Kawaii Culture in Tokyo

During our time in Tokyo, I found myself exceedingly drawn to all of the colorful, tiny, and otherwise adorable things that are part of Japan’s “kawaii” culture. Starting with: this poodle cafe!

That’s right. It’s a cafe in which you can spend time with sweet, fluffy poodles. And not, like, a couple of poodles. This cafe had at least a dozen tiny poodles. You can feed them snacks. If you’re lucky, they might fall asleep on you.

Another surprisingly kawaii thing we encountered in Tokyo was all the Pokemon merchandise.

I mentioned in my writeup about Akihabara that I found myself really enjoying all the character goods in Tokyo. One thing I didn’t realize until now is how Pokemon – with all its cute, lovable creatures – is connected to the whole kawaii ethos. Anyway, Pokemon stuff was available just about everywhere. Some of it brand name, some of it… uh, probably not.

The same can also be said for Studio Ghibli merch. Totoro and Spirited Away were the most popular by far, but I also found the occasional pencil case or pair of socks from Kiki’s Delivery Service, or (my personal favorite) Howl’s Moving Castle.

Back on the theme of animal cafes, we have… capybaras! Yeah, two capybaras in a cafe.

For about 1500 yen, you can drink coffee while petting their strange and wiry fur. A very surreal experience.

And last but not least, we have Japanese photo booths.

The machine gives you a series of specific poses to strike. Then, it does… whatever this is, to your eyes and lips. After, you can edit your photos by adding stuff like heart symbols and cat ears.

Overall, this whole culture of cuteness was one of my very favorite parts of Tokyo. I really hope to encounter more kawaii things in the rest of the country!