The Dogs

So while we were in Tokyo, Mena heard about a place called Inutama, Nekotama, Tamaitachi. It sounded bizarre. The idea is that there are dogs, and cats, and ferrets, at this little theme park, and people go to the park, pay a certain number of yen, and play with the dogs.

Being saps for any kind of dog-related activity, we decided we'd try to find this place.

Based on this article we expected to find a pretty damn uplifting scene:

Another visitor, a child with Down's syndrome, alternated between talking to each dog and running up and down the aisles with a train of playful dogs behind her. She looked free, happy.

This article made it seem like these dogs could cure cancer, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and still have time to lay down for a good belly rub.

So we got the address, and after looking at the map in our Tokyo book, we couldn't find it anywhere. We got directions for taking the subway out to the park, and after missing a couple of trains, getting on the wrong train twice (but getting off before it left the platform), we finally found the park. We bought tickets, and walked in...

... to find dogs in glass-front cages. It was the most depressing thing ever on first sight. In particular there was one Akita who looked so very sad, curled up in the corner (a position we'd find him in every time we walked by). We walked along the path, looking for the fun dogs that you can pet (as opposed to the locked-up dogs either staring catatonically or biting their fur off). But the only dogs we found outside of their cages were very distracted, looking off at other dogs, barking, or disinterested. I've never seen a dog so lacking in interest for human contact.

Thinking we must be missing something--very possible, as all of the signs and instructions were, of course, in Japanese--we wandered out of the Dog Town and down the street to a sign saying "Dog Park". This, we thought, must be where we can pet the dogs and play with them. But no: you have to own a dog in order to enter. So I thought, well, it's a theme park sort of thing--by "owner" they must mean "temporary owner renting the dog for an hour" or something. But apparently not, because we tried to ask how we could get in, perhaps by renting a dog somewhere, we were told it was for owners only.

So we went back to Dog Town. We saw some people walking dogs outside of the area, so we thought they must be borrowing them. So we tried to ask the ticket attendant, and she didn't understand. She brought over someone else, who also didn't understand. And he brought over someone else, who sort of understood, and who told us that at 3:00 we could walk a dog. I don't know what they must have thought of us. I think we must have seemed very sketchy, like we were trying to steal one of their dogs.

It was 2:30, so we decided to wait until 3:00, mainly just out of curiosity--we didn't think that our idea of walking and playing with a dog could possibly be what was going to happen at 3:00, but we hoped that it might. To pass the time (well, about 2 minutes of it) we took a picture with one of the dogs ("Chopin"). He was huge.

At 3:00 they started the "show" by introducing the dogs (at least, that's what we assume they were doing). The dogs varied wildly in temperament: some were very subdued, depressed even, while others were jumping up and down on their hind legs. After the introductions, they tied up the dogs, and told everyone in the audience--the place was packed--to stand up. So we did. And then people started going in one by one and picking out a dog to walk. We wondered where they could possibly be walking the dogs, considering how many people there were waiting--it couldn't be a "go wherever you want" sort of thing, because not enough people would be able to participate. Soon the first couple of walkers started trickling back in, and we figured it out: they were basically just walking them for about 2 minutes around the Dog Town.

We waited in line for about 15 minutes, spending the time looking over the dogs and discussing the dogs we planned to choose. There was one Australian Shepherd-like dog who had ignored us earlier, and who looked kind of sad, but sweet. And no one was picking him.

When it was finally our turn, we selected our dogs and were off (Mena had to wait a minute or so for her selected dog--the Sheltie--to return).

It was the least exciting two minutes of my life, with the least excited dog ever.

This dog did not want to be walked, petted, or have anything to do with me. He wouldn't even look me in the eye. I tried petting him on the head, but he just wouldn't get into it. And he was wearing this stupid little jacket, so I couldn't pet him on the back. I tried sitting down on a bench to pet him, but he kept pulling away.

So we left.