The Japanese like their dogs. They own a lot of them by my observations and seem to go to a lot of trouble to dress many of them up. They also like to bring them out to the park, which makes for interesting signage, such as the following:

Which, I think, is pretty clear in any language to clean up after your pet. This was reinforced on a periodic basis with loud-speaker instructions, in Japanese and English, to clean up your trash and clean up after your animal. And it seems to work. In spite of the large amount of traffic that goes through the park (and the city in general), I saw no poop anywhere, as well as no trash. It’s a very clean environment.

And, of course, what better place to combine love of flowers, dogs, and photography, then the tulip garden? In this instance one well groomed little character was having the best of times being a bit disobedient and cute at it at the same time. How could you scold something dripping this much cuteness?

Probably the most touching, and extensive, example of dog care was this couple and their injured animal.

This cute and well-behaved little guy was being pushed about by his persons so that everyone in the family could enjoy a day in the park looking at the tulips. I did get to peek inside the carrier and all I can say is he had bandages around the middle part of his body (he could have been a she, but I couldn’t tell). It’s a good things my Labs don’t read my blog…