Since leaving America August 2006, I have traveled to sixteen countries. A great deal has happened. This site is to share my thoughts, photos, music, writings, travel experiences, and developing political/social commentary with you. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
A catio is a cat patio. It offers an outdoor space for kitties that are mostly kept indoors.
Frankly, it breaks my heart that our three cats can’t run “in the wild”, doing things that are quite natural for them to do: chase butterflies and birds, crawl through undergrowth, roll in the grass, smell flowers. But our house backs up on a forest. There simply are too many predators. We have foxes, raccoon dogs, Japanese badgers, huge hawks which can pick up a full-size cat and fly away, snakes, occasional wild boars.
And then there’s the monkeys!
Yes, we have several large families of Japanese macaques living all around us. Sometimes they just look for food, sometimes they are aggressive, as when one jumped on the hood of my step-daughter’s car and ripped off her windshield wiper.
The catio will let them enjoy the outdoors without fear of being attacked or otherwise terrorized.
I can’t say that building it was a simple, straightforward process. Without blueprints or any model to work off of, the only option was to make it up as I went along. So I did. Aside from creating an enclosure which kept the kitties in and predators out, I had to make it typhoon proof. Even though we’re pretty far inland, two or three times a year we get serious typhoons with steady winds of up to 80 kmh (50 mph), gusts even higher. My catio is secured to a cement foundation. So in a worst case scenario, it might collapse but it certainly will not blow away.
Anyway, here are a few photos of putting the catio together, and finally the kitties enjoying it.
Next we’ll do some interior decorating: plants, ground covering, ladder, shelves, maybe a hammock. Fountain? That would be nice!
Our kitties (right to left): Jennifer, Arthur and Sophie.
Every language has its own version of the sound a cat makes when, as we say in English, it meows. Here’s a sampling . . .
Now the plot thickens. Notice the Japanese . . . nyān [にゃーん]. Well, the number ‘2’ in Japanese is ‘ni’ [に]. And someone — who decides these things? — made the conceptual leap to suggest that ‘ni – ni ni – ni ni’, that would be 2-22-22, sounds like a cat doing it’s verbalizing/singing/reciting poetry, whatever cat’s do when they meow.
I’ll confess that I don’t quite buy the logic but who cares. It’s fun!
So TODAY — February 22, 2022 — here in Japan is National Cat Day!
As a bonus to this touching story, here’s a video my expert wife found on YouTube that should put a big smile on your face, especially if you, like Masumi and I, love cats!
No one likes being stopped by the police for running a stop sign or failing to wear a seat belt. That’s true everywhere. Such interactions with enforcement officers mean a ticket and a fine. At the same time, if you were in violation of the law, regardless of how minor the infraction, they’re just doing their job, there’s no reason to resent, hate, or fear them.
The other side of the coin is that on rare occasions, calling the police yourself is the best option in handling a situation. It’s certainly quite helpful to be able to request professional assistance. A stranger is wandering around in your back yard. A stray dog is foaming at the mouth, leaping in the air, apparently infected with rabies. A person has just crashed their car into a tree and is slumped over unconscious behind the wheel. You do what you have to do and a trained, concerned, professional police officer is an obvious place to start when dealing with many emergencies.
In over twelve years, I’ve only had three interactions with the police here in Japan. All were fine, not in the least unpleasant.
One time early in the evening, I was driving down the main street here in town, came to a stop at a T-intersection, and two officers stepped up to my car. They didn’t even ask me for identification. They simply wanted to know if I’d been drinking. I replied, “I don’t drink.” They thanked me and I went on my way.
Another occasion I wrote about in the article Life In Japan: Koban. That was a very intense situation with the police helping a disoriented lady I found laying on the side of the road, who miraculously hadn’t been run over before I walked her to the police station. The officer was extremely polite and highly professional, asked questions and took a lot of notes for his report on the incident. He got the lady safely back to the retirement facility she had wandered away from.
One other time, I was riding my bike and an officer on a motorbike stopped me, looked at the registration tag on my bike to make sure it was current and my bike not on their stolen list. The whole thing took about 30 seconds and I went on my way. Yes, they patrol on motorbikes. And yes, they are meticulous about stopping bicycle theft.
Which brings me to the actual theme of this particular article, the vast difference between policing here and what appears to be going on back in the U.S.
Whereas the police in America are frequently viewed as adversaries, not to be trusted, to be avoided, sought as a last resort in many communities — especially communities of color — here in Japan, they are still viewed as trusted public servants. Being a police officer is a highly-regarded, admired profession. As I was brought up to believe way back in the 20th Century, a police officer is a member of the community and your friend.
The article posted at the top is about a visit by police officers to a local school to show the students a typical police van. The kids were extremely excited and fascinated by the way it was outfitted. And the officers ended up giving the students a ride in the vehicle. That’s the way the police like to be seen and regarded here, by citizens of all ages.
My wife’s daughter, Izumi, teaches kindergarten here locally. The police occasionally are invited by her school to meet with the kids, who regard their visits as a special occasion. Last time they came by, they worked in the school’s garden with the children, harvesting sweet potatoes. Students and police then took the fresh potatoes inside, baked them and had lunch together.
Perhaps nothing sums up how unique the police are here than this story. Here we meet Yemon, a cat which has been recruited to work in Yoro Station in Miyazu, Kyoto.
I have a feeling that being a “cat burglar” is not a very good idea in this police precinct with Yemon on the job.
[ Police Power I and Police Power II are part of my collection of 62 anecdotes about life in the REAL JAPAN for me as an expat. It’s getting fantastic reviews and I believe it will put a lot of smiles out into the world, as well as valuable insights into this fascinating country. Available across the globe for the asking . . .
It’s quite a story how Sophie came into our lives.
Masumi was going to her drum lesson at the other end of town. This was at the Yamaha music education space, which happened to be across the street from a factory.
As she got out of the car, a skinny calico came running from the factory yard right up to her. The poor thing was undernourished, had runny eyes, in general looked sick and sickly. But she had lots of energy and came right up to Masumi, reached up on Masumi’s legs and cried for help. Normally, street cats are very skittish and unapproachable. This little kitty was completely the opposite. She wanted attention and affection.
Masumi’s drum lesson lasted over an hour. When she came back out, the calico was still there, waiting for her “chosen” friend. She continued to cry and rub up against Masumi, and when she opened the car door, the kitty jumped in the car!
Next I got a call. “What should I do? This poor little kitty jumped in my car. She wants me to take her home.”
We decided that whatever was to happen, we should try to help this poor creature out. She was in trouble, it was winter, no way would she survive in her condition outdoors in the yard of a factory. What was she living on? Was she getting fed?
Masumi drove with the calico in a cardboard box directly to our vet. Poor little thing was starving, had worms, and a bad cold. How could we turn her away? Masumi came home and it was no decision. If we could manage it, this new kitty would join our family.
The immediate serious issue was whether our new friend had either kitty HIV or leukemia, both of which are fatal within a couple years of infection. Both are also very contagious and are common among “street cats”. We had concern about Arthur and Jennifer catching one of these dread diseases. At the vet, at least for now, the calico tested negative for both but we’d have to wait four weeks and have her retested, in case she had just recently gotten infected. Four weeks isolated from our other two cats!
We set up a room. I spent about half my time keeping her company for the next month and grew incredibly attached. She was hysterically funny, so full of affection and appreciation. Our other cats, Arthur and Jennifer, spent countless hours at the door of the quarantine room wondering just who this mystery guest was. They heard her frolicking, jumping around the room, using me as a cat tower, slowly gaining strength, health and energy.
We decided on a name . . . Sophie!
Four weeks crawled by. It was time for a “final verdict” from our veterinarian.
I have to say that after all that time in quarantine with her, it would have broken my heart if her tests had come back positive. But she was clean! As soon as Masumi returned from the vet, she brought Sophie into the house, opened the carrier. Arthur and Jennifer got to meet the newest member of the family.
The three of them are to this day the best of friends, regularly play together, are very affectionate to one another. The perfect ending! Sophie is truly the most delightful kitty I’ve ever had. She cuddles up to me several times a day while I’m writing, brings both Masumi and I toys she wants us to play with, sleeps with us every night.
So . . .
Finally, in a long-overdue recognition of Sophie’s long, dramatic journey in becoming a member of our family, our local newspaper has published the brief notice you see above. It merely says she has brought much joy to our household. Talk about an understatement.
Sophie is definitely one-of-a-kind, an “orphan” and a real Cinderella story!
As an attention-starved author and overgrown baby, I of course am always trying to attract publicity. Again, one of my kitties has humbled yours truly by being featured in our local newspaper.
Maybe I'm approaching this wrong. Do I need to learn how to purr to get noticed around here?
Of course, the selection of local pets for cameos is not random. And since our kitties are the most beautiful in the world, what choice is there but to run their photos and say a few complimentary, if inadequate words? I'm frankly surprised they don't write them up on the front page with a huge eye-catching headline like . . .
JENNIFER THE CAT STEALS EVERYONE'S HEART IN SASAYAMA
. . . or create a special standalone section for them like the Arts & Culture Magazine of the New York Times.
You think I'm biased? Check out these photos!
Which gets to the heart of the challenge for me personally. At least in the cuteness department, I simply can't compete. So I need to create my own separate niche.
I got it! I'll write novels! Incredibly cute novels. With cute covers. And cute characters. Cute story lines. Cute plot twists.
Novels that purr!
Hmm . . . I may have gotten off to a bad start. Politics? Satire? Human trafficking? Growing up in Detroit? The end of the world? Drug smuggling? Eating giraffes?
As a novelist, satirist, essayist, political blogger, and someone who has not gotten beyond the I-want-my-oompa-loompa stage of human development, to say I crave attention is a vast understatement.
Of course I live in Japan, so while I continue my lifelong efforts to become a household name in America, I consider recognition here an important part of building my legend. Plus I've long been a believer that any press is good press, anywhere on the planet.
I can't say I'm making much headway. I've tried countless ways to breach the media firewall that keeps me hidden from the Japanese public eye. A while ago I tried burning down the largest wooden Buddha in Japan. I couldn't get the damn thing lit. Once I tried dressing up as a geisha. All that happened was I got a lot of very strange looks and one comment from a young school boy in a baseball uniform -- その醜い女性を見てください。-- which my wife, Masumi, said basically translates as: "Look at that ugly woman."
I even entered an octopus eating contest and came in last! But not before I started to hallucinate giant sea cucumbers dancing across the stage like an entire chorus line of Rockettes had turned into wart-infested pickles.
Yes, I've tried everything except running through the center of town dressed as a samurai, carrying a bamboo pole wrapped with flaming kelp leaves, while yelling, 'The Emperor has no oompa-loompa.' I ruled that out when I found out he doesn't.
My most recent humiliation occurred the other day, early one morning.
We still get a newspaper delivered to our house every day -- can you believe it? made of paper no less? -- which mentions one or two major news stories but mostly focuses on news from around our prefecture -- which is the equivalent of a state in the U.S. Many human interest stories, local sports teams, city and school district events.
But . . .
There it was! A brief mention to be sure, but no less humbling. My cat upstaged me by getting in the news!
Now I love Arthur to pieces. And I have no doubt he deserves any and all the great press he can get. But let's be honest. He didn't do a thing to deserve this. He's just so cute, an old guy like me, regardless of how many books I write, web sites I put up, despite how funny I am, or "politically aware", how can I compete? Let's be blunt: I don't stand a canary's chance in a cat cafe.
O
kay. Okay. I sound like I'm bitter. I'm not. I'm so proud of Arthur! If anything, I'm wondering why they didn't put him on the front page and do an exclusive feature story on the little guy, including an interview and a link to video footage of him being so darn cute!
At the same time . . .
That still leaves me in a quandary. What do I have to do to get some press around here? Dress up like an American soldier and fly an Osprey into the Tokyo Tower?
