On a Friday our ship (non-HMS Aoshima) , leaving Iyo-Nagahama, landed on the Aoshima Island, aka cat island.
The island is small, just 4.2 km round, on it live 16 people and apparently 120 cats.
Aoshima Island map, early 21st century
When we landed, on the jetty were a couple of elderly people and several cats waiting for the ship to come. The elderly people, who were islanders, had waited for daily commodities brought from the mainland, while the cats had waited probably for food brought by tourists.
Cats having waited for tourists
The port is at southeastern end of the island, around which is a small fishing village.
The fishing village on the Aoshima Island
It is 8:40 AM. While on the mainland, streets are crowded with business people on their way to their offices, on this island, paths are crowded with cats on their way to nowhere.
Cats on a path in the rush hour
Wandering around in the village, we find neither car nor motorbike, even nor bicycle. Cats are everywhere they like, without a fear of being killed by vehicles.
Cats resting near the community center
The flat land along the shore is small. The village extends to a hillside where is a two-story building, which had been an elementary school building until it was closed in 1976. Behind it is an ivy-covered building. It was a junior high school, that has also been closed.
Closed schools buildings
Today there is no kid living on this island. So the cats have no worry of being chased by nasty rascals.
Two cats taking a nap under hanging laundries
Most of the cats are not afraid of strangers. They do not flee even when a tourist approaches.
The resting cats pay no attention to passersby.
While there are a lot of cats in the village, there are almost no people. In the village are a couple dozens of houses, but many of them have been abandoned.
Many houses are left abandoned.
The owners of the houses have gone somewhere; some of them have been replaced by cats.
This ginger seems to live in the abandoned house.
The village is in an extreme tranquility, in which cats lie everywhere they like.
A cat sleeping on a roof of an abandoned house
A cat sleeping on a half-broken roof
The cats are not just making use of the artefacts human beings have left; they take part in the construction of the village in their viable manner.
On some paths are found feline tracks.
Feline footprints on the seaside path, early 21st century.
On the blue line the paw prints are scrupulously rendered to be conspicuous and impressive. This is a sort of contemporary pawsome art.
The tracks may be rediscovered by a future historian as an inscribed island history in which cats have been on the way to ruling the island.
Taking all these things into consideration, we have to admit that this village is, in a sense, on the way to be of the cats, by the cats, for the cats.
Aoshima Island map, early 21st century
When we landed, on the jetty were a couple of elderly people and several cats waiting for the ship to come. The elderly people, who were islanders, had waited for daily commodities brought from the mainland, while the cats had waited probably for food brought by tourists.
Cats having waited for tourists
The port is at southeastern end of the island, around which is a small fishing village.
The fishing village on the Aoshima Island
It is 8:40 AM. While on the mainland, streets are crowded with business people on their way to their offices, on this island, paths are crowded with cats on their way to nowhere.
Cats on a path in the rush hour
Wandering around in the village, we find neither car nor motorbike, even nor bicycle. Cats are everywhere they like, without a fear of being killed by vehicles.
Cats resting near the community center
The flat land along the shore is small. The village extends to a hillside where is a two-story building, which had been an elementary school building until it was closed in 1976. Behind it is an ivy-covered building. It was a junior high school, that has also been closed.
Closed schools buildings
Today there is no kid living on this island. So the cats have no worry of being chased by nasty rascals.
Two cats taking a nap under hanging laundries
Most of the cats are not afraid of strangers. They do not flee even when a tourist approaches.
The resting cats pay no attention to passersby.
While there are a lot of cats in the village, there are almost no people. In the village are a couple dozens of houses, but many of them have been abandoned.
Many houses are left abandoned.
The owners of the houses have gone somewhere; some of them have been replaced by cats.
This ginger seems to live in the abandoned house.
The village is in an extreme tranquility, in which cats lie everywhere they like.
A cat sleeping on a roof of an abandoned house
A cat sleeping on a half-broken roof
The cats are not just making use of the artefacts human beings have left; they take part in the construction of the village in their viable manner.
On some paths are found feline tracks.
Feline footprints on the seaside path, early 21st century.
On the blue line the paw prints are scrupulously rendered to be conspicuous and impressive. This is a sort of contemporary pawsome art.
The tracks may be rediscovered by a future historian as an inscribed island history in which cats have been on the way to ruling the island.
Taking all these things into consideration, we have to admit that this village is, in a sense, on the way to be of the cats, by the cats, for the cats.
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