Source: Instagram
Land of strangeness, the Japan it is full of surreal places. Among these, there are entire islands inhabited mainly by cats: competing for the lead, together with Aoshima, is there Tashirojima. In the eastern part of the country, it is an important tourist destination due to its… population! A decidedly unusual population: compared to 100 humans, over 800 cats live here. And they are exactly the ones felines, to be the master.
But what are all these cats doing in Tashirojima? To understand this, we need to go back to the late Edo period (first half of the nineteenth century), when a real colony was established to protect the silkworm farms from mice. The cats, then, remained. And even today, to protect them (in Japan they are considered lucky charms and are treated with great care), it is not possible to bring dogs on the island.
Not even the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which hit Japan in 2011, affected the cats and their lives. Located behind a peninsula, Tashirojima suffered little damage: its houses are built at least ten meters from the shore, and the strange behavior of the felines has alarmed the population. A population made up of a few dozen men, mainly fishermen who live off the proceeds of the fishing industry.
In addition to photographing the "famous" cats, those arriving on the island of Tashirojima can visit the few but original monuments taken on the island. Between the villages of Odomari and Nitoda there is a small temple built in homage to a feline who died accidentally, while they are numerous throughout the territory constructions in the shape of cats, precisely to celebrate the four-legged inhabitants who crowd every corner of that island which the media have nicknamed "Cat Island”. An island that has attracted many artists manga: Shotaro Ishinomori, Tetsuya Chiba, Naomi Kimura created their works here, now loved above all by Instagrammers.
But how do you get to Tashirojima (where, moreover, you can also spend the night)? The answer is: in ferry. The Ajishima Line operates three day travel between Ishinomaki (reachable by JR Tohoku Line trains) e Nitoda, the main port; some ferries also stop in the small port of Odomari. The journey lasts an hour, and since it takes place in the Pacific Ocean it could cause a little seasickness.
