Supermarket Pets

I’m in Japan taking part in Grizedale Arts project Seven Samurai. We’re north of Tokyo in the remote village of Toge – a picturesque rice growing location with idyllic slopes of tiny paddy fields – which we’ve actually managed to see today as it’s stopped raining for the first time since we arrived 5 days ago.
Yesterday under the thin disguise of some project research I joined the group trip to the Tokamatchi Mega Mall in search of a pet shop. The Japanese evidently have a different attitude to the UK in relation to live pet sales … in the middle of Mushasi (the massive hardware/in fact ‘anything you really might want’ emporium) are live pets for sale. Their large price tags are somewhat at odds with their casual distribution amongst the aisles of make-up And bar-b-que equipment.


The brown dog was in a small open pen, literally in amongst the rows of pet food, behind him sat rows of cats, rabbits, ferrets, stag beetles, mice etc etc.
Behind all of these sat a glass-fronted salon where the local pet elite were being washed and blow-dried!
What I really liked was the above aisle pictorial signage - where you’d normally expect to see DIY, food, toiletries & gardening pictures here you could also see pets.