Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A cat wanders through the city of Tokyo weaving in and out of peoples stories.
The Cat and the City
What you need to know before your trail
In Tokyo – one of the world’s largest megacities – a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. And, with each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways.
But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers – from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo’s denizens, drawing them ever closer.
Locations
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Travel through Tokyo with a cat BookTrail style
A collection of short stories which is an ode to Japan and cats
As a man draws a tattoo onto someone’s back, he draws a cat close to the statue where the famous dog Hachiko is immortalised. We see many of the landmarks of the city as the artist gets a map and draws such iconic sights as the Tokyo Tower and the city’s winding streets on to an area of skin.
Wait until you visit Inokashira Park in Kichijoji!
The cat starts in story one and weaves its way in and out of all those which follow. What a magical way of storytelling!
Tokyo
“Sometimes I feel like this whole city is this one vast organism. It’s like a human being that we’re all part of. But we’re restricted by the roads, by the waterways, by the tunnels, the trains. It’s like our paths are all laid out for us, and there’s no way of deviating from them. That’s what makes that cat different from us. It can jump on and off trains randomly. But we humans are bound up in the fate of the city. No one can escape its clutches. I’d love to pack up and leave for the countryside, but I can’t get away. I’m stuck here. Kindergarten, Elementary school, Junior High, High School, University, Internship, Internship to Job, Job to Retirement, Retirement to Death. That’s my life, already laid out before me. Me, and all those other millions of people I brush up against every day. The city needs us, and we need the city. Symbiotic fuck tonnage.”
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Cat and the City
Destination/location: Japan Author/Guide: Nick Bradley Departure Time: 2000s
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