Japan and Dogs.

Dogs are big business here, due to the "cute" obsession seemingly built into the Japanese psyche. But, not dogs as you and I know them, big slobbering golden retrievers or greyhounds limping through streets whizzing on lampposts, but dogs which look like rats dressed as princesses, proudly twinkling down the street with dog clothes on, ribbons in their hair, and YES, sunglasses, even!

There are hardly any stray dogs here, though stray cats are a very common occurence, and people seem to take an unflinching pride in their tiny dogs and carry them around in small custom made doggy bags. The more expensive the dog, and the bag and the accessiories, the better, it seems. And then there's the phenomena of dog beauty parlours, where they dog gets groomed and clipped and treated like a king while the owner does a bit of shopping around the mall. If you come across owners who tick all of these boxes, more often than not, their nose is firmly in the air. They KNOW how elite they look.

This penchant for tiny dogs is probably, on the surface quite a nice thing, a novelty for passers by and a lot of fun for kids. However, it's actually quite a cruel thing when you look a bit deeper, as having one (or commonly, more than one) of these dogs scampering ahead of you says a lot about your image. It's expensive to buy these dogs, and even more expensive to kit it out with accessories (the latest, designer), and also to keep it as well groomed as some people seem to do here. If you come across one of the worst offenders on the street, a perfumed, ribboned, combed little chiuhaua, people will stop and swoon/take a photo. However, if a smelly old half-dead mongrel emerged from an alleyway, it wouldn't raise a second look from the same crowd. So, as a lot of things conclude here, it's not about the dog at all, but how high it comes on the KAWAII!! (cuuute!) scale, not to mention the suggestion of the expense adding to the owners image...

Here is a photo I took at New Year in a holy temple ground, Dazaifu, which sees millions of visitors in the New Year. This woman obviously wanted to be seen, else she would have taken her pack of fluffy cloudy dogs to a quiet forest for a walk....

Unfortunately, they got into a scuffle with another tiny dog in a tartan coat, and she ended up tangled up in dog leads and looking like a bit of a clown...talk about backfiring.