It strikes me as slightly creepy that adults dining alone are offered the “companionship” of a stuffy, but that is the trend in a café in Japan. According to Business Insider, Moomin Café provides outsize stuffed toys to patrons who, for whatever reason, ending up taking their sustenance in public and unaccompanied.
If the practice can be justified on any grounds, it is the theme of the restaurant, which is based on a series of Finnish picture books about a family of hippopotamus-like creatures.
The phenomenon is reminiscent of the “adult baby” trend in Britain that made headlines a couple years back. Full-grown adults would dress down in baby clothes, sit in large high chairs, and relive their infant and toddler years.
No word on whether Moomin Café provide nightlights after sundown to customers afraid of the dark.