Japan loves Dogs...Day 36

Day 36 - Thursday, May 6

Today was almost as eventful as the day before. I went to school and went home. Hey, I'm tired. Golden Week sapped my strength. But I did see some interesting Japanese things. My host mother showed me an add for a doggy hotel. I appears to be some kind of strange resort where Japanese people can stay with their dogs. (In case I haven't mentioned it Japanese people love their dogs. It's kind of crazy. Everyone is like a mini Asian version of Paris Hilton. There are dogs in purses dogs in cuter clothes than I own dogs in cars. Insanity.) So at this resort there are some normal things like playing in a field. Some reasonably strange things like fine dining with your dog. Then there were the things that were just plain weird. Like karaoke, yeah, with your dog. I'm sorry, dogs don't sing. What else, oh yeah, counseling with your dog. Really? Your dog does not speak Japanese. Then, and this was my favorite, ofuro with your dog. Basically hopping in a bathtub of boiling water with your pooch. Japanese people have a weird double standard for things like needing to be super clean before jumping in the ofuro and at the same time having it be totally okay to take your dog in there with you. I guess you could bathe the dog first, but then there's all that fur. I don't get it. My gut reaction was incredulity, but now that I'm thinking about it a bit more it's starting to make a bit more sense. Maybe I've been here for too long.