Osaka's Small Animal Rock Star Cafe + Extra

Hello there! I visited Japan in December 2019 and was in Osaka for 4 days. Apparently, my friend happened to be there at the same period and so we decided to save 1 day to go out together. The first thing we did was to visit an animal cafe around the area where we stayed - Namba. After spending 2 hours at the cafe, we went to Den Den Town and Dotonbori for shopping. We even queued for the famous Rikuro Oji San Cheesecake at Dotonbori! This blog will be mainly about the animal cafe + extra pictures of what we did!

Okay so according to google, the cafe opens from 11am to 10pm. My friend and I met up before 11am and it was hard to find the cafe as it wasn't on the ground level and there wasn't really a signboard. I'll just show some pictures from google map. The building with the cafe (RED CIRCLE) inside is around the corner and facing the road. Note that it is near Lawson and just beside Doutor. (THE RED D)

Upon a closer look, as you can see at the bottom of the building, there is no signboard for the cafe because it is not on the ground level, but at level 5. So you need to enter the building from the red arrow below, take the lift to level 5 where the cafe is at (with the words 5F 5F 小動物カフェ) (top red circle).

We were there 5-10mins before the actual opening of the cafe and there were already 5 people, including my friend and me. Actually, reservation is needed for entry but we didn't know how to and decided to walk in. Thankfully, they had seats available. Upon entering, there is an entrance fee that needs to be paid. 1000 yen per person and you will be given a card like this. The card can be reused the next time you visit and you won't have to pay the entrance fee. One visit is 2 hours.

This is how the cafe looks on the inside. The box-like tables are supposed to keep the animals in.

 

As expected of an animal cafe, they explained to us some rules, such as calling for the staff if you want to change animals, not using flash photography, or poking your fingers into the animals' cages. You are also required to order one item from the menu, either a drink or food, and I ordered the sandwich while my friend got a drink. We just ate breakfast before visiting the cafe so we weren't hungry. I don't remember which sandwich I ate but it was delicious. It was quite big so I recommend sharing with someone if you are not hungry! The sandwiches were slightly pricey though, ranging from 860 yen to 1000 yen.

You can check out the menu from this link.

http://smallanimal.rock-star.xyz/?cat=7

And you can choose whether or not to pay 300 yen to feed food to the animals. There is a hand sanitizer on the table for you to use before having your food and a small toilet is available on the right side of the cashier.

Without further ado, here are the animals! The animals we chose were meerkat, chinchilla, rabbit, hedgehog, parrot, rats. There were other animals but either they were sleeping or taken by other customers!

 

 

The staff will bring some toys and equipment to your table for the animals if you ask.

 

   

 

That parrot was fierce. It bit my friend's finger and a few seconds later, she bled. Oh right, after eating the food we give them, they'll pee and poop on the table. In that case, ask the staff for help in cleaning it.

 

The chinchilla's fur was so fluffy, it felt as if I was touching a cloud. Not that I have touched one.

I will now go on to say my opinions on the whole experience/visit.

Pros:

• The food and beverages are delicious.
• The shop has a toilet and hand sanitizers.
• The rules are good in keeping ourselves and the animals safe.

Cons:

• Hard to locate the cafe.
• The requirement of ordering at least 1 food/drink per person and it is expensive.
• Most of the animals seem very scared of humans and keep staying in the corners, only coming out when you feed them food.
• There's a smell inside the cafe, like how a zoo smells. Some people may not like the smell.
• The staff is not gentle with the animals. I have seen how they grabbed the animals very tightly and even hit their heads against the cage (accidentally) as they take the animals out from the cage. They are not careful with the animals.
• It's quite hard to get the attention of the staff. At one time, there's only 2 staff on the floor and they're always occupied or missing. Maybe not enough staff?
• The entrance fee is not cheap. 1000 yen is $15 in my country. In total, my friend and I spent around 4000 yen ($45) for a drink, a sandwich, 2 entrance fees of 1000 yen each, and 300 yen for the animals' food.

It was my first time visiting an animal cafe so some of my opinions about the entrance fee and food being expensive may not be correct. Despite the many cons, I would still recommend visiting this cafe for the experience of touching and seeing cute animals up close.

Details:
Website: http://smallanimal.rock-star.xyz/
Opening hours: 11am - 10pm
Address: Japan, 〒542-0075 Osaka, Chuo Ward, Nanbasennichimae, 6−7 ツジBL 5F

Okayy so the animal cafe portion of this blog is done. Now I will be moving on to what my friend and I did for the remainder of the day! We visited Den Den Town since it was in the area and it was a smaller version of Akihabara. Nothing impressive to me so I didn't take any pictures, but the number of crane machines there was crazy.  It was kinda hard to catch the toys but it might just be that we suck at catching. 

We then went to Shinsaibashi and bought 1 Rikuro Ojisan Cheesecake. Unfortunately, there weren't any seats available for us to eat there. We only managed to eat when we got back to the hotel. It was nice, yes but personally, I feel it is overrated and this is coming from me who loves eating cheesecakes. However, I recommend trying it if you're in Osaka since it is famous. They have many outlets. 

We shopped a little. The buildings are amazing.

The sunsets in Japan during winter are really early, around 5pm. So we spent some time taking some beautiful pictures of the sunset on a bridge.

 

Then, we caught lots of toys at Dotonbori. This crane game is interesting by the way. For an amount of time, you can scoop as many times as you want. It's an easier way of getting souvenirs for your friends if you want to save money. I don't remember the exact cost but it's probably 200 yen per play. We played only thrice.

We got hungry and so walked around Dotonbori to find food. We went to Genrokuzushi (right pic) for some sushi dinner. It's a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. It was my first time eating sushi and while I dislike seaweed, the sushi was so fresh that I overlooked the seaweed. I still can't forget the quail egg sushi I had there, it was delicious. Inside the store are rows of counter seats and a long table. You get to sit in front of the chef and watch them make sushi. It was an interesting experience. There's a free flow of water and sauces as well. Recommended!

 

As it was December and near Christmas when we were there, the trees along midosuji street all the way up to umeda were decorated with Christmas lights. It really gave off the Christmas feel and it was beautiful.

 

Yep, that's all for now. Stay tuned for other travel posts! :)