Monday, November 7, 2016

Postcard from Japan: Books - Cats & Rabbits on Monday, October 31, 2016

Books on cats abound in all of the book stores.
I took Mariko-san to Junkudo Book Store today.  I wanted to prove that I could find it again.  (You may think this is easy but any large train station has so many exits that it is very, very easy to get confused as to which one to use.  As long as you know whether you go to the East Exit, West, North or South Exits, you're better able to retrace your steps. Even then there can be multiple exits in any of those directions.)

Cover of Nishio Yuki's book showing
her little ceramic figures.
I purchased a couple of things including a little book showing the small ceramic figures by Nishio Yuki.  Many of you know I love cats (I miss my two at home!) and Nishio-san has these little torso figures in her book showing the top-half of a person with a cat sitting on their head.  The titles are always "Cat Torso" as though the person isn't of any importance and the cat is the one in control.  (My former cat, Gabrielle Gwendolyn, was somewhat like that although a sweetheart, but she did love to sleep on my head.)  Nishio-san sells her pieces (she calls them dolls) through Etsy but those aren't as lovely or fascinating as the ones in this book.
A photography display is about a recent book on a
sumo training house that has cats.

And cats are definitely in now in Japan.  Books abound with the most incredible images; stationery, cards, gift envelopes, figurines and more.  Mariko-san and I even went to a store today that had a petting area of cats in which you had to purchase a ticket to get in.
One of my favorite pictures was on the cover of a cat calendar.  The rest of the images weren't special but the cover was ----
a line-up of wild looking cats that rather reminded me of my Sweetie Pie.
"I'm a Tiger" seems to be the latest best seller.
Cover of a cat calendar.  Love those brown noses.

Along with loving cats, I like wild rabbits.  I'm a rabbit in the 12-year Chinese zodiac (and a Pisces in the Western zodiac).  And there were books about learning to speak to your rabbit ("Rabbit Language Lessons") and more.

"It's Rabbit Time" with the rabbit
saying "What?!"
There were rabbits with flowers rings on their heads (how did they get them lined up like that?), and rabbits speaking to humans.

"Moru and Mugi" is the name of the book about the sumo
wrestlers and their two cats.
So much for animals at the book store.  Next post is about insects there.

"Rabbit Language Lessons"

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