I have never been on a buddy trip as an adult. I’ve traveled with partners and for work quite a bit. I even took some solo trips here and there, but I have never traveled with friends. And I feel like maybe I’ve missed out. If I were to get just disgustingly sappy, I would say that my partners are also my friends so it counts but still, the dynamic is a little different, isn’t it? Have you guys gone on buddy trips? Should I organize one?
Baby Yukichi is always so cute. I know I whine about the show reusing that clip of their meeting a lot but I have to admit, I always look forward to seeing kitten Yukichi. Especially when he gets immediately contrasted with huge Yukichi. I’m not even sure that he’s an adult yet. I think he might be a teenager. Do yu think he’ll get even bigger?
Have you guys noticed how many scenes end with Saku being devastated by Yukichi’s lack of devotion/loyalty? We know the big guy is fronting up to a certain point but he also means it a little. Cats are all the same. I have to admit, it’s one of my favourite running gags and it stops the show from becoming way too saccharine.
I know I talked about a buddy trip in my intro but really it’s more of a hybrid buddy/work trip isn’t it. A lot of what I’m about to say is based on hearsay so take it with a grain of salt. I did read once that because Japan work culture can be a bit overbearing, there are a lot of traditions that sort of combine your professional and social life in order to give the illusion of balance. Those drinking parties for instance. And these are both completely optional but also it’s not great to not attend unless you have a good excuse. So you know, that type of optional.
I think that’s insane, Can you imagine the weird sort of pressure that would put you under. I have co-workers I consider friends. And I mostly socialize with them outside of work hours. Because I need that separation. But I chose those friends. They weren’t imposed on me by my office. That’s crazy. I don’t really have a point here, I’m just still trying to wrap my head around how uncomfortable such a situation would be for me. I would definitely stay with my cat at home!
Wasn’t the phone call scene sweet! Aside from the fact that Yukichi has the weirdest purr I have ever heard. Is it just me or did it sound slightly menacing to anyone else?
But see, this is what I was talking about in my previous paragraph. Without the contrast of Yukichi usually being aloof and slightly standoffish towards Saku, him genuinely missing her when she’s gone would not have hit the same. And that purring over the phone would have seemed much more par for the course. As it is, it was a really sweet moment that made you remember why these two care about each other so much. Also, it reminded us to hug our cats, even though they might scratch us…
Previous Episodes
- The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today – Episode 1
- The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today – Episode 2
- The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today – Episode 3
- The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today – Episode 4
- The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today – Episode 5
- The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today – Episode 6
- The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today – Episode 7
- The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today – Episodes 8 & 9
OMG, this episode was so sweet! I loved the scene where Yukichi curled up in the closet so he would smell Saku. My cat does that too, if I’m not home for too long! Yes, the phone scene was just too cute! I also liked that though to me it sounded like Yukichi was growling, Saku instantly recognized it as Yukichi’s signature purring! They are so close!
I used to work for a organization that had a lot of “optional” social events. I’ve always had a strict line between work and life, and one never crosses over to the other. So I always opted out of the events and it hurt my career a lot. I know for a fact that I was passed over for at least 3 different promotions because I didn’t attend the “optional” social events. So times the management would even give different organization announcements like training opportunities and promotion openings at the social events, so if you didn’t go to the event you didn’t hear about it. Honestly, I never liked having to spend my free time going to a work event.
It actually took me a while to realise that was supposed to be a purr. I don’t envy the voice actor; human diaphragms aren’t made for purring… I’d probably just have used a cat sound for this one scene, were I director.
Your header gif… Yukichi sleeping under Saku’s clothes and then immediately removing the cat hair was Yukichi in a nutshell. Heh. Couldn’t summarize hime better.
Buddy trips can be really fun, absolutely. It’s best if said buddies weren’t in their quarter-/third-life crises, but even then it can be smoother over to some degree. You should be aware of the type of travellers you’re friends are though, and not in the bad sense, but just what each enjoys, so that you all can manage to find a sweet spot. E.g. some like the touring kind of holiday, some the art/historic/cultural kind, some the hiking or sporty kind, some the lazing around at the beach/balcony/pool/cliff kind, and so on. Try to find a group that is either at least somewhat homogenous or a large enough group (but not too large!) so that there can be a decent split of what each group does and then reconvenes in the evenings or every other day to eat together and just relax and talk.
Oh, Japan’s work (and schooling) customs are soo great. The first time I was in Japan, I was in Tokyo, two weeks of which were homestay and language school. The family was lovely, the mother a piano teacher, the two girls bright, the father a white collar worker at a semi-fancy hotel chain and the cats were…cats. Never minding the fact that I fell pretty ill for most of the time, I still wandered around the city after school and came back home late, earliest around nine. Yet no-one else was yet home at the early times. The kids only briefly were at home to switch gears between school and equally “optional” supplementary school around six to seven p.m. (I saw twice when I stayed in bed with fever) and only really came back home around ten. The mother was back at around the same time to prepare dinner for all of them that lasts from ten to twelve (with a bit of TV afterwards), and the father was, when regular, around eleven at home and twice I didn’t even see him return (despite doing my own homework until well past midnight). The next morning he had an obvious hangover from the Nomikai (the “optional” driking events after work about once a week that you’ve mentioned) and when I asked him about the meds he took, he said that they were for his stomach and, yeah, he has to go to those drinking events after all, so he needs to drink the stomach meds to get fuctioning again and all that. Mind you, everyone in that home, one flat amongst many very similar ones, wakes up at the latest at six o’clock, usually an hour earlier. I could take it since it was my personal holiday trip of sorts, but I can’t see it being healthy in even a medium run. The oldest people in the world might be in Japan, collectively, but those who live that style probably do not make that list…
(*”Nomunication” is what I meant to write, and derped up. “Nomikai”s are something entirely different.)