Momo and his handsome face

White, handsome, smart, and not actually as aloof as he might seem at first glance. No, not me but our middle cat Momo. He’s our most cat-like cat and the only one we were actually permitted to have in our apartment in Japan. Any time our landlord called round I had to skedaddle to the cat shelter with Hokke and Sunny in tow and hide out until the coast was clear.

About six months before we moved to Kumamoto we lived in another city called Fukuoka for a few months. Fukuoka was so close to Busan that the train journey to the airport in Korea took longer than the flight to Japan. In that naivety you can only really get away with in your twenties, we were both 29 at the time, we arrived in Japan without firm plans for a place to stay. Levy had a job lined up at a university in Kumamoto and we arrived in Fukuoka the month before she began.

Our first and final weeks in Japan were full of exhaustion and stress and were cripplingly expensive. After a day of apartment-hunting, we went out for a meal in a surprisingly excellent Indian restaurant. We ordered the couple’s special which was kind of a sampler of different starters and a choice of two mains. The second of the appetizers was a plate of Nepalese dumplings.

Levy: What are these?

Me (reading menu): I think they’re called Momos.

Levy: Momo…

Me: Sounds like a good name for a cat.

We eventually moved into a small apartment with tatami mats on the floor and, weirdly, a hole in one of the windows. It wasn’t broken, it was a little circular hole that was fine during the summer but a portal to hell in the winter. We ended up plugging it with a sock and froze half to death for the few months we were there. As a northern European, I’m naturally quite tolerant of cold weather but the icy winds in our 11th-floor apartment were a bit much even for me.

Tired of the commute, the hole, and lack of cats, we moved to Kumamoto in January 2015. The very same day as our arrival came with the news of a white kitten needing a home. As an earlier post discussed, Hokke chose us while we were waiting for the arrival of our new kitten. With his name already decided, we picked up Momo at the start of February. He was just a few weeks old and so tiny that he easily fit in my hand. He had a distinctive black spot on his head which has since completely disappeared. I remember his little nails were incredibly long. He still hates getting them trimmed to this very day.

Honestly, we probably got Momo a couple of weeks too soon. He wasn’t very steady on his wee legs and spent about 23 hours a day asleep. He wasn’t much good at eating either, he used to step in his food and we had to clean his jelly bean toes several times a week before any ailments set in. Hokke was very gentle and patient with him, he still is even though he could and can easily overpower Momo.

Momo is the alpha cat of the house largely by default. Hokke has only ever shown aggression to mortal enemies - the hairdryer and vacuum. Sunny loves to ambush Momo, much to his chagrin, but immediately surrenders whenever Momo squares up for a fight. All the cats habitually chase one another around the house, usually in the middle of the night. Most cat owners will be familiar with the crazy hour some cats have where they zoom like furry little maniacs at the most inopportune times. It’s triple the, uh, fun with three of them.

It was fortunate for the sake of our apartment’s harmony that Hokke and Momo became best friends almost immediately. That made those early days a lot easier for us, I remember being quite worried about Momo at the time. Luckily Hokke was there to keep him warm and show him the fine arts of being a cat. Hokke is sweet but he’s no oil painting. Momo on the other hand is a cat supermodel. We often refer to him as ‘Momo face’ or more formally, ‘the Momo face’. I have overheard Levy serenading Momo to the tune of Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’. I have definitely never done this.

As well as looks, he has brains which have often led to trouble. We used to keep their food under the sink until he learned how to open the cabinet doors. He’d get up on two legs and pry open the door with his forepaws while walking backward. If I didn’t personally see it happen, I’d never have believed it. We actually had to move the food to a cupboard and secure it with a lock to prevent him from stealing more. Sometimes he’d pinch a cut of meat and growl to warn the others off. Despite his best efforts, it’s one of the cutest sounds any animal has ever made.

He could also open the doors of our old apartment by jumping up on the handles. This would usually undermine our attempts to keep Hokke and Momo separate from the foster cats and later Sunny. If there’s one thing he hates, it’s a door closed in his domain. Here in the States, when Levy and I held online classes, Momo was a frequent interloper.

He’s a little more reserved with his affection, it’s almost like he doesn’t like the other cats to see his soft side. But when he demands pets, he will not accept anything less than your full attention. Hokke will contently sleep in your lap for hours (he’s doing so as I type this) but Momo would never accept such passive affection. His reaction to other people varies dramatically, our old landlady adored him, while at other times he’d hide and hiss at the few visitors we got. He’s a bit better these days and we’re glad to say he’s settled well into his new life in the United States.