Twitter user Derek Wessman is a genius to have spotted (and appropriately translated) these brilliantly vandalized Japanese missionary signs that change the word “god” into the word “cat” by removing a few small strokes.
“The kingdom of Cat is close at hand”
And they just get better!
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“Both earth and man are Cat’s”
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“Cat doth watch thee in thy private life”
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“Cat doth punish sin”
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“Fear and honor thy Cat”
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“The day of the righteous judgement of Cat is close at hand”
These dire warnings appear on buildings throughout Japan, put there by American missionaries of the grim “scare people straight” ilk. I only put a few here—there are many more funny ones in Derek Wessman‘s Twitter feed, and Mutantfrog has an excellent history of this odd attempt at proselytizing, if you want to explore in more depth.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Last Tea Bowl Thief was chosen as an Editor’s Pick for
Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense on Amazon
“A fascinating mix of history and mystery.” —Booklist
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly e-magazine Japanagram, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Only In Japan 
Great! I need to pay more attention to these signs in the future 😁
To be honest, I think they’re all out in the more rural parts of Japan—never seen one anywhere near Tokyo. I’m totally going to keep my eyes open for them. though! (And thanks for the reblog—your blog always has so many fun things on it, it really cheers me up when something I put here makes the cut! WordPress is still being pissy about letting me “like” your posts—even when I’m signed in—but I’m there every day faithfully but fruitlessly pushing the button!)
Thank you 🙏 I didn’t know about that. I long to be in Japan again but it seems the ticket for April is sold at 1700€ which is double the price of what you normally pay so I’m waiting AND blogging about all the lovely things I’ll see/do/eat…
In English we can only change “god” to “dog” but “cat” is so much more appropriate!