Japan is home to a wide variety of different animal cafes where visitors can interact with everything from cats to goats and owls to hedgehogs. A new addition to the animal cafe scene which will be opening on June 4th is the Pignic farm & café in Akiruno, Tokyo. The venue is home to a number of micro pigs (also known as mini pigs or teacup pigs) in a relaxed rural setting.

The concept behind Pignic was to provide more of a farm or ranch-style environment to appreciate animals in, rather than a standard inner-city animal cafe. The calm surroundings are designed to be pleasant for both the animals and the human visitors, and this is evident in the number of people allowed in each day - reservations are required, ensuring that the micro pigs aren't overwhelmed by crowds. That's a positive in the current climate, too - it automatically enforces a level of social distance!

While visitors are appreciating the adorable micro pigs, they can also enjoy a coffee or sweet treat at the on-site cafe. Some of the offerings include donuts and pig-shaped macarons, the latter of which are almost too cute to eat.

The price to visit Pignic is 880 yen for the first 30 minutes, and then 550 yen per 30 minutes thereafter. For more updates about the cafe (including photos and videos of the micro pigs), you can follow along with their Instagram account, or their Twitter account. To make a reservation to visit, please head to the booking page on the Pignic website.
 

Getting there

Pignic farm & café is located around 30 minutes on foot (or around 10 minutes by taxi) from Musashi Itsukaichi Station, which is served by the JR Itsukaichi Line. For those who opt to drive, on-site parking is available.


By Kim