Let your need guide your behaviour

November 15, 2018 7:42 AM

Two cats that have spent the past two years trying to enter an art museum in western Japan – only to be politely turned away at the door – have become online celebrities with a global following willing them on in their attempts to see at least one exhibit up close.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (51 comments total)

LET THEM IN
posted by poffin boffin at 7:46 AM on November 15, 2018 [66 favorites]

Ken-chan and Go-chan, who continue to visit “most days”, are often seen together in the museum grounds,

Awww, he just wants to visit the museum with his friend. I hope they get a chance some day.
posted by Fizz at 7:47 AM on November 15, 2018 [11 favorites]

Felines need artistic enlightenment too!
posted by Samizdata at 7:47 AM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

I support the efforts of Ken-chan and Go-chan to help curate the world's finest exhibit of half-mice and vases knocked off of pedestals.
posted by Etrigan at 7:49 AM on November 15, 2018 [55 favorites]

It appears there's a Twitter page devoted to the little scamps.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:49 AM on November 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

i will construct an enclosed wheeled conveyance for them to safely and hygienically visit museums across the globe, to whom should i apply for this important arts grant
posted by poffin boffin at 7:52 AM on November 15, 2018 [64 favorites]

If they're like most cats they're scratching at the entrance half an hour before the museum opens every day.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:54 AM on November 15, 2018 [15 favorites]

They should really let them in just once, but make it a big event. Red carpet, paparazzi, all the fanfare. Maybe charge an extra admission fee for people to participate in the special event, and donate the funds to a local animal charity or something. Because all cats deserve to accomplish their dreams! (I'm not sure if cats have a setting between "MUST DO THE THING!!!" and "idgaf".)
posted by hasna at 7:54 AM on November 15, 2018 [56 favorites]

I have "Dear Diary..." running through my head as I watch those little videos.

Poor kittens.
posted by slipthought at 7:54 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

...and once they're finally let in, they'll likely want to be let out again. And then back in, then back out...
posted by hasna at 7:55 AM on November 15, 2018 [99 favorites]

i will construct an enclosed wheeled conveyance for them to safely and hygienically visit museums across the globe,

A google image search for "cat in hamster ball" has got you covered friend.
posted by Fizz at 7:57 AM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

They should really let them in just once, but make it a big event. Red carpet, paparazzi, all the fanfare. Maybe charge an extra admission fee for people to participate in the special event, and donate the funds to a local animal charity or something. Because all cats deserve to accomplish their dreams! (I'm not sure if cats have a setting between "MUST DO THE THING!!!" and "idgaf".)

Science cannot properly describe the certainty I have that if this is scheduled, the cats will be nowhere to be found on the day, and back at the door the day after.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:08 AM on November 15, 2018 [139 favorites]

Or. they will come to the door, sniff around, and leave.
posted by Samizdata at 8:18 AM on November 15, 2018 [11 favorites]

THEY BELONG IN A MUSEUM!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:23 AM on November 15, 2018 [23 favorites]

Science cannot properly describe the certainty I have that if this is scheduled, the cats will be nowhere to be found on the day, and back at the door the day after.

YES and that is what truly makes it Art.
posted by poffin boffin at 8:24 AM on November 15, 2018 [36 favorites]

The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore:
When you let him in, then he wants to be out;
He's always on the wrong side of every door,
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:29 AM on November 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

They're there for the scratching-postmodernism exhibition.
posted by pracowity at 8:46 AM on November 15, 2018 [18 favorites]

Could we maybe start a GoFundMe to buy them each a membership? Come on Metafilter -- we can do this!!
posted by holborne at 9:20 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

Set up a seafood joint across the street. Problem solved. Or moved, rather.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:30 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

"Paging Haruki Murakami we have a code RED...."
posted by Damienmce at 9:41 AM on November 15, 2018 [11 favorites]

Rome, some ten years ago, probably still the case. The Museum of the Terme di Diocleziano had a cat problem. They would come in using the door or the window and just perch themselves between statues legs. The guard would chase them out. The lady at the entrance would put out the big orange tabby she found perched on her desk.
The cats would act a little affronted and then would be straight back in as soon as it was rained, it was too hot or too cold or merely took their fancy.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 10:37 AM on November 15, 2018 [11 favorites]

This is actually a Ghibli movie where the cursed cats have spent years trying to find the magic item in the museum that would transform them into humans again. One summer's day they stumble upon a museum worker's granddaughter who can understand their language...
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:41 AM on November 15, 2018 [47 favorites]

The orange cat is so pretty!
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:47 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

I’ve seen this before. They can’t let them in bc once you indulge your cat this way they start demanding that you put on some SKYNYRD. They want to go to technical college and learn how to maintain servers!
posted by bleep at 10:50 AM on November 15, 2018 [13 favorites]

He's always on the wrong side of every door,

Demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how cats view doors. Doors do not have right or wrong sides. Doors themselves are wrong, and should be removed or fixed in an open position.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:02 AM on November 15, 2018 [26 favorites]

That is pretty much the deal, from what I have heard...cats view their territory as One. There is no "inside" or "outside", it's all part of the domain, and, as predators, they want to patrol the whole thing on the regular. I dunno, maybe that's a just-so feline evo psych story, but it at least fits the evidence.
posted by thelonius at 11:13 AM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Awww...cute little side-flop from Ken-chan in one of the videos.


I was going to make a "Still, she purrrr-sisted" riff, being kept out by THE MAN, but I see they are both male cats. :-P
posted by darkstar at 11:19 AM on November 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

They what to see the Pusscattos
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:20 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Let them in! At least they're not weird looking and/or look like grandma.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 11:23 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

I loved these videos when they crossed my path yesterday!

These cats have been casing the joint for two years, are they aware it is a museum and not, say, a fish processing plant? Their heist is going to be a disappointment when they get in.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:05 PM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Big deal. My 5 year old could pet those cats!
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:05 PM on November 15, 2018 [13 favorites]

ART IS FOR EVERYONE YOU COWARDS
posted by praemunire at 12:07 PM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

I love the way the guards are so nice to them.
posted by Windopaene at 12:14 PM on November 15, 2018 [13 favorites]

Saying no to a cat is never nice. Source: my cats upon being told no more treats.
posted by jeather at 12:16 PM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Cats are persistent little fuckers that ALWAYS find a way to get what they want. Even if they have to organize a viral social media campaign to get it. Mark my words.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:20 PM on November 15, 2018 [26 favorites]

We all know what happens once you let cats into your museum, they're still there 200 years later.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:31 PM on November 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

Japanese cats are so polite!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:00 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ken-Chan in the last panel here: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the museum."
posted by The Bellman at 1:08 PM on November 15, 2018 [8 favorites]

Is this the fishery museum?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:00 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Onomichi, incidentally, is one of the two towns in Hiroshima Prefecture where they’ve done Cat Street View.
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:33 PM on November 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

They work for Banksy. Soon, ALL of the paintings will be shredded!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:28 PM on November 15, 2018 [12 favorites]

"Paging Haruki Murakami we have a code RED...."

A divorced male artist, after eating an artfully-described home-cooked meal, drinks too much beer while listening to 1960s jazz LPs and ruminating about how his life went wrong. Later that evening, in a drunken stupor, he accidentally falls down the ancient neighborhood well (now dry, but flashback to an event one hundred years earlier when this Tokyo suburb was still a rural village, involving characters seemingly unconnected to the protagonist).

He regains consciousness in the body of a cat who lives near the museum where he once had a show, in happier times, when he was married. He then spends the second half of the book trying to get into the museum to see a significantly-younger and physically-attractive museum employee he knows. The reasons why he keeps at it are unclear — he would represent it as trying to make sense of the surreal situation he finds himself in, but really he may only be angling for pets as she does love cats.
posted by D.C. at 6:17 PM on November 15, 2018 [20 favorites]

This could be the setup for a sequel to I Am A Cat.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:13 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

I dunno I think maybe I’d rather read the Banana Yoshimoto version
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:33 PM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

When someone first sent me gifs of these cats and guards, I couldn't tell if the guards were trying to pet the cats, or what.
posted by batter_my_heart at 11:57 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

In my mind the guards are saying "Sir, Sir, please, I am sorry but this museum is not suitable for you" and feeling really awkward since of course you'd never say that to a human patron, it would be terrible discrimination.

And the cats are all hehehehe, what a way to spend the day.
posted by kitten magic at 12:56 AM on November 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

How did my cat
Get to Japan
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:58 AM on November 16, 2018 [8 favorites]

Set up a seafood joint across the street. Problem solved. Or moved, rather.

If a seafood place set up coincidentally across the road that would totally work. If you set up a seafood place with the purpose of distracting the cats that really wouldn't work at all, they would 100% ignore it.
posted by *becca* at 1:27 AM on November 16, 2018 [6 favorites]

The obvious thing to do is set up a cat-focused museum with some cat curators and cat administration personnel. The latter mostly lie on stacks of unfinished paperwork.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:17 AM on November 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Science cannot properly describe the certainty I have that if this is scheduled, the cats will be nowhere to be found on the day, and back at the door the day after.

"After all this time, now they're just hanging out in the giant cardboard box that the museum was shipped here in."
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:10 AM on November 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

How cats end up with nine lives.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:05 PM on November 17, 2018 [1 favorite]