Cats can be kept as domestic pets on Christmas Island. However, under Commonwealth quarantine legislation, cats cannot be brought to the Island. It is possible to take cats away from the Island, subject to quarantine requirements.
Since the cats on Aoshima Island have been cared for and pampered down many generations, they are docile and friendly. You can feed, pet, or just straight up chill out with them, and who knows, you might even discover a thing or two about yourself, in the process.
That means you can score a great deal on popular duty-free items such as fragrances, leather goods, electronics, jewellery, watches and sunglasses. It also means Christmas Island has some of the cheapest alcohol in Australia – perfect for treating yourself to a beer or a gin and tonic as the sun goes down.
Drink. As Christmas Island is duty-free, alcohol is usually lower priced than the Australian mainland. Some of the bars and taverns are: Tracks at Drumsite.
A 40-minute ferry ride from Ishinomaki, near Sendai, will get you to a small island named Tashirojima. There you will find a population of 100 people and several hundred cats. The feline domination of Tashirojima dates back to Japan's late Edo Period?from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century.
Aoshima: The Most Famous Cat IslandThe island itself is 1.6km long. The reason cats first made it to the island is because of fishermen who wanted to deal with the local rodent problem. However, after the rats were gone, the cats stayed and had a population boom.
The cuisine of Christmas Island can best be described as an eclectic combination of traditional Australian cuisine and Asian cuisine, particularly meals from Malaysia and Indonesia.