カワウソカフェ®︎HARRY浅草店 — Restaurant in Tokyo

HARRY’s CAFE ASAKUSA is better than LOUTRE CAFE OSAKA. I visited Harry’s FEB 26 2024. I made an appointment and paid with credit card for 60 minutes. You get discount to buy food for animals VS LOUTRE Osaka you could not make a reservation, instead you have to wait at their door, first come first serve, cash only, not even Suica usable. Harry Asakusa branch cafe allows you to engage with otters not just feed through the glass or pet their backs. VS LOUTRE, Only 20 minutes to pet if otter is willing to allow. Only one otter outside of cage VS all the otters (8-10) who wanted food and to play. You can fully engage with them, pet, feed, let them climb on you, pricing the same at both.Harry’s location is as big as a studio room, very spacious and the otters have an enclosed long run route with pools VS LOUTRE Osaka, the room is as big as a broom closet where they pack 8 people in. Otter is stressed. The caged otters were yelling at the free otter that stressed it out, thus no petting as it ran around the room trying to respond to the yelling caged otters. Harry’s Otters did not seem stressed as they played with each. Miku was senior staff, was very nice and answered questions as best she could. VS LOUTRE, they seemed to be managed by young students who have minimal education on otter behavior and cannot answer questions. Loutre staff say they get no education on otters before working with them. At Harry’s the otters seemed happy. Only suggestion you are to feed otters for an hour. Harry’s gives a few kibbles to buy, they should allow for a large amount, like a cup vs 5 kibbles to buy. BUT LOUTRE Osaka offered no kibbles to feed otter which was Anxious and then sleepy. I RECOMMEND HARRY for the value :-) and they seem kind to...

IF YOU CARE ABOUT ANIMALS AT ALL, PLEASE SKIP THIS PLACE. The reason that they have so many good reviews is that they offer free snacks to feed the otters if you leave a review.

The animals are unhappy and for the reservation fee (around 3000¥ per person) you do not get to do anything - feeding and interacting with the animals requires additional payment, which was not previously stated on their website.

I naively booked an hour, thinking that animals were kept in a good environment. A part of the otters were kept in a glass confinement and they were fed by people who bought snacks, they looked fine. But, one otter was kept in another glass confinement by itself and was screeching and banging on the glass - the staff didn't seem to care. Three adult otters were kept in a small pen, where people could go in for 5 minutes if they paid additional 660¥ on top of the reservation fee. Those otters were screeching and trying to get out of the pen. When people came in, they would climb on their shoulders in an attempt to jump over the fence. They only got water and treats when people came in.

The saddest thing was the little meerkat who ran around the store, trying to get into his cage (which was closed), presumably to get away from all the people. When it finally made it into the cage, a staff member pulled it to get it out of the cage and the poor thing peed himself.

At that point, I couldn't take it anymore and left half hour into my appointment. I was on the verge of tears and couldn't watch those poor animals in distress anymore. I will never step foot into another animal...

The moment we entered Harry the cries of the otters were very distressing. They seemed to be highly stressed, either running around looking for food or trying to cool down in the 2 small bathtubs. They seemed to be starving, begging for food with their paws through small holes. We spent quite a bit of money to replenish our feed for them, paying ¥550 for literally 8 pieces of otter kibbles each time. All the baby otters were kept separately in a playpen on the floor and huddled together, until someone pays extra money to go in for cuddles with them. They should be with their parents. There was one meerkat free to roam but had a collar around him with a long lead. These are pack animals and he should not be alone. There were 2 owls at the counter being chained down. We stayed only 20min as I was getting quite emotionally upset and so did my son. We will never visit one of these places again and pay money to endorse these services. We did not realise this place was on a 5th floor in a small commercial building, where the animals would not know what fresh air is like, or see natural sunlight. It’s was a heartbreaking experience and I regret deeply for putting my son through that. I could not even bring myself to...