Another example of Japanese animal training

Cat in a dress on a tricycle

Lest I be misunderstood, Japan is not all doom and gloom for me. The job is shit, but the place itself is okay.

After a particularly shitty day at work--because it was a Sunday and therefore my usual day off, and also because it was one of the last days to see the cherry blossoms [a big deal in Japan] and instead of being in a park getting drunk under the trees with my friends, I was stuck at work teaching make up lessons for students that weren't my own, and it was an absolutely beautiful day--I met my friend J. at Yoyogi-Uehara so that we could go to Yoyogi Park and have a mini hanami [to use Japanese English, "Cherry Blossom Viewing"] party.

We got to Yoyogi at about 6:30 and it was packed!
Everyone [except us] was drunk. We found a spot under the trees--which we couldn't see very well because the sun was quickly setting--and drank our overpriced alcohol beverages.

After we finished our beer and sake [respectively] we decided to change locations. I wanted to go to Yasukuni because I had been told that they keep the trees lit until 10PM. J. thought that we should go to Meguro River because it was better and closer. Proximity won.

We were walking by the Meguro River [which, truth be told, is more of a stream or drainage ditch than a river], trying to find an izakaya that J. wanted to show me when I saw a woman walking towards us pulling what I assumed was a child on a tricycle. I couldn't tell what was actually on the tricycle until it got much closer. Much to my [christ, should I say it?] shock and awe, the woman was pulling a cat in a dress on said tricycle. This poor creature was standing on the seat with its front paws on the handlebars. The strangest part of it was that the damn thing looked completely comfortable. J. ran back and asked the woman if I could take a picture. She was kind enough to stop and I didn't want to take up too much of her time, so instead of trying to find my camera in the bowels of my bag, I just grabbed my phone. Unfortunately, the cat wouldn't look at me [probably because the woman was talking to it] until I took the picture.

In years to come, I think I'll probably forget all about the cherry blossoms--which were beautiful--and only remember that poor cat...