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Awii (a-WEE) is a two-month old cockatiel (okame-inko in Japanese) and the newest member of my household.

I have been looking for a nice cockatiel for a long time now, and have been visiting various pet stores every month for the last 5 months or so, looking for a bird that was both young enough that he/she would still be likely to bond with me, and old enough that I don't have to hand-feed it four times a day.

This week, I found two... one was in a store in Kichijyoji for 160,000 yen. (about $160) but after Myu's (my second parakeet) death, I don't trust just any pet store, and this one was quite suspicious... so I went to Shibuya to the greatest pet shop in the world at the roof of Seibu department store. Of every pet shop I have been in in Tokyo (and that is a lot) this is the one store where the person working there (always the same old man or his younger intern) really pays attention to the birds, and can answer any question I have, and that is where I found Guri. They also had three cockatiels young enough yet old enough... but the same age white cockatiel was 240,000 yen ($240). I was prepared to pay 160,000, but when faced with the option of buying an expensive bird from a shady shop, or paying 8,000 yen more for a bird I feel absolutely confident will only die if I screw up, I decided to shell out the extra 8,000 yen... so I have to skip one hash a month for the next three months... oh-well.

Where did the name Awii come from? Well, first I though he/she looked like a "Walter" but since I don't know yet the sex of the bird, I didn't want to give it a gender specific name... even if I did know, I wouldn't want to lock it into a gender role by giving it a gender specific name. I want it to play with both trucks and dolls. I started looking for something else, but the "w" sound stuck. When I got home, I put the new bird in a cage while Guri was outside, to let them get used to each other, and they looked at each other a bit, after an hour I thought all was ok, so I let the new bird out. They again stared at each other for a bit, and then, I don't know who was spooked first, they both started flapping their wings like crazy and flying away from each other scared as hell. Guri is a great flier with complete control so there is no problem there, but Awii is still only two months old... she/he flew around the room bumping into everything and anything possible to bump into, and in the end, there was a bleeding wound (an owwie) on it's wing... thus the name Awii.

Guri seems a little jealous, and doesn't really want anything to do with Awii now, but I am afraid they will actually become too close when I am at work all day, and Guri will stop loving me. As it is, every morning around 6:00 Guri starts screaming and crying until I get up and open the cage door so she can fly down and sit on my pillow or on my shoulder as I sleep... sometimes if my hand is palm up, she sits in my palm and poops until I wake up. I hope Awii doesn't do this because Awii's poop must be quite a bit bigger and juicier than Guri's.

Hi!
I'm still searching for the translation of the japanese word okame-inko into english
I know, it is cockatiel - but the meaning of the japanese words?
For examples:
in german language it means: parrot of nymphs
in chinese language it means: tail of a cock-cockatoo :-))

May you please help me?
That would be great!
Thank You!

Greeting from Germany/Europe
JANA

Hi Jana,

I looked at your site. It's nice... It also forced me to remember some of my
high-school german. :-)
I loved the picutres of the babies. I bought a female for my male, hoping
they might have some babies, but they seem to hate each other.

I don't know if you found the, but here are a lot of pitctures of my birds.

As for your question...

"Inko" is a parrot.
"Okame" also known as Otafuku, is a plump, rosy cheeked, laughing maiden's
face whose well fed look symbolizes prosperity
The cheeks are usually red, much like a cockatiel of course, thus the name
"Okame Inko"

http://www.joaf.co.jp/omen/omen-5/omen-5-.htm
http://www.joaf.co.jp/maturi/omen/maturi-omen-.htm
http://www.trocadero.com/shirobeb/items/144321/en6store.html
http://www.netsuke.com/sagemono/obidome/okame.htm

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