Loutre otter cafe — Attraction in Kyoto

During our trip to Japan, we visited this place because we love otters and, admittedly, we didn’t read many reviews about the establishment — we just looked at the photos and decided to go. However, after seeing the animals and the environment in person, we felt quite sad. The place is called a café, but it’s located on the second floor of a shopping area that receives no sunlight, and the otters are kept in a small space. They are brought in one by one and made to run around while visitors watch them for a timed session, with a countdown clock marking how long you get to stay. They have a very small pool, more like an aquarium, and the otters can’t move freely. At a time when even zoos are being questioned in terms of whether they are truly adequate for animals, keeping otters in such a tiny space feels entirely wrong.

Even though the caretakers seemed to treat them kindly, it was painfully obvious from the otters’ behavior — biting themselves repeatedly and trying to escape the environment — that they were under a great deal of stress. This wasn’t a joyful experience for us. In fact, we left feeling upset, especially thinking that these otters may be spending their entire lives in such a small place, possibly without ever seeing natural sunlight.

In a civilized country like Japan, I truly hope these “animal café” style animal prisons — at least the ones involving wild animals other than cats and dogs — will one day be completely banned. I felt the need to write this here, even if it discourages just a few people from going after reading...

My husband and I went here on a “walk in reservation” if you show up around 4 pm you will not get a reservation for the day. So come right in as they open to make one. It is small and we sat on the floor. The otters seemed really happy though. We got to play, feed, and pet the otters. The owner made sure everyone got a turn.

While the room was small it does not seem like this is where the otters stay 24/7 which is good to know. The store is only open from 2 pm to 6 pm. I think my favorite part was the otters could call it quits when they wanted to. So we ended up seeing 3 different otters.

Nami was out the longest but only went back because Bob was starting to miss her (her boyfriend) The second one I forget their name was only interested in being fed by people, and then wanted to go back inside. Wasabi which was the most energetic really enjoyed playing with the customers in our lot.

This was a really fun and unique experience, however if you are remotely any sort of intense animal lover I don’t recommend any animal cafes. All of the animal cafes in Japan are small/cramped feeling. However I will say out of all the ones I’ve been to, this one was one of the cleaner ones and the otters seemed well loved...

Do not support this place!

I am sorry to admit that I did so myself today, going to this otter "cafe" that had nothing at all about it. Instead of a relaxed and spacious environment where we could relax in the company of free animals, we found ourselves in a circus set up as an "otter interaction space."

The room was tiny, max 8 square meters. The clients are all put around to form a circle while the otters are "introduced" and placed in the center of the circle one at a time. Constantly separating them and only creating stress for the animals who demonstrated deeply stressed and self-injurious attitudes. After the first otter was brought to the back, the second and third continued to react to its moans coming from the other room. The second by biting her feet every time she heard her crying, the third by violently banging against the railing that separated her from the first otter.

It was a heartbreaking scene and the only thing that "the trainer" kept saying was that they were just excited and happy, that these were normal attitudes.

Please don't make the same mistake I did, find places that care about animals, not these shows that only deprive the animal of the serenity...