Kitties of Japan

Japanese Word of the Day:
English: “Neko”                         Bonus word:       “Coneko”
Japanese: “Cat”                                                    “Kitten”

Today (2/21) was a wonderful day and I am breaking chronological format to tell you about it (I still haven’t typed up my Osaka trip, haha.)

The day began like any other with the usual suspects heading to our classes enjoying the nice warm day. We separated for our language classes, I having spoken Japanese before continuing to my sumi-e* painting class. In the sumi-e class our senseiº began with a tutorial on how to paint orchids, our project for the week. After her instructions we began our trial and error paintings while she told us about a nearby park, Yamadaikeon. As a true artist, sensei encourages us to go out and see the things we’re painting as it blooms around us. Alas, orchids are not blooming yet but she did tell us that the plum trees were just starting to burst forth into bloom. Between the how warm and beautiful the day was and my desire for pretty pictures I decided to set off for the park after my classes. It also didn’t hurt that on Mondays I finished class at 12:30.

               After my classes I met up with the usual suspects for lunch (though they had eaten earlier, the bums) and while I ate I explained about the park and we opted to set off for it grabbing groceries for dinner on the way back. We parted from Jordan who had an afternoon class and dropped our extra baggage off at the dorm. According to the map sensei had painted unto paper for us to get to the park required going north to the river and then walking along the designated walking paths for about 30 minutes.

Map not to scale. At all. S4 is my Seminar house, by the way.

We also had to cross two big roads but the path went under one and the other had a nice pedestrian walk/don’t walk sign. Eventually we arrived completely safely to the park and abandoned society for the asylum of large trees and thick bamboo forests. I was surprised to see how many people were in the park, most around middle age, walking with friends or alone and several with nice cameras. One such woman saw us (clearly not native) and politely asked us a few questions, such as if we were Kansai Gaidai students and where we were from. I have to confess her English was very good though she did tend to switch between languages a bit. I have been pleasantly surprised almost every time I have interacted with a random Japanese citizen because of how incredibly kind and respectful they are. It was honestly a delight to talk to this woman because of how respectful she was about us coming to her country and how interested she seemed to be in us. It was quite flattering, actually.

Sorry for the weird angle, I snapped the picture without her knowing.

We passed her continuing on the path past the large lake on the right to a less traveled path with a wall of bamboo on the left until we reached a hill with blossoming trees. The flowers on the trees looked like flowers from a bush plant in the west but these were definitely on trees so I’m not sure if it’s another breed or what, but have a gander.

Disappointed to have not yet found the elusive plum trees we continued and found, among many other things, piles of wood that appeared meant for burning, a small pond, a man playing the flute, some cats – wait, back up, cats?

Yes. Cats. I spotted the first one running out of a bush and into a dried river bed and naturally crept closer to have a look. After a moment I realized there were in fact two cats, one in the river bed and another on some dried grass near me. Delighted I photographed the felines as they stared off one another intently. Quite pleased at seeing my favourite furry friends I caught up with Ellen and Michael and we looked ahead to our path splitting 4 directions. As we debated which way to go, Michael spotted something that sealed the deal; one of the middle paths going up a hill had 2 kitties lounging beside it. I set off up the path hoping these kitties might be friendly than the last two and be up for some petting when I spotted the 3^rd. As my delight grew, so did the number of kitties present, or so it seemed. Around this point Ellen opted to begin a kitty count as cats begun appearing from all sides as a woman ahead of us handed out some food for the kitties.

Do any of you know what heaven looks like? Because it looks like this:

Oh... hello there.

Hey God? I'm sorry I ever doubted you. I'll stop that whole atheist nonsense now.

The reason the cats are so friendly.

Seriously, they were everywhere! I’d turn around and another kitty would show up, it was amazing! And even better, most were friendly and all for a head rub! It was heaven. Eventually I allowed myself to be pulled away by my companions and we continued up the hill to find the plum trees we’d originally set out for.

               If the kitties were a wonderful treat, the plum trees were the icing and fresh strawberry on top. They appeared to have just begun blossoming as the trees were filled with beautiful fresh buds and a few were still bare. I can show you (somewhat) how beautiful the grove was but I lament being unable to reproduce the wonderful smell they provided. It was really something else.

               After the flowers, we continued exploring for a bit more, keeping up the kitty count, before decided to head back before it got cold as Michael and I had abandoned our jackets in the dorm. Excited about the wonderful new park full of spring flowers and kitties we stopped for a drink at the park entrance before leaving wherein we noticed a product for sale we had yet to see: a pancake flavoured drink.

               Not. Even. Kidding. Japan has it all. Michael got the drink and reported that it was actually quite good. I stuck with grape soda. There was also a corn drink. This stuff is to random for me to make up.

               Drinks digesting we began the pleasant walk back, stopping by the Sanko market with a 100yen store to get some basic supplies and dinner materials. Returning home we cooked our cheapo pizzas (and ate fruit with them, mom) and relaxed. In total, we’d walked over 5 miles to school and back and again to the park, not counting our excursions inside the park so we all enjoyed sitting down to eat. But as I relaxed I began planning my next trip back to the park full of my favourite vice: cats!

Ja ne!

Final Kitty Count:
-19 Cats in the park
-1 Cat on the river side on the way home
-1 Baby crying like a cat being upset
-1 Suspiciously cat-like lump of dirt.

*Sumi-e is a traditional Chinese-Japanese method of brush painting using sumi ink and sometimes watercolor. More on this later!
º”Sensei” is the Japanese word for teacher and it applies to all kinds of teachers.