Golden Week

It’s a national holiday week in Japan, and the Japanese are doing their favorite sport “queuing” !
In Japan, there are very few vacations for the people working at companies, the so called “white collar workers” BUT there are a LOT of National Holidays instead! On these days, everyone who has a day off (it’s mostly all companies, except for almost any kind of store, restaurant and amusement parks) has their mind set on only one thing “going somewhere”.

This results in a massive chaos throughout the countries highways and freeways; even though they have a really great train system, where you can go almost anywhere in the country by train, like shinkansen or local train lines like J.R, everyone seems to want to be going by car, at the same friggin time.
And if you feel like going somewhere during these holidays, I have one advice for you, don’t go anywhere, that would be fun..because it will be crowded AS HELL!

I made that mistake not only once, but twice during the time I’ve spent here in Japan.
I once went on a trip to Kawaguchiko near Fuji, it is in the Fuji-Five lake area in Kanagawa. We took the earliest bus from Shinjuku at 7 am, and was supposed to arrive a little before 9! The bus drove about 10 km an hour on the free/highway, because of the long queues. We arrived some 4 hours later, pretty tired and pretty pissed that we missed our tour of Fuji area!
Next mistake was going to Osaka by bus, on a night before a national holiday.
I thought that leaving by nightbus, would be a great idea, since I supposed that people would have all gone to bed around midnight, and definitely not be driving around in their cars on the freeway. But oh, was I wrong…
First off, when we left Shinjuku and out on the freeway, it was so crowded there, that the bus didn’t really move for the first 2-3 hours, then we finally got out on open road, but only to find queues at every major junction.
The bus was supposed to arrive around 8 am at Osaka, but at 8 am we had only just passed Nagoya.
At 12 pm we arrived at Kyoto, and decided to get the hell off that bus, and go by local train to Osaka, it would only take like 30 minutes, instead of the dreaded 2-3 hours that the driver had estimated it would take on the bus, because the streets was really crowded.

Other than that, I have enjoyed the sight of the marvelous  Osaka castle, and also enjoyed the company of the worlds most clingy homeless cat I’ve ever met.
She was absolutely adorable, and yet there she was, a cast away little thing in a park. Desperately looking for love from a human being.
When I saw her, I had to try and pet her, and she just sniffed my hand and then let me pet her head, after a couple of minutes, she crawled up onto my friends lap who was squatting by her side. He then put her down after a little while and then she practically jumped into my lap, and just crawled halfway up my chest and put her paws firmly around my neck as if to say “don’t leave me” and she just put her claws a little bit into my shirt to hold on to me, after a while, when I just held her and petted her, she relaxed and fell asleep in my arms.
I’ve never seen a cat yearning for human contact that much before! She just didn’t want to let go, every time I put her down, she hurried back up onto my lap so that I wouldn’t move!
I so wish that I could have helped her! She was absolutely beautiful! The fur still looked so clean, and her claws had been cut too. It seemed like she was a house cat, that had been left by the owner, at the Osaka Castle park.
This poor thing was looking like she was so hungry, and like she was begging me to bring her with me. I wish I could have.

I stayed with her for a long time, then I tried to leave, and she tried to follow for a bit, but then stopped, and I went down to a nearby stall to see if I could get a bit of food for her! I figured it was the least I could do.
She was still there, where I had left her, and I gave her the food, which she happily accepted and started to eat immediately.

How anyone can leave an animal to such a cruel fate, is beyond me.
Why are human beings so extremely heartless and thoughtless when it comes to animals? Domesticated animals are never to be released into the wild like that. They’d have so much trouble surviving.
She seemed so starved, when she was walking, she bent her back up a little, and walked as if every step hurt her. The poor one, she was probably not much more than 1 year old. As if the owner just decided to get rid of her, because she wasn’t a kitten anymore.
The cruelty! It is unbearable!
I wish I could help her! I still feel like going back there and bringing her with me.

She just fell asleep in my arms like this

She really wanted to be held, and taken care of, you could tell by her desperate behavior, when I tried to put her down. I felt so cruel to just leave her.
I wish I could have done something, more than just giving her an extra meal.
She needed to see a vet, to get medical care, and proper nutrition, and then she needed a loving home, to give her all the love and warmth and security that she could ever need! If I could, I would have brought her home with me, but pets are not allowed in the dormitory at all, and I have no idea it if is allowed to import pets to Denmark from Japan.
I would have done it though! Without a doubt! If only I could!
I wish a nice and cat-loving person will come along and find her, and take her home.

Wild cats in Japan needs help!!
I wish I could find a way to help them!
And to improve the rules about pets in Japan, to make better animal welfare!
I wish I could do that all over the world…

I love cats, and I love animals. I wish I could help them!

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