I love animals. One of my dreams when I was young was to live at and work for the Mutsugoro Animal Kingdom in Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan). Although my dream never came true, and I am not surrounded by as many animals as I had wished, I do have two spoiled cats. I am writing this while one of my cats is sitting on my lap. Unfortunately there are many stray cats in Japan. It is estimated that between 70 and 90 percent of Americans have their pets spayed or neutered. However, it is only about 30 percent in Japan. “Wagahai wa neko de aru (I am A Cat)” by Soseki Natsume is one of the most famous novels in Japan. The opening dialogue, which is “Wagahai wa neko de aru. Namae wa mada nai (I am a cat. As yet, I have no name.),” is very familiar to many Japanese.
Japanese translation