Despite our busy schedule, we at CatSynth make sure to get some time to play outside on the patio.
Luna often just strolls around, but sometimes she seems to really enjoy stretching and rolling around on the (rather dirty) tiles:
Yet she somehow manages to still look clean and sleek and shiny afterwards…
Weekend Cat Blogging #212 will be hosted by Meowza at Mind of Mog.
The Carnival of the Cats will be going up this Sunday at When Cats Attack.
And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.
We at CatSynth are happy to be hosting Carnival of the Cats #275 as we celebrate both Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice. And what better way to celebrate that outside with family?
Our patio is looking a little “spare” compared to last year before the construction. We have not had enough time to really work on it, but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying an afternoon outside. And with that, let is continue with the carnival.
Freya’s dad is celebrating both Father’s Day and his birthday today, so go pay Freya and her a dad a visit at her new blog. You can also see a video of her being quite vocal in a mirror.
Sad news from Blog d’Elisson. Neighbor, the Mistress of Sarcasm’s Animal Companion, passed away peacefully in her sleep sometime early Saturday morning. We enjoyed reading about and seeing photos of the sleek black Neighbor Cat, and she will be missed. We at CatSynth send our sympathies.
There is a new arrival at the home of “Her Ladyship” at Elms in the Yard. Please welcome Catschka the kitten. Additionally, Rahel shares with us one of the best how-to sites for cats.
Maybe they could use some tips about raising a new kitten, courtesy of Strictly Anything.
The cats at Grace and the Kittens are celebrating International Cat Box Day 2009. Ruse curls up inside a paper bag, which is sort of like a box, right?
No special occasions, and no boxes, just a very sweet photo with a couple of cats on a sofa from Mind of Mog.
At The Poor Mouth, Robyn and Bebe wear green in support of opposition protests in Iran. We at CatSynth have been following the events in Iran unfold as well, and hope for the best for the people there.
Those who read or write blogs about cats at some point confront the question of anthropomorphism. Pet Chatter asks “What’s wrong with anthropomorphizing?” and discusses animals as sentient beings.
The ragdolls return at Mélange, where we meet the regal siblings Nick and Willow. As they approach their 11th birthday, it seems like many things about them and their home stay the same.
Catblogging has been a neglected activity at Texas Oasis. But there are no excuses for Purrsday night, and Jax is here to make sure of it.
A K T’s Scratching Post, the Maximum Leader goes on an expedition into the forbidden zone while they attempt to make a safe outdoor space in the backyard. Hopefully they can make the backyard in to a safe, protected area to enjoy the outdoors.
Aloysius poses with a filter (presumably full of his fur) at Catymology. They sent the photo to the 3M company, maker of the filters, who promised to send a coupon for a free replacement. Aloysius also hopes to get a gig as a spokekitty out of the deal.
Hemi enjoys his blanket and a little catnip while lamenting some of the mean attributes people ascribe to cats like “sneaky, mean and unaffectionate.” We suspect most of our readers of course know that cats can be very affectionate creatures, but very particular about whom they share their affections with. And since when is “sneaky” a bad thing? It sounds like they are also getting a new addition to the family soon.
So what are the Three Tabby Cats in Vienna up to this weekend? Kashim holds down the fort for Weekend Cat Blogging and supervises the installation of a new flat-screen TV, while his brother Othello celebrates his first anniversary.
Veronica B shares tips for caring for cats with cancer. Cancer is always a sad thing, but here are some suggestions for treatment and improving a cat’s quality of life.
More medical advice from Raising Whiskers about cat coughing: “Sometimes cat coughing can be an indication that there is something wrong with your cat.” Thanks Captain Obvious!
That concludes the Carnival for now. Thanks to all who participated!
And for those who haven’t had a chance to read it yet, please visit our report on the Cats of Tokyo.
I remembered this scene from Chris Marker’s film Sans Soleil of the temple in the suburbs of Tokyo that was dedicated to cats, and when I knew that I was in fact going to be in Tokyo for a couple of days, I decided I would find this temple. It is in fact the Gotoku-ji Temple in the Setagaya ward in the western suburbs of Tokyo.
It really was tucked away in a relatively quiet residential neighborhood, easily missed if one did not know where to find the gate. The temple grounds were very quiet, with very few visitors other than myself.
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There is a small building near the large tower in the photo above. I believe it is a side temple of sorts. Behind it is a set of shelves containing hundreds of maneki nekos, or beckoning cats, left as offerings. Indeed, Gotoku-ji claims to be the birthplace of the popular cat figurines.
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This was definitely the temple from Sans Soleil, I had succeeded in finding it. And having come this far, I spent a little time to linger in this small, quiet place.
Gotoku-ji is not the only site that claims to be the birthplace of the maneki neko. In Akasuka, not far from the famed Senso-ji temple, is the Imado Shrine.
Like Gotoku-ji, the shrine was tucked away in an alley in a quiet residential neighborhood. It was quite small, but had enough space for gardens, trees and statues leading up to the main building:
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Inside on the altar is a pair of large cats:
The one on the left has spots and is the male cat, while the one on the right is the female cat, and together the lucky cats of Imado are supposed bring good fortune to couples or those seeking love. Images of the pair of cats can be found throughout the shrine:
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The wooden plaques tied below the image of the cats contain wishes left by visitors. This is a common practice at temples and shrines, but it was specifically here that I chose to leave such a wish myself. Another common practice is selecting a fortune from a box near the shrine – at the Imado temple, each fortune comes with a tiny cat figure. I did get one of these, and of course a few ceramic cats from both Imado and Gotoku-ji.
One cannot help but think a little bit about spiritual things after visiting spiritual places, and a coincidence that occurred soon after leaving Imado contributed. Heading back south towards the Senso-ji temple, I saw a small narrow park, really a stone path lined with trees, and decided to walk in that direction. About halfway, a saw a woman with an open cat carrier, and inside was a black cat with green eyes!
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Although we had almost no words in common except basic greetings and “neko”, I was able to express my appreciation of her cat, and showed photos of Luna. “Lady?”, she asked in English. I nodded. She pointed to her own cat and smiled “Boy!”
The symbol of the cat is ubiquitous in Tokyo, spiritually as well as commercially:
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In the image above, we see a shop carrying not only an impressive array of maneki neko, but some examples of Japan’s other famous feline symbol, Hello Kitty. I have approximately zero interest in Hello Kitty, but during my trip I did build up a small collection of maneki neko, of which a subset are shown below:
Included are one of the simple ceramics from Gotoku-ji, the tiny cat that came with the fortune at Imado, and a couple of black cats that I found.
Beyond the black cat in the park, I did not see very many live cats during my short visit. Apparently, this is an issue from Japanese ailurophiles as well. There are now several cat cafes around Tokyo, where for a fee one can spend an hour or so interacting with the cafe’s very friendly (and very clean) cats. I did see a cat cafe in Akiabara (an area which will be the focus of one of our next articles), but I did not have time to check it out. However, Akiabara, the center of electronics and anime in Tokyo, will itself be the topic of an upcoming article here at CatSynth.
From judebuffum on YouTube:
One of my favorite Keyboard Cat videos to date. And it does tie in nicely to my current series on Japan. Consider this scene from a store in Akiabara, Tokyo:
Tokyo has a large electronic music and experimental music scene, and during my brief stay there I wanted to check out at least one show. I did find the club Super-Deluxe with a calendar full of interesting shows. On the night of June 9, it Test Tone vol. 46.
This particular program featured international guests artists. The first act did feature a collaboration between Illinois-based Nick Hoffman and Japanese improvising artistTakahiro Kawaguchi. Unfortunately, I missed a large portion of their set while I attempted to locate the club. It seems that most streets in Tokyo are unmarked, so it’s easy to get turned around, or miss a small side street, so getting to Super Deluxe was a bit of adventure. I wish I had gotten to see more.
The second set featured New York based Object Collection. Object Collection consists of Kara Feely and Travis Just, and their multimedia pieces feature electronic music as well as video and theatre. On this night, they were performing a piece entitled “Gun Sale”. Scenes that could have been from a gun sale somewhere in the urban United States were projected on video, along with fast moving urban landscape. On top of that were Feely’s vocals and Just’s music. Musically, this was precisely the sort of experimental electronic/noise I was looking for on that night (whether or not the artists classify their own music that way is a separate issue), and I remarked in my notes “it’s the real deal”.
The third set was by Swiss computer and electronic music Andrea Valvini, performing a new piece Soleil Rouge. His music incorporates noisy and inharmonic synthesized sounds, of a digital variety (I don’t recall much of the standard filtering) and musical sound effects in complex rhythms. There a basic set of beats in the background, and then odd-meter phrases and loops layered on top of that, some appearing only for a short moment, and some disappearing. The complexity of some of the sounds hides the rhythmic structure for some of the shorter hits. I did have a chance to talk with Valvini after the performance and hear a little bit about his adventures performing in Asia, and share my own experience performing in mainland China.
I returned home from China and Japan today. There is still much to relate, from the last stops in Shanghai and Tokyo. But today we pause to recognize that this homecoming on June 10 is also Luna’s adoption anniversary, or “Gotcha Day”.
The timing just worked out so we could both return home to celebrate. But first, it’s time to find a familiar comfortable place to rest.
Please join me in wishing Luna a happy “Gotcha Day.”
On the northwest corner of Beijing is the Summer Palace, or Yihe yuan (颐和园).
It is quite a contrast to the dense network of buildings and courtyards of Forbidden City, and is dominated by the “natural” elements of of Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill – “natural” is in quotes as the lake and hill are at least partly artificial. Along the hillside are a series of impressive buildings leading up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense. Other palaces and gardens ring the lake, with similar architectural and sculptural elements:
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In its present incarnation it is more of a park than a palace, with locals and tourists boating on the lake, or having picnics in the gardens and pavilions along the side. However, the main attraction remains the buildings of Longevity Hill. At the base, one enters a court and the Cloud-Dispensing Hall, and can look upward towards the tower up the hill.
From there, one climbs a series of covered and exposed stairways, navigating a series of buildings on the hillside:
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The courtyard of the Temple of Buddhist Virtue at the top of the stairs is relatively tight, and only offers extremely vertical views of the tower:
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One does, however, get a specular view of the lakeside and southeast towards the city center of Beijing.
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The Summer Palace has quite a history. It was destroyed during multiple invasions in the 19th Century and was rebuilt around 1900 in its current form.
Back in the city center is the Temple of Heaven.
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The most prominent building, the circular triple-gabled building depicted in the pictures above, is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Harvests seems to have been a major focus when the temple functioned as a location for ceremonies performed by the emperor. However, the most important structure, from a ceremonial point of view, was the Alter of Heaven, a tiered circular mound at the southern end of the complex:
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Unlike the more architecturally prominent buildings, which have gone through extensive maintenance and renovation, the mound seems to have gone to seed a bit, with lots of grass and weeds coming up the ground. For me, however, this actually makes for interesting photography, as I tend to like buildings that in a bit of disrepair.
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I found more buildings in various states off to the side of the main axis of the complex, such as this dry moat with weeds growing:
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This area of the complex was nearly empty, no tourists and very few locals, and walking around here among more quiet and less maintained buildings was quite comforting, especially after the intensity and the crowds of Beijing.
