Catman on the loose in Ikebukuro station

Mike Grist Japan, People / Culture 10 Comments

Worse than a monkey on the loose in Shibuya station is Catman on the loose with his bag of cats. Catman wanders the station’s underground aisles dropping kittens on various statues wherever he goes. He lingers long enough to watch the crowds descend in an orgy of cell-phone cameras and cries of ‘kawaii!’ (cute!). He watches with a gap-toothed grin as school-girls and office-ladies and silly-quiffed hosts alike giggle with pleasure. Then he picks the kittens up and drops them back in his bag. The crowds disperse. Catman becomes a blue mist, an invisible man, until he finds the next statue and strikes again.

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Kitten on an owl at Ikebukuro East gate.

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Catman and his bag of cats.

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A cat in a bag.

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The kitteh bows, the crowd goes wild!!

As to whether there was any cruelty being done to the cats- it’s hard to tell. The guy seemed good-natured. Putting cats on statues to delight passersby is a pretty harmless way to get your kicks, I think. He was watching the crowd from behind, clearly delighted they were delighted. Putting cats in a bag- I don’t think that’s any worse really than putting a dog in a bag. Probably it’s not ideal use of animals, but I’m not sure it would constitute abuse. Either way, who knows really.

Comments 10

  1. I don’t think the cat was abused. If it was, circus animals are considered abuse too. What he does, I think, helps put some cheer into people’s otherwise possibly mundane day. Viva Catman!

  2. What happened to your blog Michael? I much preferred the first two designs – this one is really difficult to navigate and feels cramped and unstylish. I personally feel it doesn’t do your work justice at all…

  3. Post
    Author

    Tornadoes- If they’re not too afraid of it, sure.

    Leongsoon- Probably you’re right. He seemed harmless enough.

    David- Ha ha, we’ll see…

    Mike- Thanks for feedback, been sort of trial-ing this look. Is a bit bland, texty. Other site was getting pretty heavy to load though. We’ll see.

  4. I see. I think I preferred your first blog design best of all, but that’s just me :p I have been tweaking my own site.

    Oh, and I’ve begun haikyo-ing in Japan recently 🙂 We should definitely hook up and go somewhere at some point. I’m based in Nagoya, so there must be middle ground somewhere!

    Will be posting stuff as time goes on.

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    Author

    Mike and Jason- New site design up, I’d appreciate your thoughts on it. Mike for sure we should hook up, though it’s true it’s a bit far. BTW I like what you’ve done with your site, great header art, integrates very smoothly, did you make it yourself?

  6. I saw two cats on a post (one sleeping on the other) in Harajuku with a bunch of people crowded around taking pictures… same guy I wonder?

  7. Yep, I do all the graphics for my site myself (except my avatar, which I have a friend draw for me :))

    Btw, I think I will be meeting you this Sunday! I happen to be in Tokyo meeting up with Lee and he informed me you and the other Mike will be joining him. See you soon!

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