No Go

Between working full time, fostering, and volunteering, it’s sometimes hard for me to even find time to sleep, let alone do posts, so I apologize for taking a few days.

I was so happy to get a chance to return into the No Go Zone this weekend, since often we reserve the spaces for volunteers that will only be visiting one time, it’s common for me to stay behind at the shelter instead.

This trip we were lucky enough to have a vet tech who was visiting from Tokyo named Monica. She was very knowledgeable about just about everything you could think to talk about and quite a joy to work with.

With our trusty driver, Takumi, behind the wheel, we headed into the 20-30km area of Namie to refill bins and check on animals in neighborhoods.  Every single bin that we checked that day was empty, or nearly empty (forgot to count, but believe we hit about 20), and it was amazing how quickly we went through an entire van full of food to replenish the many feeding stations in the area. And at almost every single stop, there were animals, waiting for their food to get there. It was not hard to tell that these cats were counting on JCN and the other local helpers for their survival.

that black cat actually lived there before

paw prints

While we were checking the stations and making sure a few owners’ animals were alright, it was sad to see all of the fresh marks that had been left behind, like paw prints in dust, or recent excrement. They were all signs of animals that had been forced to suffer for far too long, animals that were still suffering.

On that note, it’s always important to keep searching the whole time you are in the area, because although it often looks barren, there is commonly an animal hiding very nearby in the overgrown vegetation. There were many times when we would catch a glimpse of an animal, just to see it vanish again, not daring to get too near.

one such cat waiting for us to leave

While we were out feeding, there was one cat that caught us all, it was this gorgeous creature just sitting beside the road, very clearly waiting for food. When we stopped, instead of running, it waited patiently for food to be put down and then approached, this was such an encouraging sign that I asked if we could try and trap it. Within 3 minutes of putting the cage down, this baby was in, and during the rest of our trip, it let me pet it and even gave a kiss. By the time we left though, I did not know if it was a boy or girl, because we want it to get acclimated to the shelter a bit more before we start freaking it out a whole lot more, so the poor thing is still without a name.  I am thinking Kocha though, since it has a giant T on its head.

Video of his/her capture http://youtu.be/Pd_nw_8Ldac

The last stop we made was to visit a group of dogs that the owner refuses to let anyone take or fix, he believes that things are not bad enough yet, and it is illegal for us to go against him. They were all lovely, and while it was clear their owner frequently returned to give them food, it still broke my heart since they all clearly wanted much more affection in their lives and missed people greatly. 

 

Update on Nala, our FIV+ baby: She is regaining her strength steadily, and this weekend she had enough in her to hiss at David. While hissing might seem like a bad sign to some, Nala was not a fan of people when she got here and only let us touch her once she got very ill, so it’s actually sort of comforting to see her feeling strong enough to put up some sort of fight.

 Bonus photos from the weekend:

 This buddy tried to hide as a cup noodles to keep from getting her medicine, didn't work too well

 A sign from a family thanking TEPCO for giving them all this extra time to sit around and play pachinko away from home

Warning: Last part includes graphic photos and is depressing.

I wanted to do this part last since I try to keep things as upbeat as possible and as such thought it might be a good idea to write the terrible stuff separate so that people could skip it if they so desired.

Anyways, within the No Go Zone, there are still many animals waiting to be rescued, but there are thousands more that it is too late for. During every trip I have made into the zone, there has been at least one body waiting along our routes, and  this trip was no different. While visiting where the group of 80 chickens we used to feed last year was, we decided to walk over to where some locals had freed baby boars at a farm, and then someone pointed out the small cage to the side, partially hidden. Inside, was a corpse that was nearly only bones by now of a small monkey, a creature that never even had a chance after the disaster. While the boars were released, his cage probably went unnoticed over in that corner, leaving him to waste away, terrified, alone, and in immense pain.

From Death Row to House Pet

This is the story of Hank, who is not only a Fukushima survivor, but also a hokenjo (public animal shelter) survivor.

Hank was found by Japan Cat Network right before the hokenjo was going to gas him and a group of other animals, most of whom had collars still on, all of whom did nothing to deserve it.

He was a very shy boy, who made a best friend at the shelter while they fought for their lives against a terrible disease known as Parvo. Nearly 70% of cats their age who get it, die, but against all odds, they both pulled through it and became inseparable.Their close nature led us to later rename them Hank and Dean, after the Venture Brothers

Hank is orange, Dean is gray

But neither of them trusted people, and why should they? First they were both left to die on the streets, and one was almost killed in a gas chamber, what had people ever done for them?


Enter my house:
We decided that we were up to the challenge of socializing them, and took them on the 7hr trip home at the end of our visit in October.
It took some getting used to for them, and around a week for them to even emerge from under the couch, but over the course of the 3 months they lived with us, they not only learned to trust people, but both of them would beg and cry for you to scoop them into your arms.

Every night they were curled up in bed with us, and when we got home from work, they were right at the door, waiting.  This was great, but they were still just our fosters, not our pets. We both knew our apartment could never be their forever home, and they could never be ours, and worst of all, we knew come winter break, we would have to return them to JCN.



Enter an old friend in the USA:
Every now and then, I would take a photo of them, and post it to facebook to share with everyone, never thinking anything else of it. Just wanted to share their cuteness.
Then, out of nowhere I get a sort of joking message from a friend back in the states claiming she has simply fallen in love with the boys and wants them for Christmas. We begin to talk in depth, and it becomes more and more obvious to both of us that this isn't really a joke, she has honestly fallen in love with them through the power of those photos.
As luck would have it, we were heading to Virginia for winter vacation, so we talked it over with the shelter and it was agreed, Hank and Dean would go to America! The only catch, ANA, whom we had already purchased tickets through, are terrible with pets, and wanted to charge us 60,000Y ($650) to get them to DC, and my friend simply did not have that kind of money.

Enter, the kindness of strangers:
On a whim, I began a ChipIn page and spread it amongst all our friends and shelter groups, and before even one day had passed, the money was all there.  With messages saying things like "Merry Christmas" and "gambate," there it was.

So come December 22nd 2011, Hank and Dean went with us, from Yamanashi-ken to Narita airport, and then to the other side of the world, Washington DC

bathroom break at Narita

They endured a 4hr bus ride, a vet checkup to be deemed quarantine ready, and a 16hr flight without any food, water or a litter box. But you could never tell by looking at them, the whole time they only cried whenever they couldn't see each other.

At the end of the journey, there was my friend, waiting to pick them up and love them for the rest of their lives. And while it was so wonderful, I could not help but cry, because these two magnificent creatures had not only endured so much their entire lives while waiting for this day to come, but they had done so without either one ever complaining.

If you would like to help animals like Hank and Dean, please go to: http://japancatnet.com/

JCN Fukushima shelter

My writing skills are terrible, but I suppose that something is better than nothing at all, so here is my first attempt at doing volunteer notes about this last weekend at the Inawashiro shelter.

First, let me give everyone a quick overview of the general structure of a day:

Morning routine begins at 8am, this includes feeding all the animals, cleaning all the rooms, walking the dogs and giving our sick tenants their medications (whether they want it or not)

If there is only one person there, the routine takes from 8am till around lunch.

If there are 2+ people, it is typically over by 10:30am.

After the morning routines are finished with, and if it is not a zone day, volunteers are free to do whatever they please. Be it cleaning, organizing, cuddling animals, sightseeing or simply taking a nap. I personally tend to take the route of keeping busy with cleaning and petting the cuties, but to each their own.

Evening routine begins at 5pm and consists of feeding everyone, cleaning the cages again, walking the dogs and then putting them in their kennels for the night (there are foxes, tanuki and bears in the area, so our boys aren’t allowed to have nights outside), and ensuring everyone has had their medications.

Again, if there is only one person, this takes forever, and depending on how willing the special needs babies are with taking their meds, it can also sometimes end with a few tears.

With 2+ people, it feels like a breeze since you have good conversations and helping hands to burrito kitties and trick animals into swallowing pills.

On a zone day, we typically load up the van with food, cages and emergency equipment the night before and head out around 10am, and return whenever things are done, be that 5pm, or 2am.

While out there, duties consist of refilling feeding stations, scouting for animals, checking on our feral colonies (JCN does TNR as well), talking with locals, and inevitably getting stopped by the police a million times to check our papers. It is immensely hard work and sometimes can be utterly heartbreaking, but every animal out there that is still in need makes it more than worth it.

Anyways, that is a basic run down of the daily happenings at the Japan Cat Network Fukushima shelter, now on to what specifically happened this particular weekend.

Nala <3

Nala, who was quite recently diagnosed with FIV (Feline AIDS), was being a lot friendlier then the last time I got to visit 2 weeks ago. Last time Nala would try to struggle and do her pathetic growls during medicine time, this trip she actually cuddled with Caroline and I on several occasions. She is still practically a walking skeleton and it pains me every time I see this poor little one in such a state, but with the IV drips, high calorie foods and diligent care by our volunteers, she has an infinitely higher chance then she did a month ago when she was still in the 30km. There’s no doubt in my mind that if JCN had not found her, Nala would not be alive today.

Wesley weighing Sam

This weekend was quite busy medically speaking, JCN got a great new volunteer vet tech for the weekend named Wesley, and she gave every cat eye drops several times a day to help them with the cold that spread through C room. Wesley also gave deworming and parasite treatments to all of our dogs, and managed to weigh even our huge Sam on a small bathroom scale. Caroline, who was visiting from Australia, got many cuts from the not so happy cats while helping with the treatments, but she was quite a trooper and just laughed off the scratches and moved on to the next task. She is an amazing woman. 

visiting his deity relatives

Caroline and I also took our newest dog, Chachamaru, on a great adventure in between morning and evening routines. This poor boy was just craving love after a year alone and Caroline wanted to see the area, so we took him to the beach at Lake Inawashiro, a local park and even Aizu castle to run and get loved by lots of excited children. He ate up every minute of it. He even temporarily got renamed 蝶蝶 (butterfly) because he was so happy.

Caroline also showed off her creative side by designing and beginning to build an outside catilion so that the cats can get some fresh air now that the weather is getting nicer. 

Lastly, I finally got to meet the tiny bundles of joy that one of our local supporters are fostering, these 3 are really active and their foster is seriously their mama. 

ball of cute

Right before I had to leave Sunday, all of us enjoyed a dinner at Club Lohas, which is the restaurant right underneath the shelter. The amazing owner, Yuuko, made me the best ice coco ever.

If you would like to help Japan Cat Network continue their work of helping the animals of the Fukushima exclusion zone, please go here: http://japancatnet.com/donate/
Every amount counts, as it costs 5,000Y in tolls alone just to make a single trip to all of the areas JCN helps.

Summer Vacation – Tokyo

The day after finally getting a car of our own, it was time for our first road trip, destination: Tokyo.

Another BoderLink worker named Michelle was kind enough to offer her loft as a free place to sleep during our trip, which was doubly fantastic since the cheapest hostel that I had ever seen looking around was 2,500Y a night, and there is no guarantee that your roommates there will be good company.

Michelle unfortunately had some meetings during the first day, so Debu and I headed to Ueno on our own to see visit an Edo period museum that I had heard about.

For just 300Y, this museum was a great treat. It was filled with antiques that the surrounding community had donated to help recreate an entire Edo period neighborhood, and everything is touchable. There was a fantastic English tour guide as well, who spent an equal amount of time explaining the museum and having friendly chit chat with us about life in Japan, he even showed off his skills at the Edo period toys that were set up and cracked a few jokes along the way. This museum was well worth the price and every worker was simply lovely to us.

WWII poster about the blackouts

recreated Edo candy shop

common, only 50,000 for a freaking bear!

The museum was directly across from the Ueno pond, which luckily was in full bloom and breathtaking, add to this luck that there was also a flea market that day, and it makes this pond just about the best place for me to be, as I am a bit crazy for flea markets. This one was exceptionally interesting because most vendors had quite eclectic wears for sale, from scrolls that were over 150 years old, to WWII helmets, to an actual bear! I spent at least an hour just wandering around gawking at everything and forcing myself to not buy anything.

mmm pineapple

Probably did not entirely purify me

To help combat the heat of Tokyo, we went down into one of the side alleys and bought some frozen pineapple on a stick, and then wandered into a local shrine to purify our souls and get some shade.

The next stop on our trip was the Tokyo University Historical Museum, which a friend had told us had a torture section in it, but after walking the 90mins to get there from Ueno and arriving with no time to spare, it came to our attention that that area is now Edo crafts and that the torture artifacts have been long gone. To quell the sadness in my heart from not getting to see an Iron Maiden, I wandered Akihabara until I found something cute and fluffy to hug. 

Yes, that will do.

With day one coming to a close, Debu and I headed back to Michelle’s to relax and prepare for the next journey: Tokyo Pokecenter.

So, every website that I had read said that the Pokecenter was right beside Tokyo Tower. Awesome. Go see the tower and then run in and see Pokemon, sounds like an easy day. 

Except things got very complicated, very quickly.

For starters, after meeting up with friends, we continued to get lost on the way to the tower a few times, and after a lot of wasted time, finally visited Tokyo Tower, to find it isn’t all that impressive a sight.  Afterwards we asked for directions, because the Pokecenter was nowhere to be seen, we came to discover that it is a few kilometers away from our location. So… walk a few kilometers, the whole while thinking “well maybe that was the closest train station, and that’s why the sites say that.” Nope. There is a train stop just a few blocks from the center, and the center ended up being not nearly as amazing as all the reviews had made it out to be. I mean, it was still neat and fantastically dorky, but was it worth the heinous trip? Hell no.

f you Pikachu!

To make matters more depressing, all our efforts in finding the place had basically wasted our entire day away, resulting in the rest of our plans becoming scrapped for going back to the apartment and moping instead.  

On the plus side, finally found an Women Only train car

In Fukushima, Japan for the next two weeks. Spent my birthday sleeping to prepare for the drive and am spending my one year anniversary going into the 20km exclusion zone to feed 80 chickens and hopefully rescue a dog.

Not exactly the most romantic way to spend the days, and I cannot tell if David is actually happy or just putting on a good face, but I wouldn't trade this time for the world.

I had been going through volunteering withdrawal, so being here, surrounded by animals, gorgeous scenery and getting covered in filth daily for a good cause.... makes me feel complete.

Do I really have to return to real life at the end of the month?

Adventure Time

I have been rather absent as of late, and as much as I would like to say that it was due to being far too busy having fun and exploring the country, that is not the truth, I have simply been lacking in the motivation department, and for that, I apologize. I know that not many people read this blog, but the few that do are close friends and family members, and I promised all of you upon my departure that I would keep you updated through this venue, and have failed to do so.  I am truly sorry.

So, with that out of the way, it is now time for me to try and play catch up a bit.

Two weekends ago, David and I went camping with another ALT (assistant language teacher) that I met through a forum called YETI (Yamanashi English Teachers International), it was great for both me and the other girl, because we were apparently both going a bit stir crazy with having a lack of things to do. It also helped, that she lived down in Nanbu, which is very close to Mt. Fuji.  It was great to have a weekend outside of the house, and even better to have one with great company in the middle of a gorgeous mountain region. 

The view of Nanbu

  We started our journey out by going to a small town festival at the top of one of the lower peaks, (which had a lovely view of Nanbu below where we got to meet a very nice old woman who was wearing a crocheted outfit she had made, that featured a bit more skin then I had wanted to see that day. She turned out to be the grandmother of 2 of Tara’s (the other ALT) students, and was kind enough to show us around.

She was also kind enough to treat us to a tea ceremony where we got some amazing snacks 

On the way back down to Tara’s apartment to get ready for the mountains, we passed many gorgeous flowers, and David informed us about how some bees like to get drunk and violent, he always seems to know the strangest trivial information…

I couldn't help but be amused.

Next we stopped for lunch at a little park that Tara knew of, and on the way up there we saw a freaking monkey! Sadly said monkey was too quick for me to get a photo of him, but it still made me pretty happy since I had heard from a lot of my cowokers that it’s pretty rare to see them in Yamanashi.  The park has some great Buddhist statues in it.

The bibs and hats are supposed to help protect children from harm, but to me, they looked a bit silly. 

some of the rapids we played in

After a nice meal, we finally headed to our camping destination, high up in the mountains. The location we decided upon was right alongside the stream and added the wonderful melody of rushing water to our entire stay.

We spent much of the remaining sunlight working our way down the stream and climbing down rapids and mini-waterfalls, it was quite a bit of fun, but I still wish that we had managed to find a good spot to really swim.

Once we had our fill of wandering the water, we headed upwards to check out the local onsen. For those of you who do not know, an onsen is a public bath where people bathe in hot sulfur water together in the nude. It was my first time, and I will fully admit, the first few minutes were rather awkward for me, especially since I had just met Tara that day and here we suddenly were chatting naked on top of a mountain with a bunch of old Japanese women. 

It was still a lot of fun though, and supposedly the hot mountain water mixed with sulfur is supposed to do wonders for your skin, and it was also nice because we met a sweet old woman who told us how her son lives in San Francisco and that she loves how beautiful America is. This encounter was made even better when we later found out that David had met her husband on the men’s side and had had almost an identical conversation with him about their son, suppose they are just an outgoing couple.

The rest of the night was spent playing cards, talking, and Tara telling a random conbini worker that I am an alcoholic (which is only partially true…), we had to spend most of the night huddled in our tent since it began raining, but that was fine, especially since the rain left us with a gorgeous fog the next morning.

We all woke up quite early the next morning to investigate the area away from the stream, and what we found were some amazing spiderwebs that a group of spiders had banded together to create. Some snails moving slowly to, well, somewhere. And a rather creepy empty building covered in rust and broken appliances. 

freaking creepy.

this is where every leech in Japan lives

On the way back down, Tara suggested we take a hike to see some gorgeous waterfalls, but we never quite made it to the bottom, because it would appear the trail leading to them is where every leech in Japan lives. During our hour or so on that trail, I personally picked off 22 of the buggers and am not ashamed to admit I was the first one to chicken out and head back up, the leeches just thought I was far too tasty

While still cringing from our encounter with the leeches, well, except David, who actually thought they were really cool and kept messing with them, we stumbled upon some rather strange remains of… something. We still have no idea what it used to be, but it was certainly odd. I did not get to go in as far as I had hoped though, because David pointed out a weird bug to Tara and she freaked out, proclaiming she had had enough bug encounters for the day. 

Upon calming down from all the bugs, it was decided that we should go to Tara’s favorite organic restaurant in the area, which also happened to be right across the way from Mt. Fuji, it also turned out that I had heard of this place from a documentary about the Jukai (aka suicide forest), so I was quite happy to check it out.   The food was quite tasty, although rather pricy since it was all made on site from their own gardens.

neat organic cafe

Overall it was a fantastic weekend, and while we did end up spending more money they we had originally planned, it was worth it to get rid of all my pent up frustrations from being stuck inside.

Now, I will close this off with a cute photo of David and I being, well, cute.