Pet Shops!
A few weeks ago I had a chance to go to a pet store in Odaiba, an area of Tokyo right on Tokyo Bay. They have a couple of Western-style malls there, and in one of them was this shop. Not only did they have cats and dogs, birds and fish, but they had small animals beyond ferrets and rabbits that I could not identify. They also had massive amounts of pet clothing and accessories. My favorite, of course, were the strollers in which you could push your pup in case he’s too lazy to walk. You’d be amazed at how many of these you see on the streets. This is a country in which you can actually rent dogs for the weekend in case you can’t take care of one all week, but love pets. There’s no guarantee you get the same pet every weekend and I feel really sorry for these dogs who bounce around from owner to owner. For now, though, let’s concentrate on the shops.
Here is the stroller!
Whatever this is, it sells for $400
These are not baby goods for human babies
A piece for your pet to sit at the table with you
Racks and racks of clothing!
It's cute, but what is it?
These are baby birds
The ubiquitous ferret
I toured through the shop for nearly half an hour looking from cage to cage, item to item. Everything was spotlessly clean and there was no odor whatsoever. The pets seemed happy enough, and certainly with all of the accouterments for sale, they have the potential to live happy and pampered lives. The pet culture in Japan is one of love and care. You generally never see abused pets anywhere. The shop, in fact, is a testament to the way the Japanese treat their animals. Certainly it was like nothing else I’ve ever seen. What a country.
Aimee Weinstein, Tokyo Writer 
Wow, Japanese pet shops look like pretty fun places to be!
It looks like the $400 one is フクロモモンガ, or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_glider.
Too cute!! 🙂 Yay fuzzies. And the table setting is just to die for! I show my furrballs OFF the table.
The first little furred thingy looks like a mini raccoon of some sort, and the second one a chinchilla. I also remember reading somewhere that Japan is breeding these kinda bichon frise-looking pups with coloring like pandas. It’s both adorable and disturbing.
While it all looks so cute, part of me wonders what the animals think of all the pampering. The dark side might be that animals may be pampered, but like with a lot of the cutesy breeds over here, there’s a lot of shady breeding… and some of the food and products are not as healthy for the animals as the packaging leads you to believe. That happens a lot with rabbits and guinea pigs – which I know from experience. I’ve heard the same about rats, though I never had one as a pet. Even some of the trendy horse supplements and “pamper” products are not very healthy for them.
Not to be the cynic amidst the “squee” and “aww,” but you even touched on how the culture might affect the dogs who never get to have a single human (or “pack”) to bond with. There’s a certain degree of danger in anthropomorphizing or idealizing animals, too.
Thanks for sharing such a nice thought, paragraph is good, thats why i have read it entirely
Hi the best shop in Tokyo, sells any parrot food toys necessities etc? Any idea, your blog is informative btw. Thanks in advance.