Tamaki Hosokawa

TOKYO: Much less of a crowd is seen in the streets of Tokyo’s most busy tourist area, Asakusa, hit hard because of the coronavirus pandemic, and impacting local souvenir shops as well as the area’s local cat café.

Katsuya Furukawa owns the Cat Café, Monta that has been suffering.

Furukawa said they have seen the decline in a number of customers as much as 75 percent from what it used to be prior to the coronavirus spread. 

The café has 8 cats, all purebreds of various kinds and cat lovers come to pet and play with them and are charged by the hour in additional to optional drinks and food.

“The whole purpose of this café is to provide people, who simply love cats and can’t have them, or are suffering from pet loss, a chance to enjoy cats and get some healing and relaxation,” said the owner.

“We have now only about 15 to 20 people a day coming on weekends, which used to be quadrupled.” 

“Our cats, especially the playful ones, do notice the change that fewer people play with them,” said the owner.

Mr. Furukawa takes utmost care to countermeasure the virus by sanitizing customers and ventilating the entire café while making sure that cats are warm enough on the electrical carpets placed on the floor.

Almost half of the shops are closed at Nakamise shopping street, one of the main attractions of Asakusa. Only a few foreigners occupied souvenir shops and strolled around the area on Dec. 30.  

The Nakamise shopping street stretches over approximately 250 meters. It is lined by more than 50 shops, which offer local specialties and the usual array of tourist souvenirs.

“We only open on weekends now. The sales have dropped for about 80-90 percent this year. And most shops have downsized their part time employees,” said the manager of Kazusaya, a souvenir shop.

The manager said shops that sell food, consumable and perishable items seem to be surviving, while souvenir shops like hers are hit hard.