All posts by Andre Tirtodipoero

This article is written by Andre Tirto Dipoero. Andre is a freelance writer with more than 2 years experience and he mostly interested in writing about traveling.
Asia, Cultural and Historical Heritage, Destinations, Editor's Picks

Tashirojima, A Paradise For Cats

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Cats are very common animal. Almost everyone knows what cats are like. Even, cats have become one of the most favorite pets throughout the world. They are famous because they are cute and they can get along with people without bringing lots of problems. Maybe in your city, you can easily see stray cats on the streets or even in your neighborhood. Cats and human beings can live in harmony.

Tashirojima cat island

Talking about living in harmony, if you want to find the best portrait which describes how cats and human beings can live in harmony, you should visit Tashirojima, an island situated in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It is a place where cats are treated with respect by people. Not only get respected, cats are even honored there.

ajishimaline

Here’s a short history which will give you the explanation about what was going on between human beings and cats in Tashirojima that ended up with its condition and atmosphere at the moment. Long time ago, people living in the island of Tashirojima raised silkworms to make use of silk produced by them. Meanwhile, mice were so many. Their presence could be very dangerous for silkworms and the people. To protect silkworms, people kept cats. There were many fishermen too coming to the island. They sometimes stayed overnight. The cats often came to the fishermen begging for the fish.

TashiroJima island cats

Day by day, fishermen had more and more contact with the cats, and they observed the cats closely. Their observation led to better understanding of cats’ natural actions in predicting weather which could have been used to determine the dates and periods whether the fishermen should sail and fish. One day, fishermen accidentally killed a cat. They felt sorry for the death of the cat. They buried the cat and build a shrine onto its grave. The shrine still exists now, and it is one of the most visited icons in the island.

Cat-Shrine tashirojima cat shrine

Because cats are highly honored, now, there are lots of cats. Thousands cats live freely in Tashirojima. The total number of cats outnumbers the total number of people. Only fewer than 100 local people live there. Majority of them are above 65 years old. Can you imagine the difference in the number? That’s why this island is called “Cat Island”. In this Island, as if cats are the owner of the island, and people are the strangers or included as minority group. People there love and respect the cats. They feed the cats and let them live freely alongside them. As the additional information for you, people living in Tashirojima believe that cats are the symbol of good luck and wealth. You know now how important cats for the people there.

cat-island-japan

As the time goes by, this island has been becoming more and more famous throughout Japan and even throughout the world. This island attracts attention of tourists because the presence of thousands of cats. Tourists coming to this island spend their time with taking photographs of the cats, having their photograph taken when they pose with cats surrounding them, feeding cats, and walking around the island (the island is not so vast that we can walk throughout the island in a day).

cat rules

There are also fifty one monuments which have cat-like shapes for the tourists to visit. There are some buildings which were also designed based on the parts of cats’ bodies. From all the monuments and building, the legendary cat shrine is the one which has become the favorite for the tourists to visit.

cat-building

When tourists visit the island, they must respect and honor the cats as well just the way the local people always do. Therefore, it is not allowed to bring dogs to the island because as you have already known, that dogs may not get along well with cats.

Such a unique place to visit, isn’t it? Especially if you are cat lovers, then once in a lifetime you should experience visiting Tashirojima: the “Cat Island”. Not only becomes the island of cats, this place becomes the paradise for cats.

Source:
http://www.tofugu.com/2010/11/09/cat-island-japan/
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tashirojima
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2011/03/tashirojima-cat-island-of-japan.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashirojima

Asia, Editor's Picks, Shopping Guide

Greenbelt Mall, Philippines

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Malls, are always defined as a building with so many boutiques inside and women carrying a minimum of one shopping bag moving here and there. The image of a big building with so many shops inside are familiar to our mind when we talk about a mall. For those who are not really interested in shopping, especially boys, coming to a mall is a very lazy thing to-do. Well if you try to come to Greenbelt Mall, there will be a different story.

greenbelt

There is a big-enough Asian garden in the front of this mall door. For boys or any other friends and family that do not like shopping so much, you can rest around this garden while waiting for the girls. What if it’s raining? Greenbelt Mall has also provided a very beautiful interior design for you. You can take so many great pictures here with you friends. But before you do that, remove all the images of a tall silver building that is so boring, so you can really enjoy Greenbelt Mall.

Not only views, Greenbelt also provided some events that you can enjoy in the mall. Music bands may also ccompany you and your resting time in the garden. That is why this mall is highly recommended for a place-to-visit during the weekends. No tickets are needed, no need to join a very long queue just to enjoy a music performance. This can be a great place to relase all of your stress in the whole week so you can prepare yourself weell for the upcoming week!

Some friends said that this mall stores are giving out things with cheap prices. Sadly, they are lacking of mall’s cleaning and condition service. There are issues that the place is smelly. Some said that every single thing in this world is not perfect. Greenbelt has won their designs and cheap stuffs, but not the grooming. But, coming into this place just for a new bright ideas for design class and study is not a bad idea to start with