Another animal themed post

Since SB decided to share about her host fam's pet, I'm sharing about mine. These are (in order from oldest to youngest) Chokore, Shifon, and Shiruku. Yes, the first two are supposed to be French. Why? I'm not sure.

Chokore (Chocolate) is the black one. She's the only girl, and also the only one who isn't falling all over herself to be around me. She's lovable, though, and I like that I don't have to constantly keep moving my face away from her so that she doesn't lick my face off. Sadly, I usually deal with cats, and know how to make amends with them when something has gone wrong. But my attempts to smooth things over with Chokore have been a complete failure. I will keep trying, however, and hope that one day we can be friends.

The brown one is Shifon. I'm not really clear on the spelling of this one, since it's supposed to be Chiffon but they don't have the chi as a "shi" sound in Japanese, nor do they really have "fo". So, I'm at a loss. Shifon is the one who's probably the most obsessed with me. He usually lies next to me when I'm eating dinner, and he's spent all of this afternoon in my room. If I try to pet one of the other ones during dinner time, he actually growls. He also constantly licks whatever part of my body is closest to his mouth. This morning while I was eating breakfast I looked up to see him licking a pillow. Whatever keeps him happy?

Finally, there's the baby, Shiruku. Shiruku is by far the most spoiled of the three. He's Chokore's baby, and he is cute but an absolute pain in the butt. He insists upon licking my face at every opportunity, as well as trying to go through my garbage. He stole my underwear once; I kid you not. If he thinks you're not paying enough attention to him, he scratches you...hard. Still, he's sweet and fun to pet, so I guess it's alright. He loves chewing on things. Fortunately, he seems to know that there are something things he shouldn't chew.

In other news, I've been keeping busy. This week I made Japanese sweets, went to the 21st century museum of contemporary art in Kanazawa, started making a pottery bowl, and meditated at a zen temple. Whatever, you know, just keeping it real.

I'm planning to include in my next post things that Japan has that America doesn't, as well as things that it doesn't have that America does. Stay tuned!