又一家动物咖啡馆在日本东京开办
The powers of a woman's touch! And from Savile Row to Tokyo. You will never feel bored living in Japan because so many people have cute and interesting ideas. A hedgehog cafe has now opened in the capital of Tokyo that allows residents and tourists to touch and pet the spiky creatures.
Another animal cafe opens in Japanese capital
There have been queues to get in to have a coffee with 20 to 30 hedgehogs of different breeds. An hour with the prickly pets will cost them 1,000 yen -- or US$9.
Hedgehogs have always been a very popular companion for Japanese people, despite not being native to the country.
"We wanted to show people the charm of hedgehogs, which have the impression of being hard to handle. We wanted to get rid of that image, by letting people touch them,"
"There have been queues outside the store since we first opened and we've had to keep people waiting at times. We're happy to have had a lot of reservations," said Mizuki Murata, 23-year-old staff member.
The cafe's name "Harry" is a play on the animal's name in Japanese, as "hari" means needle in Japanese.
Another animal cafe opens in Japanese capital
"All of these hedgehogs are friendly even though some of them might spike you," said Anna Cheung, 11-year-old visitor from the Uk.
"It's very rare to see a hedgehog. The only way for my children to see a hedgehog is to come to a place like this. That's why," said Kimberly Russel, mother of two daughters.
"I really like hedgehogs, and I've been collecting hedgehog products. My house is up in Miyagi (prefecture) and over there you can only encounter hedgehogs in pet shops, so I looked this up and came here," said Miho Takaoka, 24-year-old resident.
Animal cafes are not rare in Tokyo -- there are already cat, rabbit, owl, hawk and even snake cafes in the city.
