A Funny Thing Happened at Ueno Park

As noted in the previous post, thanks to the generosity of Momo and Kevin, I was able to witness the wonderful cherry blossom festival at Ueno Park in Tokyo last March.  However, there was a really amazing thing that happened there that I must tell you about.  The three of us decided to sit down and drink our beer and watch the thousands of people streaming by.  After about 15 minutes of this, I spotted a dog being walked by its master going by.  What caught my eye was that this dog was not only wearing a shirt (which I consider to be a little rare but I have seen many), but also a pair of pants!Now I must say that I have never seen a dog wearing a pair of pants.

So being the dog lover that I am, I pulled out my camera to take a photo.  Upon seeing me do this, the master brought the dog over to me, and he proceeded to jump up on the short little wall we were sitting on.  Judging by this dog’s fancy clothing, I would say he was obviously responsible for keeping all the other canines in Ueno Park in line.

So anyway, Momo starts talking to the master (in Japanese of course), and asks him what the dogs name is.  The masters answer?  “Charlie”.  Now when Momo heard this she almost fell off her seat as did I when she translated it to me.  Coincidence?  I think not!  I felt very strongly that this is far too serious to be coincidence.  Instead, I felt it was a sign – a sign that I was meant to be in Ueno Park, at that specific place and time, to witness the amazingly beautiful, Japanese insanity that is “Hanami”.