Hamish Downie’s News Sushi #141: Morsels of News From Japan and Beyond

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Editor Note: It is Friday, and that means it is time for the World Famous, soon-to-be Intergalactic Famous News Sushi from our very own Hamish Downie. Hamish brings us a decidedly different slant on Pop Culture as viewed through the lens of a non-native living in Japan.

Thank you (ありがとうございました), Hamish, for your insights.

こんにちは！Which means “Hello”!

「またきんようびね！」

This past week included Japan’s Day of the Cat. You might quite rightly think that on the internet, every day is the day of the cat, but since we are living through a time that rivals the height of the Egyptian civilisation’s worship of the Cat, our feline friends require a special day on top of their ordinary worship.

🐱SUPER CATS & NINJA🥷

Happy ‘Cat Day’ (ねこの日/ニャンの日 ‘Neko-no-hi’ or ‘Nyan-no-hi’)!😺🥳

‘Meow’ in Japanese is ‘nya-‘ (にゃー)…
…as February 22nd (22.2 ‘ni ni ni’) sounds a little like “nya nya nya”, the day is devoted to our feline friends.#Kyoto #Japan #ねこの日 pic.twitter.com/vvy4VZXGav

— Camellia Tea Ceremony (@camelliakyoto) February 22, 2023

As the tweet above says, it was chosen to be February 22nd, as 2/22 sounds like Ni-Ni-Ni in Japanese, which is similar to the sound Japan says that cats make (nya). It also gives us an excuse to look at our favourite cats of the internet:

pic.twitter.com/bsupex2TdJ

— bib 🐥☕️ (@kapebeansies) February 21, 2023

I’ve never had a cat myself, but there have been a number of cats in my life. Possibly the first was a very placid black cat that my neighbor had when I lived in Melbourne as a toddler. I don’t remember, but the story goes that my Mom found me attaching colorful clothes pegs to the poor cat’s tail. I’m sure it looked very nice, but I do cringe thinking of the pain that poor cat must have been in. I’m lucky I didn’t get scratched. Lesson: It doesn’t pay to be too nice.

Later on, we tried to have fish. I think this was still in Melbourne. This was very unsuccessful as the neighbor’s cat thought that we were providing them with a free meal and a bit of entertainment. No matter where we put the fish bowl, or what kind of protection (such as a glass lid with a book on it), those fish all became dinner for the neighbor’s cat. We soon gave up. Lesson: Don’t put something in temptation’s way.

Finally, two door’s down from my Mom (still in Melbourne), there was a very friendly and opinionated ginger cat named Oscar, who did have a girlfriend in the house next door to us. Oscar would do the rounds of the street, and eventually my Mother was buying expensive cat food to make sure his coat really shone. I think the whole neighborhood was in love with him. He certainly helped get me through some difficult times after returning to Australia when the place I worked for went Bankrupt. When the Cat’s “Human”/Owner decided to move away, the people at the back of Mom’s place offered to buy Oscar, so he could stay on the street he was clearly the king of. But, this incensed the owners, who probably had no idea that he really belonged to all of us, and not just them. Unfortunately, he moved away, and apparently wasn’t that delighted with his new surroundings. I really loved Oscar.

Do you have any cat stories you’d like to tell?

via GIPHY

Also this past week, my film played at Homo Humour in the UK, and I really wished I could have been there.