I wonder if there's any chance of something like this taking off in Sydney. Maybe there's just something so incredibly Japanese about it that it wouldn't work, but I just love the idea.
Either way, it seems Sarah Marchildon has struck a bit of a chord with her blog posting, generating all sorts of interest.
Perhaps I should buy a fancy espresso machine and add a dozen cats to the household, and set myself up as the Sydney branch of 猫の時間 (Neko no Jikan, or "Cat Time").
Our morning in Osaka was spent at the aquarium, which is mainly known for its biggest occupant, a rather young whale shark. Currently 4m long, when fully grown it will be 12m long. Do these things make good sushi? Its fellow inmates include a variety of marine creatures from around the Pacific Rim, including sea otters from the Aleutians and dolphins from the Cook Straight.
After lunch, we were picked up and driven through Kobe and down to Tokushima in Shikoku, just across the water from Honshu. We already knew the family we were staying with, as they stayed with us in Sydney when their daughter Ai got married earlier this year (the other two daughters, Nozomi and Rie, acted as guides/interpreters for us in Tokushima and Tokyo respectively - we would have been very lost without them!)
