Cute Dogs and Outstanding Sandwiches

Hello fellow Ibarakians and dog lovers!
If it isn’t obvious already, I love food. One of my other great loves in life is dogs. Dogs are amazing. I like cats too, but unfortunately I’m allergic to them, so I have to be careful around cats. Dogs, thankfully, are allergy-free for me.
Whenever I’m not too busy, I volunteer at a dog and cat shelter in Tsuchiura called CAPIN. I help walk the many dogs they have available for adoption. If you would like more information about volunteering or would like to check out the dogs currently up for adoption, please don’t hesitate to email me. You can also check out CAPIN’s Instagram: CAPIN Instagram
A few weeks ago, I was talking about CAPIN with the owner of Coffee Bar Stove, who makes incredible coffee, and he asked if I knew about another dog and cat shelter in Tsukuba. He told me the shelter sometimes hosts events and also has a café that serves delicious sandwiches.
Dogs and sandwiches? Count me in.
That’s how I found myself at NPO Ki Dogs.

Ki Dogs

As I mentioned before, NPO Ki Dogs is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing dogs and cats together with loving humans. They care for and house pets that have been abandoned, while also helping them find new homes.
In addition to their rescue activities, they also provide services for pet owners, including a dog salon and a dog hotel. So, if your dog needs a trim or you are going out of town for a while, Ki Dogs can help take care of your furry companion.
Ki Dogs is located in the Shimohirooka area of Tsukuba, near the entrance and exit of the Sakura-Tsukuba Interchange expressway.
I visited Ki Dogs a few weeks ago because they were hosting a coffee marché. As another great love of mine is coffee, I couldn’t wait to pet some dogs and enjoy a good cup of coffee. Usually, there is a small donation fee to enter Ki Dogs, but for this event the fee was waived, so I was able to get in for free.

A lot of space for dogs and people to roam!

The first thing I did when I walked in was check out the huge open space at Ki Dogs and the marché. I was surprised by how much room they had. There was a large open area with enough space for about ten tents for the marché, probably even more, and still plenty of room left for tables and chairs. There was also a fenced-in dog park area where the dogs could run around off-leash and have fun.
I decided to explore the marché first and ordered the coffee tasting set, which included coffee from Yadorigi (she makes an amazing coffee lemonade), Tone Up Coffee (which had a very good dark roast), and Koba Coffee (which served a delicious light roast).
While I was outside, I admired everyone’s dogs and had the great pleasure of petting some of them as well. After all that coffee, I started to feel a bit hungry, so I decided to check out the Ki Dogs café.

The Menu

If you want to try the amazing food at the Ki Dogs café, you first need to place your order at the outside window. That is also where you can find their menu. The menu is entirely in Japanese, but don’t worry, I’ll do my best to translate it for you.
The main items on the menu are sandwiches. You can order a sandwich by itself or choose one of several set options. The available sets are a drink-and-soup set, a drink-only set, or a soup-only set.
The sandwich options include a prosciutto and pecorino cheese sandwich, a sausage, pepper, and vegetable sandwich, a duck meat organic sandwich, and a melted cheese pork sandwich.
For drinks, the café offers organic tea, coffee, Heartland beer, and organic wine.
Of course, the menu wouldn’t be complete without something for the dogs as well. They also offer dog biscuits and a cheese-and-meat dog treat.
I decided to order the soup-and-drink set.
Since it was such a sunny day, I chose to eat outside at one of the picnic tables on the terrace. However, if the weather is too hot or rain is in the forecast, Ki Dogs also has an indoor dining area.
After paying for my sandwich, I continued exploring the marché while waiting for my food. A little while later, one of the staff members brought out my order. By the way, all of the money earned at the café goes toward caring for the dogs and maintaining the facility.

Prosciutto and Pecorino Cheese Sandwich

My sandwich set looked incredible, and I couldn’t wait to dig in. The soup was a vegetable tomato soup, and I ordered black organic tea as my drink.
The first thing I did was take a bite of my sandwich. It might honestly have been the best sandwich I’ve had all month. The prosciutto was incredibly fresh and paired perfectly with the pecorino cheese. The cheese was firm at first, but once you bit into it, it practically melted in your mouth. All of the vegetables tasted like they had been picked that very day, and the bread held everything together perfectly. I couldn’t believe how amazing this sandwich was.
The tea was also delicious, and the soup was fantastic. The vegetables in the soup were full of flavor, and the potatoes had soaked up the broth beautifully.
As I sat there eating, I started wondering how a dog shelter like Ki Dogs could produce such high-quality food. Then I remembered the owner of Coffee Bar Stove telling me that Nina, from Tsukuba’s own B6, which I hope to write about soon, helped create the kitchen and menu. She is a master chef, and if you ever have the chance to try her food at an event, that should absolutely be your first stop.
I’m not sure if she was there at the café that day, but the sandwich was phenomenal. The next time I get a sandwich craving, Ki Dogs will probably be the first place that comes to mind.
The only thing I should mention is that I’m not sure the café’s food service is available every day. I think it may only be open on weekends and during special events, but I’m not 100% certain on that. I’ll try to update you later once I have more information.
After enjoying my incredible sandwich, I decided to check out the indoor dog café area

Dog Café

If you want to meet and greet the dogs that are up for adoption, then you should definitely head to the dog café at Ki Dogs. Food from the kitchen, such as the sandwiches, is not allowed inside the dog café, but drinks are permitted.
To enter the dog café, you first choose how long you would like to stay. The menu starts with a 30-minute session and an entrance fee. You can also add 15 minutes for an extra charge. The fee includes a cup full of dog treats, and there is also a separate option if you would like extra time, along with a drink.
I decided to go with the 30-minute option and was given a cup of treats. Before entering, the staff explained the rules to me, such as making sure not to leave the entrance open, how to properly use the gate, and where to store my belongings. They also introduced me to the dogs.
Some of the dogs were roaming freely around the café, while others were relaxing comfortably in their beds. Two of the dogs were especially shy and would run away whenever someone tried to pet them, but they were still happy to accept a few treats from me. Another dog stayed curled up in a bed the entire time, though he or she didn’t seem to mind getting a few gentle pets.
The dog I ended up spending the most time with was the one pictured at the beginning of this post: Kocho. Kocho probably ate about 80% of my treats while happily hanging out beside me. I spent quite a while petting Kocho before it was finally time for me to leave.
At the end of the session, I paid for my time in the café, you pay after your visit, thanked the staff, and headed off to my next destination.

My time at Ki Dogs was a wonderful experience. The coffee marché was a lot of fun, the dogs were incredibly cute, and the sandwich was absolutely out of this world.
I hope to visit Ki Dogs again soon. I still have a lot of petting to do, and I need to try the rest of the sandwiches on the menu.

So if you are a dog lover and would like to play with some dogs and have an incredible sandwich afterwards, why not give NPO Ki Dogs a chance? Who knows? You might see me there. Enjoying a sandwich and handing out a few treats to the cute dogs there.
Enjoy!

For more information on NPO Ki Dogs, check out their website:
https://kidogs.org/