Special Report: Owl Cafes and "the" Robot Cafe :\

OK, so, cat cafes, cool. Rabbit cafes, cool. Owl cafes. Not so much. To be perfectly honest, seeing these owls tethered and placed on display was pretty much not enjoyable. Yes, owls are awesome. But not in this way.  These birds were clearly under stress and NOT enjoying their captivity and lives spent strapped to a log so people can come in and pet them and look at them. I guess I expected the owl cafes to be more zoo like, with a few cages containing owls that were hopefully under good care and supervision. But I was definitely kidding myself there.  I can't help but wonder, where the hell did they get these poor birds?  How are these birds treated when they are not on display?  I dunno, it was very hard to not be a curmudgeon about the owl cafe.  Cats and rabbits are domesticated animals that are more or less used to people. They can thrive as human companions. But owls are a different story. Anyway, we came, we saw, and obviously, not everything in Japan is wondrous and cool. 

They almost look fake.

Barn owls.

These two Great Horneds we not having a good time.

LOL, nice.

Beautiful animals....but damnit if I didn't feel horrible about it.

They let you hold some of the smaller ones with an oven mitt on your hand. And yes, they shit all over everything.

On to the Robot Cafe, another completely crazy fad and tourist trap in Tokyo.  We didn't go last time, but Scott said we should do it so we did.

First you buy tickets from this one building, and then later you come back to a completely different building where the show is. They shuffle you into this crazy waiting room that must have been a Pachinko Parlor at some point.

Tom and Kris.

Linda and my fat self.

Cool.

Waiting for the show to start.

And so basically, you are in this room, and there is a parade that goes on inbetween two groups of viewers.

Its loud and flashy and...well, most free from actual robots.

In fact, I don't think there were any "actual" real robots. Just these floats and people and contraptions.

Was it cool to see?  I suppose. But for the most part, it was just an expensive tourist trap.

The choose your own punk rock bar is more my speed.