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, okay, I saw a few, but nothing like the Bunny Island mobbing I was hoping for.

Hey, if you’d checked our contracts, you’d KNOW that May to October is NAPTIME, especially during the daylight hours when the ferry brings would-be cat tourists

This ought to have been the sampler pack, not the “look at the vast number of cats here!” shot

Just imagine there are a hundred more of these

Talk to my agent

On the steps of the Hardly Any Cats Here Shrine, this one finally threw me a bone and tossed off a just-like-in-the-ukiyoe-prints pose

Notes to self:

Apparently, there is more than one “famous cat island” in Japan
The middle of the day (which in cat-reckoning means 9-5) is for sleeping in a secrit shady spot NO EXCEPTIONS
Cats are not as friendly as bunnies, but more friendly than hedgehogs

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Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, now out for the first time in paperback!

A Japanese pop star is swept away in the tsunami following a devastating earthquake, and her fans erupt in a frenzy of mourning. In the wake of the disaster, Detective Kenji Nakamura is sent to investigate a death at a local shrine, but…read more

…or watch the Idolmaker book trailer (0:58)