Tokyo’s Adorable Pig Cafe Lets You Cuddle Up with Micro-Pigs

In a city where small apartments with strict rules have made pet ownership difficult, the list of animal cafes just keeps growing and growing. Tokyo’s myriad pet cafes, offering some chill out time with various creatures, have become a refuge for stressed animal lovers.

Obvious candidates like cats and dogs have their own dedicated cafes, but you can also find birds, hedgehogs and even reptiles.

Not fluffy, feathered or reptilian, the inhabitants of this new establishment make it a whole new breed of animal cafe. It’s Tokyo’s first micro-pig cafe, called Mipig.

Tokyo's First Micro Pig Cafe

For 800 yen you can hang out with the tiny snufflers for half and hour, and it costs 500 yen for every thirty minutes extra. We checked it out for ourselves to see if it was worth the money.

Maybe this is no surprise to micro-pig owners, but the little hogs are disarmingly affectionate towards humans. Many ran around sniffing patrons and looking for treats, while others made themselves comfy on the laps of customers, even nuzzling up for a little sleep.

Each customer must order at least one drink on top of the entrance fee (600 yen), but we barely drank any of it since we were instantly smitten with the cute piggies and completely distracted the whole time.

Animal welfare is always a massive concern when planning to visit a pet cafe, but Mipig work to alleviate most common worries. There's a reservation system in place, limiting the amount of people allowed in at one time so that the pigs don’t get overwhelmed. Mostly the customers sit on the floor at their assigned table, and the pigs can move around to wherever they want.

Usual rules are in place, of course, such as no flash photography and no grabbing the pigs. The staff are on hand to keep things in order, and the animals themselves appear to be healthy, zooming around the space with all the expected piggish zeal.