The aloof inhabitants of a cat cafe are nice to look at. But if they don’t offer enough affection for you, there’s a place along Harajuku’s famous Takeshita Street, where the furry little hosts and hostesses can’t wait to shower you with puppy love.

The shiba inu, Japan’s unofficial national breed and the internet’s favourite dog, have been getting more and more attention recently, often because of their adorable online antics. Both tourists and Japanese residents alike were desperate for a place to hang out with some shibes, and finally Tokyo delivered.

The Mame Shiba Inu Cafe has a few different branches, but the most accessible (and likely the most popular) for tourists is the Tokyo one, located in tourist haven and hangout of fashionable teenage girls, Harajuku. ‘Mame’ means bean, referring to the small stature of the particular breed that you can find in this cafe.

Inside the Mame Shiba Inu Cafe, Harajuku

On paper, a cafe filled with cute puppies running around freely sounds like heaven (to a dog lover like me anyway), but sometimes reality doesn’t reflect the fantasy. So we at grape Japan tried out the Mame Shiba Inu Cafe to see if it’s worth all the hype.

Knowing the popularity of the relatively new addition to Takeshita, we arrived about 15 minutes before the opening time, 11am. The line remained empty for about 10 minutes, making us think we had overestimated the rush. But soon other groups came, and we felt relieved to be right at the front of the queue and the first people through the door after paying for our ticket.

Visitors are required to take their shoes off at the door and have their hands doused in cleansing spray by staff.

To make the dogs feel at home the interior is decorated like a traditional tatami room that you might find in any Japanese house, the decor also had a vaguely retro theme.

Before playing with the dogs, there was a short instructional video everyone had to watch with some rules to follow. Everything was also explained in English, so tourists need not be shy about paying a visit. The cafe is restricted to just one room, but it’s quite large considering the size of the dogs, they have plenty of space to run around and cause mischief.

The dogs were super energetic and bounding around. Since it was the first group of the morning they probably weren’t bored of people yet, and were excited to play.

The ‘cafe’ portion of the name is a bit of an overstatement. You can choose a hot or cold beverage of your choice from the vending machine. But then again, would you want people making cafe-style drinks in a room with dog hair flying around? Vending machines are probably the most hygienic option, and there is actually a large choice of drinks to choose from.

Truthfully, the dogs don’t stay interested in the human visitors for that long, most of them playing among themselves. But some will come to be stroked, jump up on you or play with toys, you will definitely get enough interactions to merit the 880 yen entrance fee.

Sadly you can only stay for 30 minutes with no chance to extend your time due to the popularity of the cafe.

The Mame Shiba Cafe is pretty much exactly as advertised. Even though there's quite a few customers let into the cafe at once, there's plenty of adorable pups to go around. But don't expect them to stay in one place for that long!

How to Get to Mame Shiba Inu Dog Cafe, Tokyo