Hobo Cats!

We went to visit Nagoya Castle with Will's parents. The castle itself is very beautiful from the outside, and sits in nice gardens. However, it is a modern reconstruction so the inside is just a museum with an elevator which would have been a lot more interesting if I could read Japanese. There were a few interesting things in there, though. It's really sad because there is a picture of the original Nagoya Castle on fire after an American airplane dropped a bomb on it. 

So, Nagoya Castle is interesting, but that is not what this blog post is about.When we first got to the castle, Will didn't really know where he was going. We walked the long way around the moat of the castle, it took about half an hour. We did see some nice parks, though, and a lot of koi in the water. 

This is about the Hobo Cats. There are a few dozen homeless cats near one end of the park just hanging out. People feed them and provide little cardboard box homes for them.

Here is the first cat we saw, with Nagoya Castle in the background.

He had beautiful eyes, although you can't really see them because he was sleepy.

Here is one of the squatter's cute little homes

He was taking a bath when we disturbed him.

Here is only part of the Hobo Cat City. Not pictured, there are maybe 2 dozen other little cardboard and plastic homes in the grass, mostly occupied.

Most of them are just down on their luck kitties, and some of them have kitty mental health issues. Many of them have severe catnip addictions. Wouldn't you, if you were a homeless cat? As a result, many of them are unable to find suitable employment. Some people say it is their own fault that they are homeless. They say that these kitties are to blame, that if they only went out there, got a job, and stopped being no-good hippies then their situations would improve. But those people need to walk a mile in these cat's soft padded feet. It's not easy being a hobo cat. Opportunities for these cats are few to none. With no opportunities, where are these cats to turn to, but the nice benefactors at the park near Nagoya Castle.

Puppets!

These are puppets from a festival in Inuyama. Inuyama is a town not far from where we live with an authentic old castle. A lot of the castles in Japan were destroyed in WWII. But, Inuyama Castle survived. Every year in Inuyama, they have this festival with these beautiful traditional floats. Also, they have these Pinocchios. They are operated with strings and pulleys. These pictures are in a small museum in Inuyama.