November 22, 2007
File Under Miscellaneous
These are the last of the dog-related pictures from Japan. There aren't any shibas in them, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.
All I can say is, Yoshi & Tsuki are so lucky that I didn't see these until my last day in Japan, at which point I was preoccupied with worrying about whether or not we were going to have room in our luggage to get everything home that we had already bought. In case it's hard to tell, these are geisha wigs, kimono, and happi for dogs.
This was a sign at Shiba Park. I found the little illustration really hilarious for some reason.
...so much so, that I had to get a close-up.
This dog looks Akita-ish to me, but I have no idea what the sign says.
A sign at a restaurant at Decks.
A pet shop in Kabuki-cho (the red-light district).
They put pictures of all of the available puppies in the front window, which I thought was very clever. That way, if the puppies are sleeping, you can still see what they all look like.
Each puppy had a cute, little bed with a matching toy strawberry.
This little wildman made fast friends with my husband. He'd bark like crazy if you stopped paying attention to him. I'm sure he's back in Tokyo driving someone nuts right now.
Not all of the puppies were quite so wild.
And, as cute as they were, the beds did not seem to be a big hit.
Well, that's it, the last of the Japan pictures. I hope you've enjoyed them.
Posted by Mom at November 22, 2007 3:23 PM | TrackBackIt is wonderful to know that you had a good time in Tokyo.
The red outfit on the right side of the top pic is HAPPI which is the festival kimono for men. The characters on the collar says INU-WAKA means Dog Youth. Girls usually wear YUKATA which is a thin, cotton, very common summertime kimono and used as a bathrobe or sleeping wear as well. Actually Yakata is for men and women but girls wear very colorful festive ones for summer festivals.
The dog on the forth pic from the top is defintely Akita, the banner on the chest says Hachiko which is the most famous Akita in Japan. Hachiko kept going back to the Shibuya station by himself everyday to greet the owner even after his sudden death.
This sign itself says that Children's house of #110, #110 is the number of the police. But I am not sure if this is something to do with child abuse cases or not???
Or maybe this is for the crime against children. In recent years, the number of that type of crime has increased there like kidnapping, horrible abuse and even senseless murder.
I think puppies and kitties in that pet stores are mainly for bar hostesses. Many of those women like cute lap dogs. They are professional companions for men in bars, not necessarily prostitutes, they are sort of decendants of Gaisha(who are not prostitutes, inspite of popular belief) without traditional Japanese performing arts skills. If you are intersted in the night world in Tokyo, I highly recommend DVD called "When a woman ascends the stairs", it is a great film from criterion collection. This kind of films can make you under stand people and culture much better.
Posted by: blue at November 26, 2007 12:01 AM
