

https://harinezumi-cafe.com/en/store/harajuku-kawaii-zoo

After we did that, Jake and I went to an otter Cafe. This was a very very different energy level. These guys were busy! We had to cover our clothes and wear masks to prevent them from getting sick. Just as soon as one would get in our lap, they would slide down. They were extremely playful but I definitely wouldn’t want to have one. They are very destructive.

http://otter.tokyo/