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Fox Village: Even Better With Snow On Top!
I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when I finally made it to Zao Fox Village last spring, but it’s a good thing I didn’t actually shuffle off this mortal coil due to fox-induced bliss, because then...
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Gotta Catch Them ALL
I was wandering through Akihabara doing important book research SHUT UP, when I discovered the key to collecting all those damnably elusive kittehs in Neko Atsume: put out lots & lots & LOTS...
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Temple Cats, With Attitude
In Japan, neko and temples go together like fish guts and beer, and every graveyard attracts a cadre of cats to guard the departed. At first I tried not to think about what they might be eating to...
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The Gods Of Kawaii Anoint The Most Inexplicable Animal Yet
At the time I bought these, I thought I’d better snap them up, because I’d never see another piece of tapir-themed goods as long as I lived. Haha, I thought. Seriously? Tapirs? If there was a vote...
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The Catzilla Vending Machine
Overcome with a burning need for yet more weird plastic toys (hey, don’t pretend this doesn’t happen to you!) I was poking around in my favorite Akihabara gachagacha emporium when I discovered THIS:...
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Which One Is The REAL Goldfish?
Not easy, is it? Okay, I’ll give you a hint: this one doesn’t need to be fed. The lovely specimen in the wooden saké box is a painting of a goldfish. Actually, it’s about a gazillion paintings of...
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Uncuddly Stuffies
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that my sympathy runs deep for the poor toy designers who have to churn out new adorable stuffies when all the animals, vegetables, and foods...
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A Prickly Day At The Hedgehog Cafe
Turn down the volume on your squee-meter, unless you want to lose a little more of your hearing! Check out the little prickle monsters you can snuggle up with at Tokyo’s new Hedgehog Cafe… Okay,...
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The Cat Island With No Cats
This was supposed to be a picture of dozens of eager kittehs scampering up the shrine stairs to mob me for my squid snax. So, I went to one of Japan’s famed cat islands…and didn’t see any cats. Well,...
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At The Crazy Cat Parade
I have to admit, I was powerless to resist going to a thing where hundreds of people dressed more or less as cats pranced down the street, some of them raucously performing musical numbers in which...
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Fox Village Videos!
Here’s what it’s like to visit Fox Village in the snow, when the foxes are at their fattest & fluffiest! I have to confess, when it comes to which animals would get to sit in business class in my...
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The Werewolf Shrine
High on top of a snowy mountain in Chichibu – so far from any train station that you’ll be eligible for a senior citizen discount by the time you get off the bus – is the Mitsumine Jinja. At first it...
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The Drunken Pet Vending Machine
So, today I came home and found THIS. I don’t know what kind of shenanigans YOUR gacha-gacha toys get up to when they’re alone in the house, but… These adorable animals are available at the Drunken...
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25 Obscure & Amazing Things To Do In Tokyo In 2017
-1- Make a wish that you could draw as well as the other visitors at the anime & manga shrine Where: Kanda Myoujin Shrine (Kanda) • -2- Get your warts disappeared by the Wart-Curing Jizo Where:...
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Dog Socks Of Overwhelming Cuteness
Am I right or am I right? So, the thing you can’t really tell from seeing them on the little hanger thingies is that the face of the brown one is on your toes, but the face of the gray one is above...
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Shiba Inu Rice Balls
I don’t usually crave a quarter pounder of rice and seaweed in the middle of my day, but if I knew one of these was in my brown bag, I’d be counting the minutes ’til lunch. It goes without saying that...
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Why I’d Totally Follow This Guy’s Instagram If He Hadn’t Died In 1889
Kawanabe Kyosai. He’d have had the best instagram ever. Because Goth WAY before Goth Because FART BATTLES (Excuse me, can we just zoom in on that action for a moment?) Because elephant shenanigans...
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I’m Sure They Didn’t Mean To Suggest…
This is why… …Miss Fluffington of Bigglesworth the cat model was never seen again • Jonelle Patrick writes mysteries set in Tokyo. Her fourth book, Painted Doll, is just out in paperback When Tokyo...
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The Hypnotic Tail-Wagging Cat Clock
Walking down the street in Ome, I discovered something that totally flipped my three-hour trip to see a garden filled with no blooming azaleas into the win column: the tail-wagging cat clock! BEHOLD...
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A Leopard For Your Butt
I’ve seen fruit for your patootie and warriors for your derriere, but this is the first time I’ve encountered top-of-the-food-chain predators for your butt. Am trying hard not to imagine the Japanese...
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