The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (Book Review)

I just finished the book! The first chapter already caused me to tear up so it was not surprising to find tears streaming out of my eyes as I got closer to the end. The cat cafe, Neko no Niwa, had published an Instagram story about the book and I told my boyfriend that I would love to read it. Parts of the book were written in the cat's perspective and I thought that it was cute. So after watching Jumanji on Christmas Eve, he bought it for me and gave it to me as a surprise! 

When I start reading a book that appeals to me, it is very hard for me to put it down. I could even wind up reading the book all the way to the end and sleep an ungodly hour. Thankfully, I had to travel to town today so I read the book on my way there and on the way back. It was apt that I had found a bookmark that had been given to me when I first visited Neko no Niwa. And of course, I continued to read back home, after greeting and playing with Shadow, my own adorable feline.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a simple and heartbreaking story. On the surface, it could seem boring. Satoru, the protagonist in the book, is going on a journey around Japan to find a new home for his cat Nana. He does not reveal why he has to give up the cat. At first, this was puzzling. It quickly becomes clear that Satoru and Nana love each other very much, so what was the "compelling reason" that Satoru had? What were his "unavoidable circumstances"?

However, the story drew me in because it was about so much more. Though Nana is also the main character in the story, the book is not just about cats. It's about friendship, love and family. When Satoru visits his friends with the pretext of trying to find Nana a new home, they reminisce and there are flashbacks written in the third person perspective. And Nana, his intelligent feline friend, was going to do everything in his power to avoid ending up in one of their homes.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

FINDING HUMOUR IN BAD SITUATIONS

Nana used to be a street cat before Satoru took him in. He takes pride in his excellent hunting skills, loves boxes, and hates going to the vet. A typical cat, in other words, but a remarkably perceptive one. Although I cried while reading the book, there were many humorous moments. In elementary school, Satoru pretended to run away with his best friend, Kosuke, in an attempt to convince the latter's parents to take in an abandoned kitten that was later named Hachi. The entire episode was hilarious! Satoru flatly announces to his mother that he was going to run away from home "for a while", believing that his plan would work just because he had read a story that was similar. 

Without these light-hearted moments which frequently involve cats, the story would have just been depressing. Every time Satoru explains the origins of Nana's name to a passing stranger, it was as if  I could feel Nana rolling his eyes. It was amusing to imagine how Yoshimine rudely grabbed Nana by his neck to check if he was "a real cat" and how Nana tricked Chatran, the kitten Yoshimine had rescued, to adopt a fighting stance in order to impress Yoshimine when actually Nana was getting the humans to believe that they did not like each other. Nana's reaction to the sea was hilarious too!

Satoru and Nana had to board a ship and sail to Hokkaido. Nana had to stay in the pet room full of cages, with a Chinchilla cat and other dogs, and it was so funny because Satoru kept coming back to check on Nana. And when Nana left, the Chinchilla cat said "good luck" to him a foreign language! English, I presume, but it was spelled in a way that perhaps people (or animals) who are more comfortable with the Japanese language would pronounce. Also, Satoru's aunt, Noriko, sent multiple emails to her nephew because she was uncertain if she had sounded curt and that was amusing as well.

FRIENDSHIP

Satoru is possibly the best friend you could ever have. When Satoru tried to "run away" from home with Kosuke, it shows how naive Satoru was as a child. However, it also demonstrated that he was a true friend. He just really wanted to help Kosuke convince his father to accept Hachi. In return, Kosuke was a good friend too. On a school trip, Satoru had to leave prematurely. Kosuke, not knowing the reason why Satoru had to return home, decides to help his best friend buy Satoru's mother the souvenir that she had requested from her son. 

It was truly heartbreaking to discover how Satoru's parents died in an accident considering how the souvenir Satoru had bought for his father was a keyring with "Road Safety" written on it. Satoru, who seemed to be putting up a brave front at his parent's funeral, only breaks down when Kosuke passes him the blotting paper his mother wanted. It must have been worrying for Noriko to have seen how distant her nephew seemed. With strangers, it is easy to put up a false front but with the walls come down when you're with your best friend.

This happens again in the second chapter, when Yoshimine confided in Satoru about his parents getting a divorce and eventually starts to cry. Both Yoshimine and Satoru are well-behaved kids from broken families and they just clicked ever since the day their teacher introduced Yoshimine to the class. It was awkward because the teacher told everyone about Yoshimine's family situation and asked them to be friends with him. Perhaps, in the entire class, only Satoru understood Yoshimine's annoyance with the teacher. Although the teacher merely wished to help, she was quite insensitive. Nobody wants to people to befriend them just because they are pitiful. I imagine the same is true for celebrities. They probably don't want others to be friends with them just because they are rich and famous.

FAMILY

The story keeps coming back to the idea of family. Satoru tragically loses his parents in a car accident and his aunt has to take care of him. Even though he loses his parents, he does not lose sight of the importance of family. Hachi, his first cat, had always been considered as family to him. In junior high, Satoru and Yoshimine tried to travel to Kokura to visit Hachi, who had to live with distant relatives ever since Satoru's parents died. In high school, he is motivated by the same desire and takes up a part-time job at Chikako's family's orchard to save up for the trip. Although he doesn't make it in time, he still manages to visit and mourn the death of Hachi. Later in the book, Satoru also visits his parents' and grandparents' graves.

Perhaps the death of his parents, his cat, and his own impending death had caused Satoru to become emotionally mature. Satoru insisted that Kosuke could not take in Nana for the wrong reasons -- Kosuke wished to adopt Nana to lure his estranged wife home and to get back at his father for not allowing him to adopt Hachi in the past. Whatever it was, Kosuke was not the right human for Nana and it seemed like Satoru's visit helped him realise that he had to make things right and mend his relationship with his wife.

Noriko, who was brought up by her elder sister, values her family very much too. She felt like she owed her success to her sister and wished to do everything she could for Satoru. In the end, she finally stepped down from her position as a judge so that she could live with Satoru again in the days that led to his demise. She even took down notes on stroking Nana and prepared a new cardboard box for him! Even though these actions were unnecessary, she was trying her best for Satoru.

LOVE

Pet owners love their pets, but do their pets love them in return? In the book, the answer is a definite yes. In the third chapter, Satoru arrives at Sugi and Chikako's hotel, all ready to meet their dog and cat. However, the Kai Ken named Toramaru instinctively knows that his owner, Sugi, sees Satoru as a threat and barks at him instead. Tora doesn't want Nana around because his humans would be reminded of Satoru and tells Nana that his human smells like "he isn't going to make it" which causes Nana to strike him with his claws. This is probably the first obvious sign that Satoru wasn't laid off; he was going to die. When humans are in danger or in ill-health, animals seem to instinctively know. Both pets were standing up for their humans out of love and devotion. And when Satoru was reaching the end of his life, Nana runs away from Noriko and stays outside the hospital, waiting to greet Satoru when he comes out for walks. (Reminded me of Hachiko!) Nana loves his human so much!

There was also a classic love triangle during Satoru's high school days. Sugi and Chikako were childhood friends and he had liked her. After Sugi and Satoru save a Shih Tzu from a ditch, Chikako took in the dog and the three of them became friends. However, Sugi was always wary of Satoru and envious of him. He tried to make it seem like he found the Shih Tzu around the same time Satoru did. He told Satoru that he liked Chikako so that Satoru wouldn't confess his feelings in high school, and even when they were in college, he begged Satoru not to tell Chikako that he used to like her in high school. Sugi wished he had said that Chikako was cute first instead of Satoru, and wished that he was as thoughtful as Satoru when Satoru returned from his trip with souvenirs that Chikako liked. 

Ultimately, Sugi was not confident about himself, and Satoru could see that. Sugi admires Satoru for being such a strong and kind person, feeling as if he could never measure up to Satoru. However, Satoru tells him that Sugi's relationship with Chikako is stronger than he thinks. I wouldn't say that Satoru was selfless while Sugi was selfish. Satoru simply valued his friendship with Sugi and Chikako more while Sugi's insecurities caused him to react negatively. At the end of Satoru's visit, he tells Chikako that he used to like and they all laugh. Later, however, Sugi gains a little more confidence when his wife tells him she would not have known who to choose. His sense of inferiority must have caused him to think that Chikako would have definitely chosen Satoru over him. Since Satoru is quite a perceptive person, as Nana points out, Satoru must have known this and by telling Chikako that he used to like her, he was helping Sugi out before he passed on. In the end, Satoru's love for his friends and his aunt brought the characters together too.

BEING SENSITIVE/INSENSITIVE TOWARDS OTHERS

The dogs that were on board the ship to Hokkaido did not seem like a sensitive lot. The Chinchilla cat spoke up for Nana when the dogs teased Nana for being pampered and feeling lonely. It claimed that Nana's owner was lonely and since he smelled like he was dying, he wished to spend more time with his cat. They were being such insensitive mongrels! Kosuke's father was the worst though; he was not even apologetic about his insensitive remark to Kosuke's wife after her miscarriage.

Nana and Satoru seemed to be the most perceptive creatures in the story. Satoru was able to see that his form teacher had kind intentions even though what she did was quite insensitive. And Noriko may seem like someone who is too blunt but he understands that she means well. Noriko, in contrast, is shockingly insensitive towards others. Apparently, almost right after adopting Satoru, she delivers the news to that he was not related to his parents by blood and that his real parents did not want him. She does not taken into account Satoru's feelings and only regrets telling him after seeing the look on his face. He was just a kid and she dropped a truth bomb on him just like that! She even neglects her boyfriend's feelings by taking in Satoru without even discussing it with him first. 

I think it was important to include the cat's perspective to show how important it is to be sensitive towards animals as well, not just other people. As the title of Chapter 4 suggests, Noriko learns to be a more sensitive and loving person. Initially, Noriko was insensitive when she touched Nana's tail instead of petting him on the head and she also freaked out with Nana rubbed himself against her legs, which caused Nana to feel annoyed because he was just trying to greet her. Noriko also admits that she didn't understand how much Hachi meant to Satoru and somewhat makes up for it in the end because she brings Nana to Satoru's death bed despite the matron's protests. By the end of the book, she is sensitive to Nana's needs and even takes in a new kitten of her own.

People should put themselves in the paws of a cat once in a while. If they did, there would be no such thing as animal abuse. I mean, how would you like it if someone pulled your tail or if someone threw things at you? Sometimes, humans are disgusting.