In 2024, andu amet started with the theme “Spice it up! Live it up!."
In this column, we will continue to provide irregular updates on how the staff of andu amet are enjoying their lives with spice while experiencing a variety of hot, sour, sweet, and bitter experiences.
Vol. 4 Director of Planning and Promotion Mari
My spice-up is a cat.
My spice-up is a cat.
Isobe is a black and white cat with no owner. That being said, he is not a stray cat and lives in a rather unusual market in a residential area. He is a black-and-white male Hachiware cat, and was TNR (protect, neuter, and return to the community) 9 years ago. His estimated age at that time was around 1 to 3 years old. The market was home to cats from Isobe's family, and a woman who works as a cat guardian took the kittens to a foster home. After continued TNR for the adult cats, Isobe is now the last of her clan. Isobe is a middle-aged cat with an estimated age of around 11 years.
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It was exactly one year ago in the fall that I became aware of Isobe's existence after a long period of indifference. It was when I noticed that he was on the roof from dawn and every morning when the store owner opened the window, he would go up to the balcony to eat the food he was feeding me. Since then, I have opened our window in the morning and asked, “Is Isobe here? Will you serve me my food today?” I began to pay attention to every single move he made. This was the first awakening of my life to cats. Or rather, an awakening to the individual existence of Isobe. I met him. It was like falling in love. It was this “Isobe.
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Me reading a book about cats that I had no interest in.
According to Mari Yamazaki, a cat-loving writer, “Cats can live together and think they are equal to humans. They don't wait on you, and the way they look at you makes you feel as if they can see right through you. They make us think objectively about ourselves. It is good just to exist. I feel that Isobe, whom I do not own, has seen through me to my true nature, just as Mari Yamazaki's insight suggests. With this presence on my mind, I put my favorite cat book in the Airy and head out to a nearby cafe.
Four years after attending a monthly drawing class, I never thought I would draw a cat.
Partly because of my long career in fashion, I used to think that it was mocking to have illustrations of cats as accents on various products or to carry around goods with cat silhouettes. In fashion, I prefer a stylish style and don't need cuteness. I do need some cuteness, though. That changed my mind about taking a picture of this stylish isobe and drawing it. I have been using the black Airy for a while now, and I like the ultimate stripped-down design with more storage space than it looks. The stylish black cat Isobe and the black Airy. I feel that they have something in common.
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Airy is a perfect choice to spice up my fashion style. Isobe, the black and white cat, is my partner who spices up my lifestyle. I guess in the end the cat I'm interested in is black and white and my favorite Airy is black. For me.
#spiceitupliveitup #colorsofanduamet
