Tonkun

Recently, Yukari and I were walking home after dinner, down a long street near our house that features a ton of restaurants and, of course, a water bar.

When I glanced up one of the little side streets, I saw a pig. And not just any pig, but a huge, pot bellied big that looked like it had teleported in from some farm. Needless to say, this was not what I was expecting.

When I pointed the pig out to Yukari, she first claimed that it was not a pig. Undeterred, I approached the pig and its Japanese owner.

Me: “Is that a pig?”
Japanese Pig Owner: “Yes! [proudly] He’s exactly 100 kilograms!”
Me: “Is it OK to pet him?”
JPO: “Sure!”

So I petted the 200+ pound pig. He was a little bristly, but otherwise similar to a very large dog. He snuffled around the street while I petted him, eating tree leaves and bits of trash.

At this point, Yukari decided that she was going to get into the game too. She found out that the pig was only 2 years old (!) and was named Tonkun or “pig”. If you’ve ever eaten tonkatsu, Japanese fried pork cutlet, it’s the same “ton”.

Sadly, this was one of the few times that I didn’t have my cell phone, so no pics of Tonkun. But I’ll be on the lookout; hiding a 200+ pound pig in Tokyo is pretty hard.

The best, however, was, as we walked away, Yukari went into Miss Manners mode:

Yukari: “You shouldn’t ask people if their pets are pigs or not!”
Me: “Why not? It was clearly a pig?”
Yukari: “It would make the owner feel bad if you were wrong and it was just a really ugly dog.”

The finer points of Japanese etiquette are clearly still beyond me.

Posted by pmk at April 16, 2007 1:50 PM