Inktober Day 26 Maneki Neko

If you have ever been to a Japanese restaurant, you have probably seen maneki neko, or lucky cat. I've always known that maneki neko is supposed to bring food fortune to those who display it, but I didn't know that there are different meanings to its color, the position of the raised arm and other features. 

If you would like to know more about symbolism, visit here. Or if you would like to know more about its history, visit here.

We have two maneki neko, a traditional ceramic one and a plastic one.

These are actually our second and third maneki neko. Our youngest dropped the first one and unfortunately shattered to pieces. Just like Humpty Dumpty, it could not be put together again. We took great care with our second but during one of our moves, it got cracked. But I was able to glue the pieces and it has survived subsequent moves across the country. A couple of years ago when my husband was in Japan, I had asked him to buy another. He was afraid travel with a ceramic one (and also because what would it mean if we crack a third one?), he decided to get a small plastic one. This one has a solar powered arm and head so the arm waves and the head bops. And now we have one with left arm raised and one with right arm raised. Surely, both will bring us great fortune, right? I certainly hope so!

I haven't blogged in a week, not because I haven't created or I've lost interest, but because we have not had internet since last Tuesday! I won't go into details simply because I might scream again. The modem is supposed to arrive this afternoon. I am sitting at Starbucks writing this post on my phone. My cell service is very spotty at home. I've been able to post on Instagram and I could post on Facebook if I want to wait 30 minutes for FB to load. I've been able to "like" or comment on posts sometimes but the experience is so frustrating that I just didn't bother. I didn't realize how dependent we are on internet connection. Even the kids absolutely need it for homework. Do all kids have computers at home?

So here are the journal pages since my last post.

I hope you had a great week and hopefully I'll be blogging again tomorrow on my new laptop and faster internet connection!