Tokyo's cat cafes

In Japan, cat cafes have become very popular since 2004 when the first cat café was opened in Osaka. There you can sit with friends, drink coffee or tea and at the same time you will be surrounded by 20-30 cats.

For a modest fee of between $5 and $8 Japanese animal lovers can enjoy their usual coffee surrounded by dozens of playful cats. Spending an hour in the company of cats can work wonders on the human mind, and when you’re as stressed as Japanese business-men, even more so. Many of them can’t fit a household pet into their busy schedules, so they opt for a relaxing one-hour break in the company of purring felines.

There are rules to follow in such cafes: first, you need to remove your shoes and put on slippers. Then, when you enter the cafe, one of the employee will sprays your hands with disinfectant. It is forbidden to take photos with flash, to grab tails and to wake sleeping kittens.

It helps a lot to bring some treats with you to lure cats come around you, but when the treat is gone, they will be too.

You are my sonshine

(Yes, that is the beach you can see a glimpse of in the background. Thank-you Zoe, for recommending this cafe)

I have started to take Spunky Monkey out of school on a Wednesday, a trial for this term. He is finding the five days of Prep very tiring and this is leading to two things. (1) At school, his concentration is lacking. (2) At home, we are having a lot of meltdowns. Miss Moo Moo went off to Daycare, leaving us to spend the day together. I really want this time to be just us, one on one, no agenda. However, I did have a few mummy jobs to do in the morning, so to compensate, we went out for lunch and to the beach in the afternoon.

Unfortunately I had taken the camera back to the car before heading off on our beach walk. Collecting and exploring along the shoreline and in the dunes. Discoveries: shells, rocks, sticks, crab claws and gentleness, humour, excitement, wonder, understanding. After walking for a long stretch we sat on a deserted part of the beach. Drawing letters in the sand, making lasso's from beach vines and listening to the birdsong in the casuarina trees.

We thought we had made a friend in a tiny bird who was staying very close by to where we played. At one time I saw her come closer, just a couple of metre's away and nestle into the sand. A loud noise from Spunky Monkey sent her running off again , but I realised something and instantly her behaviour made sense. We carefully crawled further up into the dunes to discover two, small, perfect eggs, coffee in colour with chocolate speckles. Mama bird wasn't being friendly, she was protecting her young. Once we understood each other, we moved back and she went to her eggs, fluffed up her feathers and sat. Actually, we all sat there for a very long time, quiet (Mama bird and me) and contemplative, as we watched the vibrant, turquoise waves dance in the winter sunshine.

It was an amazing moment in time, and the first time I had sat still for along while.

Thank-you Mama Nature.

Bris Vegas Mini-break

(This photo was taken from here)

It was Mr Moo’s birthday on Tuesday and we went to Brisbane on a much needed mini- break. Grandma and Grandpa so very kindly looked after our children for us while we spent the next 3 days shopping and eating our way around the capital.



Movies: The last movie we saw together at the cinema was over 18 months ago. So, we took advantage of all our free time and saw “The Blind Side”, brilliant and “It’s Complicated”, where we both laughed until we cried.



Shopping: So many beautiful things to see, my wish list is too long. I am trying to work out how I can get back down to Brisbane for the day without Mr Moo so I can buy everything at Biome and Nook. We spent a lot of time in antique, bric brac and vintage shops – pure heaven. And went into way too many bookshops, of which I had officially banned myself for very good reason. On the back of a ratty envelope, I have a list of at least 14 new book titles that I simply must have. I also had a lot of fun buying a mountain of demin offcuts at Reverse Garbage, I huge place, but, I somehow did not make it past the fabric section!


(the Pearl Cafe)

Eating: As usual we ate far too much food. We had lots of coffee (lots!) We ate some great lunchtime panini’s at Brown Dog Café. Ate Vietnamese, Lebanese, Yum Cha and some fabulous modern Australian food at Anouk and Pearl Café. I really wish that Pearl Café was my local, the food was amazing, a great menu, made with top ingredients. Fresh, seasonal and local. Did I mention the attentive service and fantastic atmosphere? We ate a very special birthday dinner here, as well as going for coffee one day and breakfast the next.

Yes, I could see myself just popping in for a coffee and a piece of that Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cheese Cake every other day. Divine dreaming!