Dirty Paws

I don't mind taking off my shoes before I come inside. I actually like it. I had a string of roommates back in Texas whom I'd convinced to follow this protocol, long before I ever knew I'd be coming to Japan.

But I'd never considered the problem of our shoe-less pets.

My third year in Japan, my wife and I moved to an apartment that had apparently already been claimed by a local cat. The first time we opened the door to go in, he appeared out of nowhere (as cats do), darted past us into the apartment, and made straight for a spot in one of the rooms where he curled up and gave us a look like, "it's about time you showed up to let me back in."

We assume he co-habitated with the previous tenants.

All the local kids knew him, and called him Byon (Japanese for "boing..." rhymes with "phone"). He was a good cat, so he remained welcome and spent most of the time hanging around inside, only popping out once or twice a day for a brief prowl.

But once our son was born, my wife, probably at her mother's directive, took to cleaning Byon's paws every time he returned from patrol outside. Whenever he scratched and howled at the door, she'd sit down with a package of wet-wipes and clean his paws to a mil-spec shine. I swear, she'd spend ten minutes on it. I always thought this was amusing, until she started making me do it, too.

I've lived with cats and dogs all my life, who had free run of both inside and outside, and this was new for me. I thought she was nuts, but since then I've found that it's not uncommon in Japan. My mother and sister-in-law clean their dog's paws after every walk, and I see people doing it everywhere I go. I can see the sense in it, even if I'd never bother with it if it was just me. Maybe she imagines that if it were left up to me, I'd also let chickens and pigs roam our apartment like some Viking longhouse.

So if you're one of those hyper-clean people, this is just one more thing you can obsess about...you're welcome.

Best Driving Game Since Mario Kart

It's winter which means inclement weather and more time inside. This is when we usually buy and play most of our video games. After borrowing and enjoying Need For Speed: Undercover, our son asked for it for Christmas. After scouring the reviews, I found that it was generally rated as one of of the more mediocre games in the series. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was clearly the highest-rated one, and sounded like the most fun as well. We were initially disappointed that it wasn't really open-world like Undercover (thought there is a free-driving mode that lets you play around). But after a few hours of playing Hot Pursuit, we all agreed that it was the most fun we'd had in a driving game since Mario Kart Wii. While it's fun to race and outrun the cops, the most fun comes playing as an officer trying to shutdown racers and wreck their cars before they can escape. The learning curve is mild and the cars are pretty awesome; my son's already become much more appreciative of the hot cars we see on the roads in Tokyo. I'm going to stop blogging and play it some more, now.