A royal dog in Tokyo. Hachiko

In front of Shibuya station, you may find a bronze of Akita dog. The dog's name is Hachi. Everybody call him Hachiko. "In front of Hachiko" is one of popular meeting points in Tokyo. Hachiko was a real dog who lived in Tokyo who faithfully waited for his owner there long after his owner had died. An American woman wrote about this story and published in the U.S. as a loyal dog story for children. I was surprised to accidentally find the book on Amazon, And it made me very happy to read some of the reader's comments. 

I will tell about Hachiko today. Hachi was born in Akita pref. in 1923. Because of his bent ears, people sometimes get wrong impression that he was a mixed dog, but he was a purebred Akita dog. His owner was a professor of Tokyo university. His house was big and located around area where Tokyu department store is now. He already had a pointer dog named John and another dog S when Hachi came to live his house. John, S and Hachi went to Shibuya station  eveyday to see their owner off in the morning and were there every evening meet him. It seemed the happiest days for dogs. Unfortunately the owner died one year later and his wife and dogs had to leave home to make ends meet. The dogs were taked to different homes with different owners. Mr. Saito who was a member of the Japanese dog Preservation Association, saw Hachiko sometimes and he remembered him as a faithful dog. By the time he discovered poor Hachiko in Shibuya Station, he was already sad shape, dirty pitiful but still waiting for his ex owner. Mr.Saito detailed Hachiko's plight in the newspaper and suddenly Hachiko had became a famous dog in Japan. While he was still alive, his statue was erected and his story was told in primary school textbook.

Ha ha Hachiko's tale itself was a pretty good, loyal dog story. But some people's reaction to Hachiko seems a little bit over-the-top actually. Anyway like I wrote in eddoko topic, my grand mom met Hachiko in her school days. Yeah, she said it was a dirty dog. :-). First Hachiko statue was melted once during ww2 to make armaments. The 2nd Hachiko in Shibuya station was recast again after ww2. Ah you can meet real Hachiko in the National Science museum with another famous dog Taro and Jiro.

Comments

[Mari]

Hi Gwen
Chobi!! Lovely name, Your friend Japanese?

Hi huang
Ah it was not good to eat lunch around Hachiko, because so many people just standing like you said. famouse puff cream shop? Hmm I have no idea. My favorite cream puff shop is Shirotae in Akasaka anyway!

TOKIO kun.
you are so cute. Blog shitanone. yokatta yokatta

[Gwen]

Ahah, Tokiokun posted something ＾＾ かわいい～ My friend's dog is called Chobi, that's a nice name for a dog too I think!

[huang]

When I was there, I hadn't read about the story but I did see many people waiting there. I was there with a lunch box bought from the food hall of the department store and trying to find a spot to sit and eat. I felt strange because everyone else was just standing and waiting and no one else seemed to be eating even though it was lunch hour. I was also rather conscious because I read in Lonely Planet Tokyo that Japanese do not eat and walk at the same time, except for ice cream. So I wasn't sure if I was committing any social sins by eating lunch in such a public place.

Mari, is there a famous store selling cream puffs at that place too ? The queue was too long, so I didn't get to try it.

[BlogPetの「tokiokun」]

きのう、ここにblogした。