Tokyo Tidbits

City cats in the night

After I got home, although it was still very very cold, I wrapped myself in layers and took the cats out. I live on the 5th floor of an apartment building and I've trained the cats to venture out down the stairs to the ground level so they can explore a bit. They definitely like getting out of my small apartment, but being in the city, it's still a scary adventure for them. Before this, they had access to a wonderful forest in Oakland, CA. I only let them out late at night when it's most quiet and I think everyone is more or less asleep. So far, one of my neighbors has caught me 'walking' my cats. At first they saw my cats roaming the stairs and were like, "what the...," then they saw me, the gaijin (foreigner) and figured, "I knew she was strange..."

I don't think my cats have ever experienced such cold temperatures though. Kats went all the way down to the 1st floor but Waka was her princess self and meowed a complaint on the 4th floor and wouldn't budge. Fine...I decided to be a good sport for Kats and joined him to the 1st floor (he kept coming back up so I figured he just wanted me around). But Waka meowed louder and louder...and I looked up the stairwell and saw her little head poke out looking down at me. She eventually whined her way to the 3rd floor but was making such noise that I worried the landlady (who lives on the 3rd floor) would come out and discover my nocturnal activities. So there I was in this freezing weather, close to midnight, running up the stairs trying to shush Waka...only to start hearing Kats meowing wondering where I went. Sheesh. What I find myself doing!