Owls in Akihabara: Akiba Fukurou

Akihabara is known for a lot of things, such as anime, electronics, maid cafes, and goods for seemingly all manner of hobbies in the world, but just slightly off the beaten path (though not too far from Yodobashi) there is a themed café that is different from all the others in the Akiba neighborhood.  An owl café, called Akiba Fukurou.

Yes, owls!

Owls are pretty mysterious birds to me, so getting to meet them up close and personal was certainly an eye opening experience.  They are actually quite tame, calm, and in most cases here very friendly to the human visitors.

Upon entering the café at the appointed reserved time you're given a short briefing on the do's and don't in the café.  The guidelines that stuck out in my mind were no flash photography and to only touch the owls on the top of their heads with your finger tips, as Sensei demonstrates in the following photos:

And then, you have the rest of your time at the café free to socialize with the owls!  If you want to, you can have the staff "perch" your favorite owl on your arm for a while.  For the bigger owls, they will give you a gauntlet-type glove to protect your arm/hand from their talons.

One additional treat from this café is that they will take a photo of your group (or just you if visiting solo) with one of the stars of Akiba Fukurou on your arm!  They'll give you a fancy laminated printout, and will send your digital photo to your email!

If you haven't met owls up close before, Akiba Fukurou is a great chance to do so in a very pleasant and unique environment.  Even for me, having spent some time with the owls previously, I still return on occasion, as I've found it to be a relaxing and relatively peaceful time to connect with some different inhabitants of this beautiful country.

Recommendations:

- Reservations in advance are highly recommended, on their website.

- If you're a family unit and the younger ones tend to be on the uncontrollable side of what's considered acceptable behavior in Japan, you might want to rethink bringing the kids here as it would be bad for the resident owls as well as fellow customers.  Otherwise, if your kids are behaved and love animals, they will enjoy this place.

- Ensure you know how to turn the flash off on your camera before coming, as the light is bad/disturbing for the birds.

Specifics:

Akiba Fukurou

Hours: 1200-1800 Mondays, Wednesdays thru Friday, 1200-1900 on Weekends

Location: