Harry the hedgehog cafe located in the Roppongi district is an awesome place to visit. I was hesitant considering animals were concerned, and I was worried about their well-being. I researched this cafe, among others before going, and I decided that this cafe seemed as though it kept its animals’ well-being at the forefront of it’s business model, and from what I can see after visiting the cafe, the hedgehogs are very well kept and looked after.

My Experience:
Okay! Although the cafe is located in Tokyo, it isn’t as central as you might think, and it is actually located down a side street away from the hustle and bustle, in the district of Roppongi. The closest train/subway station is Roppongi Station (Hibiya Line Exit No. 3) we walked from there, after grabbing some lunch, which we ordered and paid for through a vending machine! The cheapest time to visit the cafe is on a weekday, we paid 1,190 Yen each, to hold a hedgehog for 30 minutes, and we also opted for a snack which was only a couple of Yen. (Side note, the snacks are live worms, for any of you squeamish type, this isn’t made clear before purchase.)

The schedule for the star attractions are kept to as natural as possible, with the shop only opening at 12pm and staying open until 11pm. The hedgehogs have individual houses where they are placed to sleep or rest after being interactive with google-eyed humans. They have a large communal type space for play and constantly have plenty of food and water available to them.

The hedgehogs’ temperament was a little night and day, and seeing as these are living creatures and not toys, each experience will always be different. For example, our hedgehogs would not sit still, they were not interested in falling asleep and were running around and chewing everything – including my shirt! The hedgehogs at the space next to us, both to our left and our right, were completely asleep!! Now it might come down to how big your hands are (granted mine are tiny) but just keep in mind that every animal, and everyday, is different, be respectful of what your hedgehog wants to do!

If you have any reservations about their spikes, there are gloves available, and I did use them at one stage, as one of our hedgehogs was a little grumpy about being woken up…but to be honest, he handled it better than I do! We made sure that the hedgehog that wasn’t acting 100% happy was placed down after we had each given it a cuddle and some snacks, as we didn’t want it to be upset. 

Overall I think the Harry hedgehog cafe in Roppongi was set up very well, there were drinks available for purchase, as well as little souvenirs. (I bought some stickers and a washi tape!) There were also books available for purchase on how to take care of a hedgehog as a pet, and they also had hedgehog food available for those who have them as pets. This was one of the only animal cafe’s we visited whilst there, and I do recommend researching before you go to any type of shop or event that has animals on display or as its main attraction, just put yourself in their shoes and if you think you’d be happy if you were them, then by all means go and enjoy the experience of getting up close and personal with different animals and reptiles!

I absolutely loved getting to hold and watch the hedgehogs as in Australia we don’t have any, yes we have echidna’s but believe it or not, I’ve never found one in my garden! My grandparents in Germany find hedgehog’s in their garden all the time, so it was nice to put a face to the stories!

Check out my video of Harry Cafe on my Youtube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Esb65LkRCU&feature=youtu.be

Marleen xoxo