#ainoshima

(Wednesday, 4. June)

After our brief stay in Hiroshima, we travelled to Fukuoka, the biggest city on Kyushu. The city was very nice and I think I’d like to stay there for a few more days at some point (future Japan visits are pretty much guaranteed), though our hotel was a little meh. Small room and horrible wifi, need I say more?

Anyway, on our first whole day there we made a trip to Shingu, a town/district far away from the busy central. There, we boarded a ferry to Ainoshima, the “cat island”. Already on the way to the ferry we saw plenty of cats in the rather suburban area, then there was one demanding attention from people waiting for the ferry (picture 1). The island itself then really lived up to its name. Cats were everywhere. Most of them were very friendly too, getting up from their naps and meowing at us, enjoying being petted. While it was pretty cute, I also got a little sad. Most of those cats were feral, and pretty much all of them had injuries or looked rather malnourished. Japan has a very high amount of feral cats with no real possibility to spay/neuter them all.

criminallyobscene:

相島の猫たち
Paws from Ainoshima (Cat Island)
Japan, 2016

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