Nya-nya-ing our way through the cat-strewn streets of Tokyo

Working in a Japanese kindergarten not only affords me the luxury of coming into close contact with every single germ known to man, it also provides me with an abundance of information that is essentially useless to anyone over the age of six. For example, did you know that in Japan dogs don’t go woof-woof, they go wan-wan; frogs don’t ribbit, they go kero-kero; cats don’t meow, they go nya-nya.

Now I say this information is useless but actually it came in quite handy last weekend when my friend Cate and I found ourselves taking part in the last ever Kagurazaka Bakeneko Parade in Tokyo. A celebration of all things feline, the ‘Ghost Cat Parade’ states that you are only allowed to participate if you are dressed as a cat. So we went to Daiso (no expense spared) and bought crappy cat ears and drew all over our faces. I kind of looked like a rat, but hey it’s the thought that counts. More importantly, we said nya-nya – because can you imagine how stupid we would have looked if we had said meow?

nya-nya

FIRE-WALKING IN TAKAO

CROSS-DRESSING IN YOKOHAMA

GEEK-RAVING IN NAKANO