Ludwig and cats

I had piano lessons for a brief period of time as a child.
It was a private class with 4 pianos, a fireplace, and 4-5 cats in a not so big room.
Originally, I was taken along to my sister's piano lessons, where I would sit on the bench next to the entrance and pet the cats that would sometimes come up to me until my sister's lesson was over.
Mom was probably out shopping or something during that time.
I think she was doing that because in the U.S., leaving a child alone in the house or car can be reported as neglect, or worse, be kidnap. (Now that I think about it, this is not the kind of town where such a crime would occur. When we went grocery shopping, my sister and I would hide in the foot space in the back seat of the car because it was too much trouble to go around with her.)

Anyway, after many hours of just quietly waiting for the lesson to end, I was getting tired of it, and decided that I wanted to learn to play the piano, too, since it was the only thing in front of me.

There, for the first time, I could play by myself! It was Beethoven's music that I enjoyed playing. (It was arranged in a very simple way that even a beginner child could play.)
At the same time, I had a copy of Osamu Tezuka's "Ludwig B." manga at home at the time, which I liked very much and read over and over again.
This work, while taking the form of a creative biography with Beethoven as the main character, is also quite interesting, with the story of the French Revolutionary War centered on another man named Franz. The story begins with the outlandish interpretation that Beethoven lost his hearing because he was severely beaten the ear by this man, Franz, when he was a child. It is a real shame that the book ended unfinished (Osamu Tezuka was writing it until his deathbed RIP my god). I loved the hardcover of the book since I was a child, as if it looks like a massive dictionary, even though it was a comic book.
So I had a special feeling for Beethoven from my childhood, Like Alex in "A Clockwork Orange".

Eventually, I took piano lessons for about 2-3 years until I returned to Japan. (I had to take some kind of advanced exams a few times a year, where I learned to play "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, and that was the end of my piano career.)

The other thing I remember from piano lessons is that there was an aquarium in the bathroom that held a large number of large pop-eyed goldfish, which scared me so much that I didn't want to use the bathroom even if I needed to use. (I think they are cute now, but at the time I thought their eyes were popping out of their skulls! (I know, I know...)
Also, my sister and I both developed allergies to cats and had to take lessons with tears and snot running down our noses.
Both of us love cats, but my sister couldn't live with a cat after that, and I live with my precious cat while struggling with tears and runny nose.

The lesson I learned here is: "Hate cat allergies, don't hate cats.