Japan is the only country in the world with more pets than children. An interesting statistic when you see how well behaved their kids seem to be and dare I say it mature for their ages. No screaming or sulking seen and then they go from edible adorable babies to the supercool in a matter of moments. Tricky to photograph, but just a few.

I remember reading in a newspaper recently that for a ninth consecutive year Japan has seen a drop in their birthrate, so much do that they could see the population drop to 100 million ( now 125m) by 2050.

Pets don’t pay taxes, but we saw many of them and it is easier to take pictures of them, by asking the very proud pet parent. I was politically incorrect when I asked the up wardly mobile young man in the main picture, “what is her name?” to be told it was a male dog with some indistinguishable Japanese name. All dogs are pocket sized, some in pushchairs like these dogs ….

Others being walked and followed round by parents with squeegee bottles of what I assumed was some form of detergent, used to spray down the pavement post pee. Amazing.

To top it all there was the young couple walking their pet rabbit around the Nara deer park wearing a very fashionable denim harness.

In 15 days I think I have seen 5 cats skulking around temples, not seen one street dog, few birds and bar the deer, little wildlife. On a walk out in Totsukawa after rain, a troop of Japanese Maacaques (snow monkeys) crossed the road in front of us adding another thrill to our time here.