Silly Japanese folkways: Cat-scare Bottles
UPDATE: Today’s mo’ silly… The “BUG-scare BAG“…
Here’s a photo from my secret Tokyo girlfriend, “KeitaiGoddess” about an odd Japanese folkway: Arranging PET bottles of water will scare cats away from a building.
I wonder if they are there other countries where people are so dullible* to think that cats even notice this? *”Dullible” Ha, ha, now that’s a stupid-but-so-true Freudian mistake for ‘gullible’.
Here’s a larger/funnier picture on the Richard Frankum’s Flickr photostream.
Click to enlarge.
Even Wikipedia in Japanese warns that this common knowledge (wiki) is wrong:
PET bottle incident –
There has been false information circulating that filling PET bottles with water and leaving around building entrances will discourage alley cats. This has resulted in an odd kind of spectacle of water-filled bottles being placed everywhere. However, there have same cases reported that these bottles have caused incidents when the water in a PET bottle focused sunlight enough to start a fire.
UPDATE:
According to Boing-Boing seems there’s a “BUG-scare BAG” has spread to California from a kibbutz in Israel that is used in similar way as the Japanese Cat-scare Bottle. Although April Fools seems to have come a bit late, these plastic bags filled with water, and hung from tree branches to scare the bugs away.
See Boing-Boing for more silliness and many informative/funny comments about the “BUG-scare BAG.”
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February 29th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Hihihi hihihihi I am des-tiny O.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Hey, sorry about changing the spelling of your name DestinyO-san. However, there are tens of thousands of spambots that make innocuous posts like yours just to check how tough spam filters on a blog site are.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:26 am
D:< im not a spam bot i just wanted to be loved by jesus after we had a pillow fight, thanks for the reply TARO!
March 1st, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Hey thanks for writing back.
Did you know that the Buddha always beats Jesus 3 for 3 in the All Gods Pillow Fight Championship year after year, eon after eon. (Somehow I think Buddha’s stone pillow might help.)
March 5th, 2008 at 12:19 am
my name actually isn’t destiny, she’s my partner for sociology and we’re studying cultures. we both love Japan and i was researching folkways, and i love leaving comments! Destiny said she’ll kick me with a straight kick to the side which is not the same as a sidekick if i don’t tell my name Alex B.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Wow this site fuckin sucks….
April 16th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I don’t think this site sucks. Pooh pooh to comment #6.
April 16th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Shucks, we all suck. Suckitude is universal. Only silicon-based life doesn’t suck…thank goodness.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
You can find the some Cat-scare Bottle in Italy too.
:p
June 30th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Uh… anyways, back to the subject of pet bottles and water, I’ve also heard that rumor about the water in the plastic bag. My friend tried it once, she said it seemed to be effective. I’m a bit skeptical though.
July 7th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
It’s called Neko Yoke, and as for “other countries where people are so gullible”, yes, most countries has tons of gullible people that thinks urban legends are real, even worse things than Neko Yoke.
Japan is just like any other country, gullible people are to be found everywhere.
And I risk to say even this post writer and most of it’s commenters also believe in some stuff that’s just urban legends.