Obon holiday

It’s Obon in Japan now and we enjoyed a long 4-day weekend. Obon is similar to Qingming, where people visit the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects (called 御墓参りohakamairi).

Many companies usually have a stretch of consecutive days off because many people need to travel back to their hometowns. Fu’s company is more flexible in that instead of dictating when the holidays are, everyone is given 4 days to take whenever they please. He has till end September to use them so he used 2 last week, one for our anniversary in September, and one backup for when he feels laaaaazy. Lol.

So what did we do? Watched lots of Olympic matches, specifically, table tennis!

And postponed going out to town to check out this dim sum (!!! dim sum in Tokyo!!!) place thrice. We still haven’t gone yet. Currently the date is set for this Friday lol.

And and and… we brought Milk Tea out to play!

It’s her first time ever at a dog run with dogs. You be like “Duh. Dog run of course have dogs lah!” But usually all the dog runs we go all got no dogs for some reason! o_O

Anyway, she REALLY goes insane when she sees other dogs. Whether on TV or in the flesh. She will bark and lunge at the other dog with her entire (3kg) self. It’s a herculean task – and one that leaves me in scratches/being pawed in the face/etc – trying to keep her under control.

So you can imagine we were a bit apprehensive as we approached the dog run…

As I was filling out the paperwork – yep, the Japanese’ obsession with forms continues even at the dog run – Fu was trying to rein in MT as she basically pulled and barked non-stop at all the dogs -_-||

One SUPER huge dog very quietly and suddenly came within arm’s length of her and my heart nearly stopped because I thought it was going to maul MT for being such a nuisance (which she was). Lucky Fu quickly scooped her up to safety!

We made our way into the area for small dogs and braced ourselves for the start of MT’s freak out.

Yep. And she delivered as expected.

She wouldn’t stop barking and she positively scared away the neighboring dog who was just trying to be friendly and came over to say hi. He totally didn’t dare venture anywhere near her after that. MT YOU SO HORRIBLE! PEOPLE JUST TRYING TO BE NICE!!! So super paiseh. We had to keep apologising to everyone cause she was really like a mad dog, barking at everyone and everything >___>

I thought she would calm down after some time in the same environment but nooooo. She’s still super agitated even after some time in the park! WHYYY.

A nice lady came over (with her 3 toy poodles) and started talking to us. She saw how MT was and advised us to remove MT’s leash. We both were like “Uhhhhh… and give her free reign to traumatise all the dogs in the dog park?” Please, if we did that I think we might end up having to leave the dog park with our heads hidden in paper bags.

She was all “It’s okay one lah! (<– obviously she didn’t use Singlish. Or English, for that matter.) Dog owners all understand and if the dogs don’t like it they will know how to run away!”

It made sense, but we were still “Uhhhhh… maybe a while more…”

And she looked at us all exasperated lol.

Then I talked to her a bit more and found out her dogs are 7, 7, and 5 years old. Then I decided heck la. She’s so experienced so her words have got to be worth something.

If MT goes and terrorizes all the dogs then let her terrorize la. Worst case just quickly exit the park and go home lol.

AND WE DID IT. We unleashed MT.

AAAAAAAND…

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she instantly scrambled back into our laps, wanting to be carried -_-

Super coward, this one. Only the bark is loud. Guts smaller than her tiny nose.

Every time a dog passes by her “territory”, which is like a 50cm radius around us, she will bark them to death. Then faster run back to us for shelter -_-;;

There was this super chill chihuahua that walked into her territory, went right behind her, and she didn’t even notice. Not counting on this one to protect me, that’s for sure -_- MT turned around, stunned, and barked non-stop as usual. This chihuahua didn’t even bat an eyelid LOL. And continued to try and get closer to MT. Super persistent, I like! Thank you for being MT’s first friend!!! *tears* *blows nose*

Let me show you the superstar chihuahua!

Note that this was taken almost an hour later after the chihuahua first came to us. MT is a lot more accustomed to other dogs which is why she only barked once. A MAJOR IMPROVEMENT compared to an hour earlier!!!

MT is a TOTAL SCAREDY CAT. But in some ways, it’s actually good.

She never strays too far from us.
Cause she’s scared.

She constantly checks on where we are and runs back to us.
Cause she’s scared.

She always comes to us when we call.
Cause she’s scared.

She follows us even when off leash.
Cause she’s scared.

See this video where she follows me!

DID YOU SEE THE PART WHERE SHE MET THE OTHER DOG AND DIDN’T BARK?!! My baby is growing up! *wipes tear*

Sorry this post ended up being 98% about MT ahahaha! But you must understand, MT is really like a baby – our baby. She can’t take care of herself, depends on us for food, protection, and care, and still has so much to learn about the world. And most people go slightly crazy with love for their baby, and can’t talk about anything else apart from their baby, right? Heh.

The best thing though? MT will remain the baby that she is the rest of her life. Even 10 years later, she won’t become an emo teenager, lock herself in her room, and think it’s bloody uncool to hang out with us. Hahaha. ILU MT~~~~~~!!!