Madison Meeks
Editor-in-Chief
mvm7037@psu.edu

TOKYO, JAPAN – For years, pets have been allowed in cafes. Next, there were the crazy cat cafes that started in Japan, where you could sit and drink your coffee with your favorite furry friend. Finally, a cafe in Tokyo called Mipig has taken a different approach. You can sit and cuddle with pigs while drinking coffee.

ABC News reports, “They were among dozen of customers on a recent morning taking selfies and breaking into huge smiles. The pigs, a miniature breed, trotted about the room, looking for a lap to cuddle up” when talking about Brad Loomis and his daughter visiting the cafe.

The pigs are surprisingly quiet throughout the cafe but make some noise, snorting occasionally. These pigs do not like to be alone, which makes them great companions. But they are also surprisingly very clean and do not smell.

The cafe does require a reservation. Customers pay about 15 dollars in US currency or 2,200 yen in Japanese currency. Shino Kitagawa, the executive for the new cafe, told ABC News, “Each pig is unique. Each one has his or her own personality. You may notice one may be strong-headed, and another may be gentle”.

The first cafe for the Mipig brand opened in 2019, with two others planned to open this year. The pigs are known as “micro pigs” and do not usually get any bigger than a corgi. The cafe also has baby pigs that are the size of a teacup. The pigs can be purchased for about 200,000 yen or 1,350 US dollars. According to ABC News, tourists who are visiting the cafe found out about it on Instagram.