Part of the fun of freezing my Florida butt off in Japan, in November is to go to the NIPPO Grand National. This show is held yearly, and this is the first time I’ve been back to Japan since 2019.
Plans got weird, so I made last minute plans to crash a Shiba group in order to go. That included a 4 hour train ride from where I’m staying in Minamiboso City to Narita airport. Due to the nature of living in a rural area, I had to wake up early to make sure I got all my connecting trains to the airport. I left the house at 7am and arrived at the airport at 11am. My flight didn’t leave until 8:55 but due to the schedules, it was better to be way early. I landed at Kansai airport at 10:30pm, took a short train ride to the hotel & fell asleep after midnight (the latest I’ve stayed up since arriving). I had one day to recuperate (which I spent going to the Osaka Pokémon Center & surprise getting lost per usual). Sunday morning was an early morning, we got up at 5am & there were more trains (several hours of riding in them) as well as a taxi ride to the show site.
Luckily for me, it wasn’t too cold, but I was bundled up to the point I’m sure people were wondering why I was so bundled it. It was great seeing the dogs, meeting new people, and just visiting an area I’ve never spent time in.
I also made the journey to Wakayama as in the recent years I’ve taken a special interest in another Nihon Ken – the Kishu Ken. Wakayama is one of the 2 places deemed the birthplace of the Kishu Ken (the other being Mie) since I was in the Kansai due to the NIPPO Grand National I figured I might as well visit. I wasn’t sure if I’d find anything Kishu related as my plans were to visit Momijidani Teien garden, Wakayama castle, & Wakayama Castle Park Zoo, but indeed I did.
Wakayama’s mascot is a Kishu named Ki-Chan. There were keychains, magnets, cookies, stickers, & a shirt with Ki-Chan on it. There were also Kishu on a couple different advertisements. But the icing on the cake was Wakayama Castle Park Zoo actually had Kishu! I was looking for the castle, thinking I’d spend more time at the zoo, so I wanted to do that last, but I got to the zoo first (didn’t realize I needed to climb up the mountain for the castle). The zoo is tiny & that’s all I’m going to comment on about it. As I left from one of several entrances/exists I noticed a brochure with 2 Kishu on them. I opened it up & it said there’s a meet & greet with the Kishu at 11! It was 10:40 so I waited around to see them. I really think it’s amazing the amount of pride Japan has for its native breeds. I have yet to encounter another breed/breed group of dogs saturated in so much cultural significance.
Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures from the Grand National – 10 out of 341! These ones were slightly edited to enhance the colors. Here is also a link to the public Facebook album.
Here are pictures from the Wakayama Castle Park Zoo Kishu Ken. Also an informational link about the Kishu Ken who desperately in need more fanciers as it’s an endangered breed!
Hopefully this post is coherent as I just got back to home base. The flight was the easy part, the 4 & ½ hours of trains, then a bus, then walking up a mountain isn’t necessarily my idea of fun but hey I did it & I didn’t get lost!
Boomlay Shiba Inu 