Cat Island-Tashirojima

Two weeks ago, myself and a group of six fellow teachers headed to a most beloved place which I have been dreaming of and looking forward to visiting for months- cat island. About a three and a half hour journey, we spend two and a half hours on the island feeding and petting the cats before making the long journey back.  First, we walked the 15 minutes to the subway, took the subway to downtown Sendai to board a JR Train, which we rode 90 minutes to Ishinomaki.  Then, we took a short 10 minute taxi ride to the docks to take a 60 minute ferry ride to the Tashirojima, otherwise known as Cat Island. 

We saw probably over one-hundred cats while on the island, although it is rumored that over 200 cats live their. Did I bring a big bag of cat food, you ask? Well, of course I did! It would have been crazy of me not to! The weather was practically perfect: super sunny, but of course a little bit chilly on the ferry. It was nice to spend some time with other people, as I have been somewhat of a hermit on the weekends in January and February since it is pretty cold here and the air is incredibly dry.  We only saw maybe one or two people on the island (which was INCREDIBLY hilly, surprisingly), and even got to visit the cat shrine in the middle of the island.  The cats looked very well taken care of, which was encouraging, and most of them were not afraid of people.  It was definitely a great Sunday, and I am so glad that I took the trip with some super fun people!

 It is difficult to believe that I only have 8 more days in Sendai.  Today was the K5 Graduation, and even though I teach K4, we still go and help out.  The teachers who are leaving Meysen were announced and that made it so much more real that in two short weeks I will be back in America.  It was hard to tell the kids that I was leaving Japan, and I know that I will miss them so much. My first kindergarten class will always have a big piece of my heart.