Update: SOLEX has been adopted by a wonderful family!
Solex is a 2-3 year old Shih Tzu who was pulled from a high-kill pound in Okinawa by the rescue group Doggies Inc. He is a very friendly and sociable boy who gets along with other dogs and kids. He is great on a lead and is puppy-pad trained. Solex has short legs so he has a hard time jumping on your furniture! He has been neutered and vaccinated (8 way combo shot, rabies) and has received his first dose of Frontline and Heartgard. Solex wants to snuggle you and sit on your lap. You know you (or someone you know) wants to adopt an adorable Muppet-pup! He is being fostered at my place in Tokyo and is looking to meet his future family. Adoption fee is 14,000 yen. Please contact me or Doggies Inc. and please share!
I was able to go to Oregon for a few days over the holidays to hang out with the fam. One cool thing that we did was hire a friend who has a freelance photography business to take some family shots. We went to the park near the house with the dogs and took a bunch of pictures. Snapshots are great but it's nice to be intentional sometimes and make pictures with everyone present and accounted for.
Juno was my first foster dog through Doggies Inc., the organization down in Okinawa for which I transported Miller/Bowie to the U.S. on that ill-fated trip back in September (He's so happy now! He has his own Facebook profile.).
Juno was pretty scruffy when he was brought in. He had obviously been very neglected or on the street a long time. Long matted hair, sores on his skin where the mats had gotten really bad.
After a stint down in Oki with no takers, he came up to Tokyo to try to find a home here.
Within a short period, we had made contact with an adopter who adopted cats from JCN, whose father was interested in getting a dog after losing his cherished Yorkie a year or two ago.
Mr. A had suffered from some depression, but after Juno came, he felt much better having a companion. They take care of each other.
Jenny got adopted by a great family! I love that girl.
I have this tape in my car (yeah my car has a tape deck, what) that I found in my house that someone in the family made. It's probably been around since before Buddha.
It's a mix tape of hits from the early '60s and has a bunch of great oldies. One of the songs is called "Jenny Jenny" and it's by an artist called Yasushi Suzuki.
When I was in Fukushima we would drive around and sing along to the tape. We'd get back to the shelter and we'd sing it to her. We'd sing it and dance around in Yuuko's kitchen.
Jenny was picked up in Minami Soma with her brother Kenny and about ten other puppies that were in the road.
At our flea market booth at the Koenji festival, we met many dog friends who were happy to snack on the rawhide Crunchkins greeting cards that were our stand's special omake.
On my way to the U.S. for a visit with the fam-and-friends, I had the honor of escorting this little fella to his new and forever home.
Miller, a Cavalier King Charles (CKC), was down in the Ozato pound on the gas line in Okinawa when Doggies Inc. uploaded his pic to their site. A CKC lover noticed him and alerted a CKC fan club, which quickly mobilized to raise money to get him pulled from the center, vetted, fostered, and transported to the west coast for rehoming. All the fine details on the Japan side were carried out by Doggies.
When they posted that they were looking for transport, I immediately vounteered as I was planning to visit the States in a few weeks. Since his final destination was Seattle and mine was Portland, it was a fairly convenient arrangement and I called the airline (Delta) to book his passage.
Upon arrival at the airport, I met the lovely Lisa who had been fostering Miller until his departure. She helped me get him checked in and paid his transport fee.
Unfortunately, there was a snafu after I got to the boarding gate. Despite making my reservation for Miller weeks in advance, confirming it a few days in advance, and breezing through the check in process, it was discovered when trying to load Miller onto the plane that he was not actually allowed on the plane. A gate agent called me shortly before boarding to tell me we would not be allowed on the flight.
After some scrambling and confusion, we were rerouted through Minneapolis. The agent who had been dealing with my case gave me the gate number and told me to run, as boarding was in process. Nobody told me why we had been ejected.
Upon finally reaching Minneapolis, I encountered another roadblock when I couldn't find Miller in the baggage area. I asked a baggage clerk - he had no idea. Asked a Delta rep hanging around the area - she had no idea. Asked another baggage handler - no clue. Finally one of the immigration agents went to look for him and brought him out to me, then escorted me to the front of the line. I have to say that the immigration person was exceedingly kind.
Unfortunately, after all the rigamarole, there was not enough time to take Miller out of the airport, as it would have involved going out of security and then having to go through the whole process again to get back in. I had less than an hour to make my connection at this point. There is nowhere at MSP to take a dog to relieve himself during transit. Poor Miller had to endure another leg of the journey without leaving his crate. We had originally expected that he would be in the crate for 10-12 hours, as the flight from NRT to PDX is 9 hours. By the time we reached PDX, he had been enclosed for more than 20 hours.
But reach Portland we finally did, where his new mama was waiting.
And his new siblings.
Miller's name is now Bowie, and he lives in Seattle. Yay Bowie!
Here's a video made by someone in the CKC group that helped raise money and spread the word.
The lovely folks at What the Dickens in Ebisu hosted our Angel Auction last weekend, where volunteers put their professional services up for bid. On the block were marital arts lessons, Indian cooking and piano lessons, a tour of the German embassy & meeting with the ambassador, and much more.
Photo by Jennifer Julien
WTD is a great spot even when they're not raising money for a cause, with free live music most nights. They also have nice food - in additon to the standard British pub fare like meat pies and fish & chips, they also have veggie offerings like a cheese & tomato sandwich, hummus, some kind of quiche, and other stuff that the chef dreams up. Plus the whole place is dark and woody with cozy corners and feels like something in Diagon Alley.
Thursday morning we gorged on the free breakfast and then picked up the rental car, a boxy little "eco" car (I think it was a Daihatsu Tanto) that had a feature called eco-drive that would cut the engine off and turn it back over seemingly at random. Northward! Onna-son (恩納村 - the "mura" character is pronounced "son" in Okinawa) looks far away on the map but in reality is only a few dozen kilometers and an hour's drive up the coast. There, we went to a "secret" beach recommended to us by a friend who grew up on Oki - beautiful, clean, and deserted.
Who's that asshole on the phone?
On the way back it was still early, so we stopped at Ryukyu Mura, a recreation of a traditional village. The ratty shisa dolls were cool and the pottery factory was rather interesting, but the best part was the live music offered, both in the main atrium adjacent to the food court, and by a guy casually plucking a san-shin and lounging in the doorway to one of the huts. He later came onstage and did a wonderful set, including an Okinawan language version of 上を向いて歩こう, aka The Sukiyaki Song.
He has a youtube channel!
Just north of Naha we stopped in Chatan, at the "American Village", which has a lot of restaurants. We poked our head into a Thai place and I was pleased to find a big fat vegetarian advertisement on the front window. Jai Thai's menu has two pages catering to vegetarians, and they can also make vegan dishes.
Returning to Naha, we hit up Makishi Market, the warren of shops and alleys in central city, starting just off Kokusai-dori. There are stray cats there, as everywhere else on the island. In addition to the trinkets and vegetable sellers and butchers, there are a few vendors hawking freshly-made sata-an-dangi, the local doughnut-style fried goodness in an array of native flavors. My Oki-raised friend has requested the purple-hued beni-imo (taro) ones, and we tried those out - yum. My favorite was the coconut, but the brown sugar, mango, and sesame ones were delicious too. Sata-an-dangi is Okinawan language, but the word sata means sugar, or sato in Japanese. Even though I couldn't understand the native language, I did notice that some words are similar like this.
In Makishi market
Back to the strays for a minute. There are SO MANY STRAYS all over Okinawa. They are a much more common here than on the mainland. Breeding seems to go almost unchecked. There are a lot more stray dogs, too, though they aren't around quite as much as the cats. There is a great organization called Doggies Inc. that works there trying to alleviate animal suffering. Mainly, they pull animals out of Ozato animal control, which is a high-kill shelter where many many strays end up. They then vet and re-home the animals. They do mostly deal with dogs, but they help cats too. They are a registered non-profit in the US, and they do really good work. I will be transporting a dog to a new forever home in the States for them next month. Check them out!
At the beginning of April we had a benefit buffet lunch at Kamejikan (Turtle Time? Whoever named that place wins) in Kamakura, a rustic old building refurbished into a guesthouse whose owners graciously volunteered the space to hold an event for us. The lunch was catered by the talented chef Nahomi Edamoto of NHK's Kyou no Ryori fame, and this lovely and eclectic lady prepared a stunning vegetable based meal from farm-direct organic produce, some donated from farmer friends of hers. She used a lot of Japanese vegetables like burdock, greens, and beans (I forgot their names - mizuna? uguisumame?) and told us their story.
The gorgeous wooden guest house boasted rafters and a tatami room and a Japanese style veranda where the guests with dogs hung out. Only blocks from the beach, the doggies Nana, Hana, and Chibi (in between foster homes) had a grand old time trotting in the sand and splashing in the shallows.
Thank you so much to the Kamejikan staff, Chef Naomi Edamoto, Miku Sano, and Andy Wainwright for helping us put together such a lovely and successful event.
photo by SeeMoreArt
Meanwhile, only about 15 minutes' drive from the shelter in Inawashiro, a stately white lady (the white lady loves you more) rises above Aizu Wakamatsu, gazing out at the valley over the baby in her arms.
The Aizu Dai Jibo Kannon (会津慈母大観音) is not so old, the locals will say scornfully. Anything less than a few hundred years old doesn't really rate in Japan, and she was only built in the 1980s. Still, she's impressive, rising 57 meters into the air, hollow down the middle, with a spiral staircase and windows at intervals to look out into the surrounding hills. You can get up to shoulder height, peering out of porticoes in her spinal column.
The grounds are beautiful, with terraced sculpted gardens stretching out far enough for a good stroll, with plenty of spots to pause with a picnic. Koi bubble and undulate under the bridge that backbends over a pond with wandering canals, letting the carp meander around the park.
We hope she sends her merciful gaze our way, just a few kilometers to the east.
Thanks to Ian, who sent me a donation with which I've paid for medical supplies. We've done spay/neuters, administered antibiotics, fought off fleas and ticks and worms and scabies, and much more thanks to you.
It's still cold as balls up in the radioactive north, but spring is starting to rear its head, for which I am hella grateful.
This week, my mask-wearing mug is appearing in The Big Issue (Japan), a magazine sold by homeless vendors outside of major train stations. The article is about the work of Japan Cat Network in Fukushima, and features a big fat picture of yours truly feeding cats in the zone, as well as an inset on dear King, who we hear is frolicking happily among the hot springs of Beppu.
The issue in question came out on February 15th and will be available until the end of the month, and features actress Norika Fujiwara on the cover. If you've never checked out The Big Issue - do. It's got well-written, interesting articles by journalists, they throw in a mixture of pop culture stuff and serious issues (sometimes in one story - the cover two issues ago featured famous – and schizophrenic – artist Yayoi Kusama {Whoa - when I clicked over to her link I discovered she's designing lingerie for my favorite undies shop, une nana cool, which already has great design}). And they are also providing homeless vendors with an opportunity to make an income. They receive about half of the mag's 300 yen cover price.
The monster puppy ended up being called Nakio, for lack of something else. I tell ya, if you don't decide on something in a reasonable amount of time, something ridiculous will stick. I took him to his trial home last week, and told them that they really should change his name if they keep him. I will report back on his progress. I missed him terribly the first night, I want him back. But if he and his family are happy with each other, it's the best I can hope for.
I also want to start introducing cool places I've found while being in Fukushima – this prefecture has a lot of unexpected surprises, beautiful and stylish spots that you never thought you'd find in what looks, at first glance, to be a backwater.
The first of these is a little bakery right across the street from Club Lohas, called Comaya. This calming café puts on French airs with its Brigitte Bardot on the hi-fi and its use of Swiss and French butter in their excellently delicious croissants (my unrefined palate can't tell the difference between them, but my favorite is the chocolate croissant). They are decked out in carefully edited vintage furniture, with painted wooden chairs and comfortable sofas, and one wall looks out onto a small fishing pond, ringed with hydrangeas in the spring and summer. They make a mean homemade English muffin-based lunch plate, with a heap of fresh salad and gorgeous local tofu sprinkled with herb salt.
Thank you today to Alexandra, who sent me a donation. Thank you!!
Joey is a cat that Naruki-san and I rescued in Fukushima a few months ago. We spotted him limping next to the road, with visible scars. We stopped to trap him, and he tried to hide, but didn't get far, pathetically positioning himself behind a thin patch of grass in the gutter. We put out food, and he quickly came to scarf it down, making him easy to pick up. We went straight to the vet, as he had several open wounds, missing fur, and a huge scar running from his face and diagonally across his chest, and was piteously thin. When we got him to the vet, we further discovered a quarter-sized hole in the skin on his armpit, his insides visible. One of the vet techs started crying at this point. We got him cleaned up and medicated, and then took him to the shelter to begin the healing and fattening process. He was recently adopted by his wonderful foster mom. Most of his scars have healed, and he has put on weight. He is so friendly and sweet, and so glad to be in a warm and loving place with other kitty friends around.
Thanks to Naruki-san, who came up that day for the first time, and has continued to come out to volunteer on a regular basis since then, and Jeffrey, who sent me a donation. Thank you!
Here's Natalie, a Fukushima kitten who went for her spay last weekend and is now in foster in Tokyo.
She's a 三毛猫、or a calico, and I think she looks like my favorite of these rings, that the lovely and talented JB made and donated in time for our event last weekend.
Sokkuri!
We sold some at the event, and the rest are up for grabs. If you want one, send me an email or leave a comment telling me which one and I'll send you the non-profit's paypal address. $12, postpaid to anywhere.
They're adjustable!
Another friend who came down to the metro with me was Rosie, a sweet girl found in Minami Soma at the end of 2011. She was bitterly hard to catch, skittish and nervous in the cutting cold.
Now she's a sweet happy mincing thing, up for snuggles and walks and of course, snacks
Last night I had the pleasure of snuggling with this little one. He had cried and whined the whole night before, and kept people in three adjacent rooms up.
I decided to try him in my room, to let the poor guy who put up with him the first night get some sleep. I put him in a crate right next to my futon.
The little monster child wasn't content though. He cried and whined and squealed. I really didn't want him to poop or pee in my sleeping area.
Finally I took him out and let him in the futon with me. The monster baby stopped crying and became a snugglebug. And he didn't toilet all night long, until I took him down to the pet sheeted area!
He's available for adoption.
Monster Boy still doesn't have a name. I'm trying to think of something fitting. First I was calling him Nakiko (crybaby), but it turns out he's a boy, not a girl. I thought about Max, after Where the Wild Things Are, but we've already had a Maxwell and a Maxine. I'm interested in names for little boys who are also monsters. Any ideas?
Thanks this week go to JB, who made the beautiful rings, and Rosanna, who sent me a donation. Your donations helped to pay for Natalie's spay, Rosie's rescue, and Monster Boy's presence in my futon! Thank you!
