Mittan is a female cat. She was a stray cat and I don't know her age. A vet estimated her age and it seems she is around 11 years old.
Midon is a male cat. I don't know when he was born. I think he was also a stray cat.
Mittan is very skillful at opening sliding doors. My house has several sliding doors and as a matter of course, I want to keep them closed. However, for cats, the back space of the doors are unknown and mysterious areas, so they want to go in. They are very curious and are always looking for an opportunity to get in. They seem to know that I don't like them to get inside of the sliding doors. So, what Mittan does is open the sliding doors at midnight.
One night, I got woken up by a strange noise. It sounded like something was being dragged. It started for two or three seconds and stopped, then it started again. My heart started beating because I thought it might be a thief. I opened my eyes a little and looked at the direction of that strange noise. It was midnight and dark, but I could see the sliding door was moving little by little along with a strange noise, but I couldn't see anything. The next moment, I heard something bumping into the door and the door shook a little. I got up slowly and looked at the door. What I saw was Mittan sitting inside of the sliding door!
Since then, she has been trying to open every sliding door in the house. She seemed to enjoy it. Midon cannot open the sliding doors but he learnt that Mittan can open them, so he follows her when he wants to get inside of the door.
I always close the sliding doors and as soon I close them, Mittan opens them at midnight. We repeat this every day. I once used a prop for locking the door, but she scratched the door, so I stopped using it.
It's not only Mittan that surprises me. Midon is very active early in the morning. The day before yesterday, I was woken up by my head and pillow shaking. I was surprised and got up and saw Midon was holding my pillow with his forefeet and kicking it by his rear feet. There are toys made for cats for kicking, and I knew they are sold at pet shops. But why did he use my pillow and why it had to be so early in the morning? I know it's a useless question for cats.
Living with cats comes with each day filled with surprises, fun and a bit of annoyance.
]]>I still have a video that was recorded in the living room of my house when it happened. We had a web camera in the living room and the camera recorded I was holding an aquarium that was splashing water and my cats were in a flurry and running around the room. If that disaster hadn't happened, I think I would still live in Japan.
Now, there are still lots of people who cannot return to their home. I hope people who evacuated and lost their own home are able to find a place where they can live at ease.
]]>I like mysteries and detective novels. Firstly, I thought it should have been difficult to read for me, but it wasn't so difficult as I thought. There were many words that I didn't know but I just wanted to know who was a criminal and that enthusiasm that I want to know the truth of the case led me to read to the end.
I remember when I went to one of the biggest bookshops in Tokyo to buy Sue Grafton's book. It was easy to find her books even from far because the titles of her books were like the alphabet; "A" Is for Alibi, "B" Is for Burglar and so on.
I don't remember which books I have read but I would like to read them again. I would like to say thank you to Sue Grafton.
Her books gave me an opportunity to read English novels.
]]>The first opportunity to see him was on a website for finding foster parents for cats and dogs. I contacted the animal welfare group who had kept Moko and let them know my blog that was mostly written about my cats. Usually, animal welfare groups make sure where an applicant lives because some rented houses don't allow keeping pets, and most groups visit the applicant's house to make sure. They saw my blog and gave me a permission to have Moko.
I talked with a woman who had been keeping Moko. She said that Moko was found on a roadside by a woman who didn't have her own child. She took him to her home and grew him, but she abandoned him after her baby was born and he was taken to the animal welfare. However, same as the other animal welfare groups, the group that accepted Moko had so many cats and dogs. They tried to keep their cats and dogs as much as they could, but it was getting impossible. Therefore, the cats and dogs that had been living there for a long time were chosen and taken to the vet for euthanasia. One day, Moko was chosen. He was taken to the vet, but the vet looked at him and said he had a policy that he will not kill cats and dogs that are young and healthy, and he refused euthanasia. Moko's life was saved. However, the woman who had been keeping Moko had no idea what to do next. She asked her friend and was recommended to upload his photo to one of the famous websites, and then I saw that photo. The woman of the animal welfare group was so glad to know that I applied.
I met her and Moko at Shinjuku Station, one of the busiest stations in Japan. I think Moko was very scared. Then my husband and I took him home, it was spring of 2005.
I named him Moko because he had a gorgeous coat. Moko moko means fluffy in Japanese.
At the time Moko came to our house, we already had two cats, Kuma and Kemeko. At first, Moko was scared but he got used to the other two cats, and especially he liked the older male cat, Kuma. Moko always followed Kuma like a kitten follows its mum. Moko was a big boy and looking at the two cats he was walking along with, I thought Moko looked like a bodyguard of Kuma. However, actually he was a little timid and his personality was far from a bodyguard's one.
Moko was a big cat, so he was strong, and we sometimes had trouble with keeping him steady at the vet when he took a vaccine. The vet said that he might have Maine Coon's DNA because he was quite big. He was very sporty and could jump high. I remember that well, but it feels like a long time ago.
For the past two years, he had been losing his muscles and getting weak. We took him to the specialist, but they couldn't find the reason. Last month, I knew that he would not be able to survive long, so I gave him anything that he wanted to eat. His last was peaceful.
Thank you, Moko. I really think the days that I spent with you were wonderful.
]]>However, there is an exception in Australia, it's Starbucks.
When I came to Australia, there were Starbucks in every big city and now they have gone. I heard that there is a cafe culture in Australia. Every city and town has a local cafe and people love them. That led Starbucks to withdraw from Australia. According to The New York Times article, the American giant bookshop "Borders" was rejected from the locals and withdrew, and people are paying attention what will happen to the next, Amazon.
Australians seems to purely like local businesses. In addition, approximately 60% of books selling at bookshops are domestic writers. Is Amazon going to sell Australian writer's books a lot like other local bookshops do?
Honestly, I like Amazon and I have been using Amazon often because their service is very good. I bought lots of books, miscellaneous goods, I also use Kindle. One of the reasons I use Amazon a lot is the arrangement is quick and I can get what I want very soon. Wait, there is one very important thing that Amazon cannot do, it's a delivery.
Australia is a huge country, as huge as the U.S.A. and less people. As I wrote before, the distribution system network has its problems. I cannot tell if Amazon will do well or not.
I will see what happens.
Sometimes, foreigners say that Japanese women are in a weak position. Maybe it can be said depending on a situation but when they say about money, the circumstances are different.
In Japan, the wife is in charge of the family budget. It might be changing with the times but still lots of wives have the right to make decisions about using money. Long ago, at the time when people got their salary by cash, the employer put cash into an envelope and gave it to his employees. The envelope was of course sealed. So, people said that a husband who brought an envelope that was sealed was a paragon of a husband. That meant a husband who did not sneak money from the envelope was a nice husband. I think you already can guess who has the right to open the envelope, it's the wife.
Maybe you are wondering how husbands get their pocket money. Usually, the wife decides how much money her husband can use. It's the same as children. The Japanese husband gets pocket money from his wife. Therefore, people ironically call wives the Minister of Finance. When I was a kid, every family had a Minister of Finance. The numbers of households in which both partners work have been increasing lately, so the circumstances might be changed to some extent but I think this custom still remains strong.
I remember my childhood when my family went out and had a meal at the restaurant, my mother paid for the meal every time. I thought it was a natural thing to do. However, one day when I was watching an American movie on TV, I saw a man pay money and I felt a bit strange.
I know now most (or all countries except Japan?) countries have the opposite custom of Japanese. If you are not Japanese, maybe you are surprised reading my blog. On the internet, I found an article that male foreigners who live in Japan and know about Japanese customs well say Japanese women are nice but they believe that they can control the money, so it's not a good idea to get married with them. Foreigners seem that they don't want to receive pocket money from their wives. If you are considering marrying a Japanese woman, don't change your mind by reading my blog.
Me? Of course, I'm the Minister of Finance.
]]>Now I'm writing this blog in English and wondering how much score of writing category of IELTS I am able to get?
However, I heard the news that this proposal was rejected recently. I think I'm going to take the citizenship test in the future. The Japanese government doesn't allow to have dual citizenship, so if I got Australian citizenship, that means I will lose Japanese citizenship. Most Japanese who live in Australia keep Japanese citizenship for the reason that they cannot keep dual citizenship. If I could, I would like to keep both citizenship but if it's not allowed even in the future, I would choose Australian citizenship because my base of life is here, Australia.
I heard the news that Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel prize for literature. He was born in Japan and grew up in the United Kingdom. He said that he had to abandon Japanese citizenship by the reason I wrote above. People who abandoned Japanese citizenship are increasing for several reasons.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to my friends' home party. There, one of my friends gave me several Australia quizzes. It was a good opportunity to learn about Australia but on the other hand I realised that ironically Australian friends couldn't answer some of the questions.
I like quizzes and was curious about the citizenship test, therefore I bought the book literally titled "Australian Citizenship Test Practice Questions." Unfortunately, there are lots of political questions which I'm not good with. It seems not easy to get a high score without studying but I can understand it because it's the citizenship test, if it's too easy I would be surprised.
After ten years later, I wonder what kind of society we will have. So many people are moving beyond the borderline recently and the world seems to be greatly changing. I hope that everyone will have a peaceful life regardless of nationality.
I hope the Japanese government will change the regulation and will allow dual citizenship in the future.
]]>However, I have one issue since I have moved here. I have no friends.
Several years ago, I lived in a much denser residential area and I often had chances to meet neighbors. I sometimes had a chat with my neighbors and it was fun. We visited each other's houses for talking or having tea and I'm sure it helped my English. In retrospect, the days I lived in that town was a very good environment for learning English.
Here I am in one of the small towns in Queensland. The population is not so big and my neighbor's houses are not close. Therefore, I don't have much chance to meet them. My time to talk in English decreased sharply, and in addition all my friends have sold their houses and moved too far away. That was very unlucky for me, I couldn't believe that all of them have gone.
I don't think this situation is good for me. I'm now looking for some gatherings of hobbies. Isn't it a good idea to join a club or a gathering? However, here I also have an issue. There are no gatherings or activities that I'm interested in. This town isn't big and no wonder there are no varieties of activities and gatherings. Now I'm at a standstill.
Should I join an activity even if I have no interests? No, I don't think so. I think it would be fun to talk with the local people but I have to put up with something that I'm not interested in. I found some volunteer work several months ago. The one I was interested in was the volunteer work of planting tree seedlings in the wild area. I love nature and maybe I will have a chance to meet people who have the same interests.
I believe that I'm able to find some activities or gatherings that I'm interested in someday and it would be great if I could find good friends there.
]]>I have something to remember looking at snails. It was my good old days when I was in Tokyo. The company I worked for held a Christmas party every year at a hotel in Tokyo. Most of the time, we had French cuisine at the party and one party I saw snails on the dish for the first time. I knew that was famous French cuisine but it was a big challenge for me to eat snails.
Snails look ugly and in addition I had heard that they have parasitic worms. I hesitated to eat them but I made myself believe that this was a good chance to try them. So, I tried one. What made me think was it was tasty! I didn't expect that. It was really good and I took another one.
It always needs courage for the first step when we encounter something unfamiliar, doesn't it? My first step at the Christmas party was worth enough to do it. I still have some food that I don't want to eat but if I tried, maybe I would be able to eat them or maybe not?
]]>Tonight, I saw a TV program of introducing one of the famous historical places, Kyoto. The reporter was an Aussie woman, she wore Japanese traditional clothes "Kimono" and looked nice. However, she put her hands together in front of her chest and made a bow several times. I was disappointed to see that.
I think she tried to do the Japanese greeting that she believed. What she did was strange to me but she was in Japan and I know she did it because she tried to show her respect to Japanese customs.
But sorry mate, what you did just made Japanese feel strange and maybe they thought "What is she doing?"
I wonder what made people believe that Japanese greet that way? It's incomprehensible, isn't it?
If you have a chance to go to Japan, please remember that greeting isn't a Japanese custom. The bow is a Japanese custom. If you don't get used to bowing, just smile. Smiling is the universal language.
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