Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Goats and Guinea Pigs

Last weekend I was in one of those all-purpose stores (MaxValue, maybe?) in Saga with Yoshie and we happened to stroll by the pet section. I must say I was surprised by the selection. For some reason there was a goat hanging out there in a little fenced-off area. I felt bad for the little guy - barely any room to move around. And he didn't appear to be for sale. Just there to attract a crowd?


Also, they had guinea pigs, which I don't think I've ever seen before in Japan (though I must confess I don't frequent pet shops)! Not only that, but they had this strange but cute pig called a skinny guinea pig (of course katakanaized). Very odd, as the normal guinea pig was called a モルモット (sounds like marmot, but not to be confused with マーモット, which is actually "marmot").


As you can see, the "skinny guinea pig" was mostly bald, with some fur around its head and hind. Weird.

Of course there were no cats.

3 comments:

  1. In Tokyo I saw lots of pet shops with cats. 200000 yen cats. Thats an expensive cat. My cats just showed up at my house.

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  2. I recently tried to explain what a guinea pig was to my wife, but she had no idea. We went to a near-by petting zoo, and it appears she had never seen on before in her life. They must be a rarity in Japan.

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  3. Gobbler - Yeah man, don't know why people pay so much for cats and dogs when you can get perfectly good ones for free from a shelter.

    G Dawg - I also don't know why guinea pigs are so rare here. They are friggin awesome pets!

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