When I went to the Sengan-en garden/estate (which was made many hundreds of years ago, and then expanded by one of the modernizing pre-Meiji Satsuma [sp?] lords in the 19th century, who built Japan’s first machine-based factory, first electric plant, and first telegraph, all here in Kagoshima).
On the grounds of the garden there was a shrine to cats. Some Japanese conqueror had taken some cats with him to Korea in the 16th century (where he no doubt worked on building that excellent rapport that exists to this day between Korea and Japan – this is a joke, OK?). The cats came back with him, having provided excellent luck and service (what sort of service, exactly?) during the war.
I took some pictures of the cat shrine, and promptly spent 25 bucks in the inevitable giftshop nearby. I will add the pictures when I get a chance and the appropriate bandwidth.
What`s weird is that in the hours after my visit to the cat shrine, I started running into cats. Cats in parking lots, cats in the forest climbing up the mountain. I took some pictures of these cats, too. I think it was a “hello cats” day. Which is only right, in the land of Hello Kitty.
Here’s some pics.
