In the past year, Tokyo has been swept bya variety of ”˜animal cafés’- featuring furry cats to scaly reptiles. The newest animal café addition is Harry’s: Tokyo’s very first hedgehog café.
Located in the backstreets near Roppongi Hills, this café offers customers a unique experience to play with these cute little prickly guys. Customers are allowed to interact with the hedgehogs starting at 30-minutes for 1000 JPY.
On weekends and holidays, it is 1300 JPY for 30 minutes. Reservations can be made a day in advance for customers who would like to schedule interactions lasting over an hour.
Harry’s allows customers to bring in their own beverages (besides alcohol). However with the purchase of a 30-minute interaction, there is a self-service drink counter where customers can help themselves to tea and coffee.
I visited Harry’s on a weekday allowing me to miss the weekend rush where I was told reservations were a must. The café itself is quite small with limited seating space. There is a chance that on a busy day, you will have to wait outside until a spot inside opens up.
Upon purchasing a 30-minute interaction, I was asked to sign a wavier explaining the café’s rules and policies.
There were around 15 tanks located throughout the café, where we could choose a hedgehog we wanted to play with. After deciding on a hedgehog, the staff will bring the little guy in a container to your table.
From there you can hold the little guy, take a selfie or two and even feed it a snack (meal worms, yummy). These worms are available for 500 JPY. You can switch hedgehogs as many times as you want as long as you let the staff know.
The hedgehogs were absolutely adorable, and came in all colors and sizes. It was funny to see how each hedgehog had their distinct personalities. Some slept the whole time I held them while others were very active wanting to wiggle out of my hands. Personally, it would have been nice to have a pair of gloves to hold the hedgehogs. They were much pokier than I thought they would be, so some may find their hands getting a little sore when holding them.
Although it may seem a little pricey for a 30 minute interaction, it was very fun to play with these little critters and to get cute selfies perfect for Instagram. Make sure to make a reservation before going!
