Ginger tabby cat embarks a Japanese train and is politely ejected

This couple of photographs have received a certain amount of fame on Twitter. The story went viral I guess for two reasons. Firstly, it is unusual for a wandering domestic cat to get onto a railway station platform and then try and jump onto a train. This has to be a very confident cat without fear of strangers and strange events.

Ginger tabby cat tries to embark a Japanese train and is politely ejected by the guard or driver. Image: Twitter.

Or perhaps the cat was used to getting onto trains! The train in question runs along the Kamaishi Line in Eastern Japan.

I'm told that the cat actually got onto the train and stayed there for 30 seconds before the driver or the guard spotted him and politely ejected him. He didn't have a ticket!

My guess is that he is male because nearly all ginger tabby cats are male.

This isn't the first time that cats have been seen to jump onto public transport. I've seen several domestic cats jump onto buses in the UK. Not in person but in videos and photographs online.

Japan is quite famous for its stray cats. They do like their cats in Japan and are generally respectful of them.

On the mothership.com website there is another photograph of another cat on a train integrating nicely with the passengers one of whom is reading a book. The cat joins him in reading that book! It looks as though this cat was on the train for quite a long time. See image below:

Domestic cat travels on Japanese train. Image: Mothership.com

What kind of cat does this? Both these cats look fit and in good condition. They might be fully-fledged domestic cats living with a human caregiver but with a great tendency to wander. They might disappear for a day or two and then come home. Sometimes cats are like that.

They might be stray cats who are looked after and therefore you might call them "community cats". It looks dangerous to me. I am fearful for their safety.

I've seen one domestic cat snoozing on the ticket barrier at an underground station.  It must have been warm. And another sleeping just at the top end of an escalator in an underground station. At the exact point where many thousands of people exit the escalator. Amazing and extraordinary. Once again, I expect the cat was there because the electric motor was just below the surface emitting heat.

These cats like human activity but above all warmth. They might be lonely. They might live in a home where the owner is out all day. That's a remote possibility but it does take quite an extraordinary cat to put themselves in such vulnerable positions surrounded by many thousands of people throughout the day.

Necomimi cat ears move to reflect your emotions

Necomimi cat ears are a Japanese invention by Neurowear. You wear them on your head but the clever bit is that they incorporate a brain sensor which allows the device to pick up your emotions and the ears move accordingly. 

 Necomimi cat ears respond to your emotions. Picture in public domain.

They seem to be a bit of a cult cat product because in the UK as there is a set of the last unit of the first ever batch on sale for £1000 on eBay! I think the normal cost of the Necomimi brainwave cat ears in the UK is about £90. Back in 2012 it appears that the price was $99 in the US.

They also have a loudspeaker which emits purring or meowing but it can be turned off. They are a novelty product. That's the way I see it. They are for cat lovers who want to amuse their partners, perhaps at a party. They make a good present to a partner if they are particularly keen on domestic cats. The word Necomimi is derived from 'neko' and 'mimi' meaning 'cat ears'.

Apparently, they've been out of stock for a while but you can (or will be able to) buy an upgraded pair from Neurowear via online retailers. They've created a new and improved version and they're currently going through a crowdfunding campaign which is going well by the way. 

Neurowear is a gadget project organisation in Japan built on the idea that you can augment the human body. Necomimi is their first project.

The ears read the brainwaves through a sensor on the left forehead (see photo above) and the headband is connected to the left ear lobe (not sure why!). The ears turn up or down based on the wearer's electroencephalogram (electrical potentials recorded at the scalp) which are influenced by the wearer's emotions and thoughts. 

The headband is manufactured by NeuroSky. They run for four hours on four AAA batteries.

The ears are interchangeable between cat, dog and devil horn ears. Comment: there has been a little bit of a trend with wearing cat ears in Japan. I have noticed this. The Japanese do like cuteness. It is part of their culture. Wearing cat ears makes the wearer look cute. In Japan the culture of cuteness is called Kawaii. Kawaii is popular because it is an escape from long working hours and social pressures. It allows adults to emulate youth.

A beautiful relationship between grandma and her cat in Japan

This charming story is of Grandma Misao and Fukumaru, her darling, white cat in Japan. They were inseparable. Fukumaru passed away in 2015. Misao lived a simple country life with Fukumaru constantly by her side as the photos by her granddaughter Ihara Miyoko show. She published two photo books which are available on Amazon. 

A beautiful relationship between grandma and her cat. This is Grandma Misao and Fukumaru, her darling, white cat in Japan. Photo: her granddaughter: Ihara Miyoko.

Ihara Miyoko lived with her grandma and she admits to being somewhat envious of her grandmother's charming, simple life. It was a great idea to chronicle her life in photographs. They were a wonderful subject for a photo-essay. The books became bestsellers.

It was the otherworldliness of her life with appealed to many in contrast to the noisy, rush of modern life 'suffered' by the vast majority. Ihara Miyoko began her project in 2003. Three years afterwards a white male kitten was born in a barn and he was adopted by the family and become grandma's constant companion.

This is Grandma Misao and Fukumaru, her darling, white cat in Japan. Photo: her granddaughter: Ihara Miyoko.

Both Fukumaru and grandma were hard of hearing. White cats are not infrequently deaf. The deafness is caused by the gene which removes pigment from the hair strands rendering them white.

CLICK THIS FOR SOME PAGES ON WHITE CATS

They often looked into each other's eyes to communicate. Miyoko said: "Fukumaru is so happy and contented at my grandmother’s side. When I take a picture of the two of them together it's like I'm photographing myself as a little girl."

The photos were taken on the Bōsō Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, not far east of Tokyo. The photos paint a picture of a vanishing Japanese way of life.

When I see the way my grandmother is living her life, I really feel that she has a kind of strength that my generation simply can’t match. She gets up with the sun, and goes to bed when it sets. She loves her cat and the vegetables in her field like her own children. If her vegetables come out well, she’s happy. She doesn’t have to worry about questions like ’what is the point of my work?’ Her way of life fills me with admiration and a sort of envy.

A rare aspect of the photo-essay is the long period of time over which it was compiled. It gives it a timeless quality. The photo-essay will become more precious as this way of life becomes ever rarer.

The following is the Amazon synopsis:

Miyoko Ihara graduated from the Nippon Photography Institute in 2002. Around that time, she began photographing her grandmother, Misao, in order to document her life together with her stalwart companion, an odd-eyed white cat named Fukumaru. This touching and beautiful photo book captures the everyday life of elderly Misao and her steadfast feline friend following the passing of her husband one summer. The black-and-white images reflect both the grief of loss but also the hope offered by new life, in the form of a litter of small white kittens. It is a touching portrayal of an elderly woman living a quiet and solitary life of work and enjoyment of nature, though always with her cats.

Sleeping Cat by Mori Kansai

This is an artwork by a Japanese artist who lived between 1814 and 1894. Not a lot is written about him on the Internet but I picked up his painting of a sleeping cat on Twitter. He is said to be "a distinguished representative of the Maruyama school" and he presided over the activities of the Joun-sha Kyoto painting circle according to the Saru Gallery. He used a variety of techniques including ink painting and he painted directly rather than sketching beforehand. His name is written as follows in Japanese: 寛斎 森.

Sleeping Cat by Mori Kansai.

He studied Nanga style painting. This was a school of Japanese painting which was very popular in the late Edo period. It was popular with the literati artists i.e. the well-educated people who were interested in literature. They admired traditional Chinese culture. The paintings were made in monochrome black ink. Nanga painting is also referred to as "literati painting" or "Southern painting". The painting on this page appears not to be in this style. I suspect that the colours were far more vibrant when it was created. It is distinctly faded. The Nanga style of painting always depicted traditional Chinese subjects. 

I'd like to comment on the painting of the cat on this page by Mori Kansai. It is notable that this cat is obese. That is not a criticism of the painting because I am sure that he painted it literally. 

Perhaps he lived with cats for a cat. The painting looks faded but you can tell that this is a tricolour or tortoiseshell-and-white cat which is very popular in Japan. There is a hint of the Van marking on the forehead. The cat's tail is also coloured and not white as is most of the body of the cat.

This is a standard calico cat in Japan of that time but he or she is obese! I'm going to speculate wildly and say that this is a cat that lived with the artist. He loved his cat and gave her treats resulting in obesity. This is a female cat because all tortoiseshells and variants on the tortoiseshell coat are nearly always females. If they are male, they are sterile.

One last point: this cat is not genuinely sleeping but snoozing. The body position indicates that. It is too alert to be genuinely sleeping. He should have titled it 'Cat Snoozing'. It doesn't sound as good though.

Japanese man, Hirata, admits to killing over a hundred cats with an air rifle

Yachiyo, Chiba, Japan: I have made the presumption that he used an air rifle. The news media reports that he used an "airgun". In a country where, politeness, integrity, good manners and self-discipline is important (or at least that is how it appears to Westerners), it is surprising to read about 49-year-old Yuichiro Hirata. He is a part-time employee and he told the police: "I have killed approximately 100 cats."

 Japanese man, Hirata, admits to killing over a hundred cats with an air rifle. Photo: Twitter.

He had been previously accused of killing over a dozen cats but he came forward to admit his crimes on July 15. In respect of one cat which is shot in the leg, breaking the cat's leg, he said: "I felt like I had conquered a vulnerable cat."

Last December he was arrested for killing a cat with his airgun at a housing complex in Yachiyo City. He's been accused of violating the Animal Protection Law and the Swords and Firearms Control Law. Social media users are outraged with one suggesting that the state puts him down i.e. euthanize him just like cats are euthanised by people. Another said that he needs to be incarcerated and be mentally evaluated. He needs to be continuously monitored and receive lifelong treatment.

A lot of Japanese people are angry. Comment: I don't have any more information. The story was reported in The China Post. It kind of proves that this sort of casual, psychopathic cat cruelty and abuse is not confined to the West. 

We normally read about it in the UK or America. That's because it is reported more often in those countries but of course it happens in any country where there are stray cats which offer up a juicy target to miscreants who want to entertain themselves by shooting at something that moves.

This is the great problem with feral, stray and community cats; they are a moving target for people obsessed with guns, death and shooting things. Whenever there are guns in society there will be a desire to use them and on whom do you use them? You can't shoot people without being convicted of murder but she can shoot cats and get away with it. But for the fact that this man gave himself up, he'd probably be taking pot shots at cats today.

Hirata lives in Chiba City’s Wakaba Ward. In 2003, he became licensed to carry the air gun for hunting and other purposes. Does Japan need to re-evaluate their gun licensing regulations?

It would be a good test of Japanese law enforcement to see what kind of sentence he received on conviction.

CAT-ZILLA Tokyo's giant 3D cat

Cat-zilla. Photo in public domain.

This amazing advertising in Tokyo has been in the news for a while now. Through the use of clever technology and by looking at the correct angle, viewers get the impression that the cat is enormous and moving. It is advertising for Cross Shinjuku Vision. The cat is a tricolour or calico or tortoiseshell-and-white. They all have the same meaning. The cat is a Japanese Bobtail and the tricolour coat is the preferred one for this cat breed.

Please note that the tweet below will probably stop working and simply be a link. It should show a short video.

CAT-ZILLA: Pedestrians in Tokyo are marvelling at the city's latest high-tech billboard, which shows a giant 3D cat. https://t.co/ny5bOCBY7Q pic.twitter.com/ZNSDZmo7AQ

— ABC News (@ABC) July 11, 2021

Here's another video from CBS News which also eventually stop working! For the time being enjoy it

Understanding how cats walk using robotics

Japanese scientists at Osaka University have built a cat robot to help understand how cats walk in terms of neurology. I'm going to use their words verbatim from their video which is published below.

The walking mechanism of quadrupeds is still a mystery. Some of the neural mechanisms that control cat walking were discovered in animal experiments in the twentieth century. At present, however, experiments on animals are strictly restricted, making it difficult to investigate the mechanisms of living, moving animals. 

To understand how quadrupeds walk efficiently and stably, we have developed a quadruped robot to substitute for experimental animals. This robot has adaptable and powerful motors, and can reproduce the neuro-muscular dynamics calculated by the computer. When we reproduce the reflex circuit of a cat in each leg, the walking motion emerges from the interaction between the robot and the environment. 

The robot can reproduce animal experiments conducted in the past. Moreover, the robot allows for experiments that are difficult in animals, such as sudden nerve amputation while walking. Using the robot to explore reflex circuits that produce a stable gate, we discovered a circuit that includes a structure called the "reciprocal excitatory reflex between hip-knee extensors". 

We showed that cutting the reciprocal circuit makes the walking unstable, and that the reciprocal circuit produces a phenomenon called "prolongation of stance phase" as in cats. The results suggest that the reciprocal excitatory circuit is an important candidate for the reflex circuit that controls cat walking. In the future, as more robots substitute experimental animals, more researchers may be able to investigate animal mechanisms under a variety of experimental conditions.

Comment: I love it because any science which helps to avoid animal testing is great science as far as I am concerned. Animal testing should be completely banned. There should be, and indeed there are, alternatives. This is one example. Please let there be more going forward.

Linked: Cat Gait. -- Direct register cat gait.

Note: videos on this site are typically made by people other than me and held on YouTube servers or the servers of other businesses (not the server storing this website). Sometimes the videos are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Screenshot from video.