Without further ado, I present to you Japan’s most noteworthy dogs!

Hachiko the Loyal

Of course, no list of notable Japanese dogs would be complete without Hachiko!

Hachi was an akita-inu (秋田犬) born in Oodate in 1923. He had a bit of a rough start in life – as a puppy, he endured a 20-hour train journey to Tokyo, where he then joined the Ueno household.

Prof Ueno was a lecturer at the University of Tokyo, and he would commute there from Shibuya Station. Although he already had two other dogs, John and S, only Hachi bonded with him strongly enough to develop the habit of seeing him off every morning, and greeting him every evening, at the station.

When Prof Ueno passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1925, Hachi was so distraught he did not eat for three days. Then, the house was sold and Hachi was given to new owners, but he kept escaping – back to the old Ueno house, and back to Shibuya Station to continue waiting for the professor. He would wait for almost 10 years, before finally succumbing to cancer and a worm infection in 1935.

Hachi’s trademark droopy ear was actually due to a skin condition. He became very popular after his story appeared in Asahi Shimbun – this was also when he started being called “Hachiko.”

By this point, of course, his loyalty had become legendary. In fact, he had become so popular that he, together with about 300 other attendees, was at the unveiling of his bronze statue at Shibuya Station the previous year. Actually, reminders of Hachiko are practically everywhere: his stuffed body is displayed at the National Science Museum in Ueno, there’s a yearly memorial service at Shibuya Station, manhole covers, murals… there’s even the Hachiko Bus!

Of course, you haven’t really made it unless someone makes a movie about your life, and Hachiko has got things covered on this point too. The movie Hachiko Monogatari (ハチ公物語, “Story of Hachiko”) was released in 1987, and the Hollywood version starring Richard Gere, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale” came out in 2009. Tissues not included.

Taro and Jiro, the Survivors

Taro and Jiro were brothers that were born in Wakkanai, the northernmost city of Hokkaido, and are karafuto-ken (樺太犬) – a breed that is now effectively extinct.

Taro was a hardworking goofball, and Jiro was a highly-strung, spoilt child. There was also a third brother, Saburo, but he fell ill and died during training.

Taro and Jiro were among the sled dogs used when the Japanese began to explore Antarctica in the 1950s. These dogs were left chained at Showa base by the first team, who believed that the second team would arrive just a few days later on the icebreaker Souya (宗谷). But thick ice and horrific weather meant that they never got there, much to the first team’s horror – who then faced widespread criticism for leaving the dogs behind.

It was not until almost a year later, in 1959, before a third team arrived at the unmanned Showa base – and received a happy, slobbery greeting from Taro and Jiro. The other dogs were either still chained and frozen to death, or had wriggled free like Taro and Jiro, but had gone missing.

The brothers’ miraculous survival moved the nation and was, of course, perfect movie fodder: Nankyoku Monogatari (南極物語, “South Pole Story”) was released in 1983, and the Disney version, “Eight Below,” was released in 2006. There’s also the drama Nankyoku Tairiku (南極大陸, “Antarctica”), which aired last year.

Unfortunately, Jiro survived only to die on another expedition in 1960, and was stuffed and put on display at the National Science Museum in Ueno (he’s now BFFs with Hachiko). Taro managed to tough it out until he retired, and then spent the rest of his days at Hokkaido University – where he is also now stuffed and on display. (Hmm… I sense a theme here…)

If taxidermy isn’t your thing, there are bronze statues of the dogs in Nagoya, as well as at the base of Tokyo Tower. Taro and Jiro also feature on the 500-yen coin that commemorates the 50th anniversary of Showa base.

Gon the Guide

Unlike Hachiko, and Taro and Jiro, Gon’s origins are unknown. He was a half kishu-ken (記州犬), half shiba-inu (柴犬) stray that appeared near Kudoyama Station around 1985. Then, for shits and giggles, I guess, he started escorting people from the station to the the nearby Jisonin (慈尊院), the Buddhist temple that marks the start of the pilgrimage route to Mt Kouya (高野山, kouyasan).

By 1989, Gon had been so named because he loved the sound of Jisonin’s gong. He had also made himself comfortable at the temple itself, and had begun to guide pilgrims along the 24km long route between the temple and Daimon (大門), the main gate at the summit of Mt Kouya. He would do this everyday, only returning to the temple at dusk.

I think Gon looked a bit derpier than his statue would have you believe. Also, if you’re looking for a nice souvenir, the temple sells Gon o-mamori (お守り)!

Of course, declining health and increasing age caught up with him eventually, and he died in 2002. He was given a funeral service, and because he was also believed to be a reincarnation of the Great Teacher’s dog that lived 1200 years ago, a statue of him was erected on the temple’s grounds.

Heart-kun the Adorable

What’s that? Since when has cuteness been noteworthy, you ask? Hey, I am a lover of small furry creatures, so humor me (please).

Heart-kun is a long-haired Chihuahua with a heart-shaped pattern on his coat, whose cuteness exploded over the internets not too long ago. He’s now the de facto mascot of Pucchin Dogs, which is run by twin sisters that specialize in the breeding of small, indoor dogs.

Don’t let their cuteness fool you. Behind the scenes there is nothing but intense competition, for there can be only one! Or something like that.

However, Heart-kun is no longer the only doggie in town. Since his birth in 2007, Love-chan and Ai-chan have burst onto the scene – they too have heart-shaped patterns, plus they are younger and smaller, and therefore… cuter (there, I said it! Ugh).

Only time will tell, but already I feel an impending showdown…

So, are you a cat person or a dog person? Is there a notable Japanese dog I missed? Let us know in the comments!

Header image by Hanafan

Flying In

The flight was uneventful (except for the turbulence that always appeared when I tried to go to the bathroom), long, and boring. I didn’t bring anything to do on the flight, so it was all about SkyMall. Seriously the best magazine ever made.

Upon landing, it was go-go-go, and I didn’t get to film much until I got into Shibuya (more on that a little later). I went downstairs and exchanged my JR Pass, which lets you ride all JR trains (that’s a lot of trains plus it includes the bullet train) for free (well, not free, but I only had to pay $700-ish dollars one time. Will pay for itself really quickly). After getting the JR Pass, I got my ticket for the train into Shibuya (because I knew there were some capsule hotels there, and you guys wanted Capsule Hotels), and it turned out it was leaving really soon. I ran down to the train, got in, and proceeded to use almost all 50mb of my phone data in one fell swoop. Whoops (Don’t worry, I upgraded to 200mb… I can’t use my phone so much).

Shibuya, The Man, And The Capsule Hotel

After arriving in Shibuya, I immediately started walking in the wrong direction, thinking I was walking in the right direction, and got lost in the Shibuya ghetto (if that’s even possible). While walking around, I met this older dude who wanted to know more about my camera set up. Turns out he didn’t have much to do, so he walked around with me to show me where Shibuya actually was, then show me some interesting things in Shibuya. For TofuguTV, I’m much more interested in the stuff that’s not in Tokyo, but I can show you here.

Me and the guy I met

We went around and saw a lot (and he wanted to see my capsule hotel, creepy, I know) – two things of interest include Hachiko, the ever faithful dog that waited for his master to come home (there was an American movie made about this).

…and a restaurant that specializes in Whale meat. You know, all in the name of science, or something. (P.S. if you don’t want to eat whale meat, you should probably avoid くじら).

That whale in the bottom right looks totally happy!

After he showed me around for a while, we went searching for a Capsule Hotel that also happened to be on the way home from this guy’s home (We’ll call him “Ta-san” because I only remember that his name starts with a “Ta”). It was a pretty sweet setup, actually. You get bathing facilities, a big locker, some sleepy clothes, a couple towels, and a nice coffin sized capsule to sleep in. I kept finding dead bugs in mine. I appreciate that they weren’t alive.

I’m planning on staying at another capsule hotel in Kyoto (which is totally awesome, from what I’ve read / seen), so I’ll do more on capsule hotels then, but this particular one wasn’t a bad experience. I’ll post more when I start putting up episodes of TofuguTV. One more good memory… there was a guy in one of the other capsules in my area that had a snore (or something) that was exactly like a dog barking. Maybe he had a dog. Either way, it kept waking me up, and it was really, really, weird. Seriously. Dog barking snore? Maybe he has something stuck in his throat… Other than that, it was a fairly good stay. Definitely recommend it for the experience, at least!

The Search For Wifi

The next morning (i.e. this morning, for me) was early. 4am to be exact. I pretty much just walked around in the dark and rain hoping that something would open. I ended up going to McDonalds because it was one of the only things open, and I thought they might have wifi. I was wrong.

This began an entire morning searching for wifi. Finally, I found a cafe called “Wired Cafe” in Shibuya. The internet there was pretty shoddy, but it got the job done. I think I was at the edge of the wifi signal. I’d have to move my computer to my left by about 3 feet in order to get things to load. I probably looked like a weirdo.

While I was there, I met the CEO of “Qoopedia” which is like Groupon (you get deals on things). He wants to make an English version for foreigners in Japan – you’ll probably hear about it here when that happens, too. We talked shop for a while (you know, business, startups, entrepreneurship, blah blah blah) and I headed out, eventually, because I needed a lighter long-sleeved jacket. I know a few of you called it. It’s way to warm here. My fleece jacket was unnecessary (but, I fixed that).

Hanging Out At Flutterscape HQ

Flutterscape CEO working hard on something

Luckily, today I had planned to go hand out at Flutterscape HQ (you buy Japanese things and get them shipped to you, it’s pretty awesome, and there’s free upgrades to express shipping going on right now, I think). Awesome to finally meet the folks I’ve been talking with a lot lately. I’ve bought a few products through Flutterscape and it’s always a great experience. The really convenient thing is that they ship things from Japan to America. I happened to have a problem where I packed too much and my backpack was too heavy. To solve this problem, I’m putting my stuff I don’t need in a box, and they’re shipping it back to my home in Portland, OR, so I don’t have to carry / throw it away. It’s a lot of stuff, too, and it’s (surprisingly) only going to cost around 2000 yen ($25-ish dollars). Not bad for international, considering how much box I’m sending back. Seriously, @hirrro who’s helping me do that is awesome. You help me say thanks to Flutterscape by tweeting this (click on the Twitter button below).

Oh, and I also got to use their wifi, so I could catch up on some email and write this post up.

Next Up? You Decide.

Of course, I don’t really know what I’m going to do from day to day, but I have some ideas for tomorrow. I’m going to start heading north (gotta get to Cat Island, eventually… so many people are requesting it). I’ll have a cameraman for a few days as well (Japanese friend from College), so it should be pretty good. Tomorrow is when the real show begins, I think.

I think there are three options. I’m going to lay them out here. For the first one, make sure you’re following on Twitter or Facebook to find / get the poll, going out soon. I’ll probably try to see a couple of these, at least, but I’d love to know what ones you want to see the most.

Option 1: “Western Village.” This amusement park is “American Western” themed, which means there will be cowboys and stuff. I’m really hoping it’ll be full of really ridiculous depictions of America, or be something like “America Town” from that episode of The Simpsons. Either way, it should be full of interesting hijinks, weird culture translations, and (hopefully) Japanese cowboys saying “putto uppu yoru handzu.”

Option 2: “Sex Robot Museum.” I have no idea what’s actually here, just that there are sex robots, or robots doing the dirty thing, or maybe a little bit of both. Who knew that there was a need to have a museum like this?

Option 3: “Sex God Museum.” Once again, not 100% sure what’s here, but it should be interesting. It’s all a matter of whether you want Robots or Gods. Up to you, really.

Option 4: “See Some Monkeys.” My camera man says he knows how to find monkeys around here. There’ll also be another opportunity near Nagano to see some monkeys, too, so keep that in mind. Not sure what these monkeys do, but monkeys are monkeys, and monkeys are pretty awesome.

There you have it. To vote on what you want to see the most, head on over to Twitter or Facebook to find the link to vote. While you’re there, you should make sure you’re subscribed to both of them… I won’t always tell you where to look, you know!