Cat Cafe Mocha Shinsaibashi in Osaka was quite possibly the most relaxing place that I visited in the city. Japan is known for its appreciation of cats and the cat cafe is arguably the best distillation of this. There aren’t any stunning views here or historically notable buildings.
Instead, I was comforted by cute felines and an amazing ambiance that made me cozily feel at home.
Located in Osaka’s Daihoji Dori area, Cat Cafe Mocha Shinsaibashi is relatively easy to get to. It’s about a 3 to 5 minute walk from Shinsaibashi Station and there are even a number of bus stops that are closer. It’s specifically on the first floor of the Liberty Shinsaibashi Building and on the same block as a hotel called Hotel The Flag Shinsaibashi.
Cats and Manga at Cat Cafe Mocha in Osaka
As with a lot of food establishments in Japan, Cat Cafe Mocha opens at around lunch time at 11:00AM and closes a bit late at 9:00PM. Where this establishment differs is with its admission pricing. Think of it more like a small theme park where you’ll need to pay to enter.
The rate starts at 1091 JPY for a stay in the weekdays that then goes up to 1364 JPY on weekends and holidays.
You might think that it ends with just the 1091JPY/1364JPY admission fee but these rates actually just cover the first 30 minutes. For every 10 minutes you stay after the initial 30, you’ll need to dish out another 200JPY. Thankfully, the max that you’ll be charged is 3200JPY/3500JPY.
So if you want to stay the whole day then you can just opt to pay this amount.
The inside of the cat cafe was actually quite homey. The floors were tiled and I was given a pair of comfortable slip-ons. One thing I also noted was that the whole floor area was surprisingly very clean.
You could say that they were spotless even. Since I’ve been around cats (as well as been in a house with cats) then I was expecting for there to be a particular “cat” smell here. Surprisingly, there actually wasn’t any which is probably thanks to the great ventilation and maintenance/hygiene standards of the staff here.
So this was the first kitty I saw when I went inside was this Scottish Fold sitting on top of a post/divider. I forgot if this was a male or female (I also didn’t bother to check) but I can never forget how intensely it stared at me. Now, I don’t think it was actually angry as it didn’t seem to get bothered when I decided to pet it.
After a while, it was even purring so my guess is that it was just really curious.
Like with a lot of similar establishments, the cats here are free to roam and stay wherever they please. This orange (I’m not quite sure what its exact breed is) was on the floor and looked very relaxed even with me being in close proximity and taking pictures. Aside from looking relaxed, I also noticed that the cats here looked like they were well fed.
In fact, I think there’s a planned activity where the staff feeds them though I unfortunately wasn’t able to personally see that during my visit.
It’s not just cats that you can see and touch here at Cat Cafe Mocha. It’s also a manga cafe and it has a massive selection of titles across a number of genres for you to choose from. Some of the popular titles that you might be familiar with include Oshi no Ko, Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru, Haru no Arashi to Monsuta, and Black Butler just to name a few.
And what’s great about the manga here is that they’re free to read so long as you’ve already paid for admission of course.
Of course, it should be noted that the manga here are typically in Japanese. So if you’re not fluent in the language then you’ll probably just end up admiring the cats around here. This one is an Exotic Shorthair that seemed like he was bored out of his mind here.
That or he probably has had his fill of people picking him up and cuddling him the whole day. Whatever the case may have been, I hope his mood lightened up after the day ended.
So you might be thinking that cats here just laze around when they’re not entertaining (or being entertained) by the visitors. The interior design of the cat cafe actually has the cats in mind so they’re able to climb up on perches as well as run around to their little hearts’ content. Take note though that cats here can also get overexcited (despite their relaxed looks) and they can end up biting and/or scratching you if you’re not careful.
Now I did say that the interior design of the cat cafe was cat-centric but this doesn’t mean that humans were excluded or not considered. The chairs here were quite comfortable and if you’ve been walking around the city then you’ll likely enjoy sitting in these. Overall, this was an outstandingly nice environment for relaxation even without the cats.
Speaking of cats, did you know that you can actually get to own one of these guys (well, at least if you happen to be living in Japan). Cat Cafe Mocha is known to operate a program where their cats graduate and end up going to new homes. This program is, I think, only open to Japanese residents though so your application might get turned down if you’re just in the country for a vacation.
Earlier you saw the cat cafe’s benches but it also has hanging egg chairs like the one shown in the image above. I typically see these in hotel lobbies, verandas, balconies, and pool sides so this is probably the first time I saw one in an establishment such as this. Honestly, this is my favorite type of chair and this was especially the one that I felt the most comfortable sitting in.
At just 550JPY, you can also purchase a Cat’s Treat Ice Pop. This sleepy Ragdoll is actually sleeping on top of the fridge where these treats are kept. Now, don’t just go around opening the fridge once you see it though.
First you’re going to want to get in touch with the cafe’s staff for payment and they should then open the fridge and provide you with the treat. Once you have it, you can then proceed to feeding it to the cat of your choice.
One thing that I noticed about a lot of the cats here was that they looked really content. You could usually tell this is the case by how they sleep. Case in point would be this Exotic Shorthair (or at least I think it is) sleeping without a care in the world.
I’ve read that if cats sleep on their paws, it usually means that they feel a sense of safety and security in their environment.
Here’s another angle of the cat sleeping on top of the fridge with the cat treats from earlier. I forgot to mention this but you can also get food and drinks (for humans) here. There are vending machines just before the door to the cafe area itself.
Moreover, the whole building has other food establishments that you can visit before or after you come here.
I think a big reason for the cats here being really relaxed can also be attributed to Cat Cafe Mocha’s sound insulation. Aside from Daihoji-dori being a lively road, there’s actually a live music venue called Foot Rock&Beers also on the first floor of the Liberty Shinsaibashi Building that’s relatively noisy. Thanks to the sound insulation though, these guys (as well as guests like me) can continue resting and relaxing without the noise bothering us.
Now, it’s not all happy vibes here though. I was a little sad that these guys still haven’t gotten their forever homes. That said, I don’t think that’s a problem with Cat Cafe Mocha.
I read that the cat cafe actually does due diligence when it comes to their “graduate” program. The adoption process can take some time as the cat cafe will typically handle requests in cooperation with its rescue partners to ensure these fabulous felines are a great fit with their adopters.
As for people with cat allergies, I was informed that Cat Cafe Mocha actually doesn’t disallow you from entering. That said, you will need to make sure that you take precautions and even then I wouldn’t recommend it. While it is well maintained and clean, the cafe doesn’t guarantee that it is allergen-free.
I honestly would just avoid this (or any others for that matter) if you have even just a moderate allergy as there are really plenty of cats here.
Other than manga, there are also a lot of cat related coffee table books and magazines that you’ll find here in the cat cafe’s library section. Again though, these are all in Japanese (at least the ones I noticed) so you’re a little out of luck if you don’t know the language. That being said, a lot of these feature mostly pictures so familiarity with Nihongo might not really matter that much (the same can’t be said with manga unfortunately).
This ends my visit to Cat Cafe Mocha Shinsaibashi. It was honestly a great stress reliever to have been there with all the cute cats. Even if you’re not a cat person, I think you’ll still enjoy the cat cafe’s ambiance as well as the atmosphere there.
The cats were quite chill and weren’t in your face at all (if anything, it was the humans who were fawning over them). It is relatively pricey if you want to stay for long periods so I would generally advise to pay for the 30 minute admission first and then go for the max payment if you think you’ll be staying for more than 3 hours.Would you be visiting Cat Cafe Mocha on your Osaka trip? Make sure to share your thoughts about this cat cafe (or cats in general!) down in the comments section!
We’d love to hear more from you!
