Life.

I want to preface this post by saying that this is not meant to be a comment on how I think pet stores in Japan, or anywhere else for that matter, treat their animals. If you have strong feelings either way, they don’t need to be shared here. This post was for seeing some interesting animals that people keep as pets. That’s all.

Now, after that downer of a beginning…

Every time we go to pet stores here in Japan, whether they be in Nagoya, Tokyo or elsewhere, I feel like I’m taking a trip to a mini-zoo. Maybe it’s that the pet store in my Canadian hometown isn’t large enough to have the need for a big supply of exotic pets. Or maybe it’s just that in Canada, we’re more into the standard dogs, cats, fish and hamsters.

There’s a pretty big pet store not too far from my house. It’s where I got Jackson and sometimes we go there to pick up things for him. He’s a little spoiled.

What will never fail to… confuse… me is why pet owners in Japan want to dress up their dogs. Some of the clothing for animals I get. For example, we bought a sweater for Watson for the winter when it got cold. And Kat’s dog Emma has boots. Oh I love when Emma wears boots.

Watson was never too impressed by his sweater though, as you can see.

But I digress. The selection of clothing that you can buy for your pet here is… special.

I feel sorry for every dog who has suffered the humiliation of being dressed up in these outfits.

Beetles are a common pet in Japan. Definitely not my cup of tea. Every time I even think about having one as a pet I can’t help but imagine it escaping from its cage, crawling all over my face and pinching me in my sleep. But I suppose for some boys and girls this pet is awesome.

Around the corner from the boxes of beetles is a separate room with mostly birds, reptiles and rodents. They also have bunnies.

Recently when we’ve been the giant tortoise has been walking around. He’s pretty big and just cruises up and down the aisles, and he’s actually pretty fast. Last time, he stopped to bathe in some artificial sun.

There was also a monkey! I would absolutely love a monkey, but the cost was, as I’m sure you can imagine, pretty high. He’s a cute little guy though.

Then there are the birds. The pet store had a ‘standard’ collection of birds, meaning parakeets and so forth. They also have chickens. I didn’t take any photos, but Nagoya is famous for a special kind of chicken which you can buy there. I have no idea why you’d want a chicken as a pet. Perhaps the two most interesting birds to find in a pet store were these lovelies. One is an owl. I’m not sure what kind of bird the other is, but it seems like it’s in the same family as a hawk.

Then of course there are the rodents. I wouldn’t say all of them are strange to see in a pet store, like the guinea pigs, degus and chinchillas, but man, those skinny guineas are ugly. And they had a few of them. I guess they’re one of those animals that’s so ugly they’re almost cute. Now squirrels… I have no idea what one earth would possess someone to want to have a pet squirrel. They are evil spawns of Satan… even if the flying squirrels are pretty cute.

The Prairie Dog was pretty cute. He’d stick his little head out between the cage bars and let people stroke his nose. Of course he’d also sometimes take a swing at you with those sharp claws of his. Other rodents for sale include hamsters, mice, rats and a wide selection of ferrets.

Other small animals you can buy for pets are hedgehogs (which my friend bought, super cute!), bats (yeah, no thanks) and armadillos (that’s not an animal I’d ever consider as a pet).

They also have an iguana that’s just enormous and was a lean, mean climbing machine. There are always lots of bunnies, but this one in particular was huge. The frog reminded me of Jabba the Hutt, so I had to take a photo. And the lizards, well they were just cute.

Some different animals I’ve seen at pet stores here are goats (yes, IN the pet store), ducks and wallabies.

And on a final note, an adorable photo of some puppies. If I remember correctly, there was a Yorkie, a Miniature Dachshund, a Maltese and a Papillon. The Yorkie was my personal favourite.

Well there we have it! A trip to a Japanese pet store. They have a lot of cats and dogs as well, but I didn’t photograph those ones. Maybe next time. And who knows what they’ll have in stock in a month or so! We’ll find out next time I’m there.

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