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Cat Island - Tashirojima

zoomingjapan

Japan Travel Expert
18 Jun 2012
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Have you ever heard of "Cat Island" in Japan?

Its official name is "Tashirojima" (窶彡窶佚」窶懌?。). It's a very small island that belongs to Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture.
Just like a lot of other regions in Miyagi Prefecture the island got hit by the tsunami caused by the great earthquake in March 2011.
For many days nobody even knew if the island was still there and if people survived or not.

Luckily the island didn't get devastated too much and the people as well as the cats there survived.
Food supplies were sent via helicopter for a while (usually brought by ferry).

If you are a cat lover, you might want to check out this beautiful island with more cats than human residents and support Ishinomaki City which got severely damaged by the tsunami (I'll post about that soon, too).

Here's a very good video about Cat Island (by Tofugu):

[video=youtube_share;qVxpPggJMAY]

Make sure to check out Part 2 as well!

As he mentions in the video, nobody knew what happened to the island after the earthquake and it was hard to find reliable information - even in Japanese.
That's why I decided to visit myself in May 2012 and confirm with my own eyes, so that I could provide some first-hand information for people who wanted to visit, but weren't sure if it's still possible.

IMGP1885.jpg

Do you want to know why there are more cats than people on an isolated island in Japan?
Then make sure to check out my blog post: Tashirojima - Cat Island

Thanks for reading! ^-^
 
zoomingjapan, are you in the area? I'm volunteering in Minami Sanriku and thinking about going to check out Tashirojima on Saturday, then go back to Ishinomaki and drive around there for a bit.
 
No, unfortunately not.
That's why it took me so long until I could finally visit!
I don't live near Tohoku at all! :(

That's awesome, though!
I hope you'll have a lot of fun there! Say hi to the cats for me! ;)
 
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