Heart Tokushima

The animal shelter in Tokushima was started by a Canadian women, Susan Mercer and her husband, Hitoki. She wanted to rescue the dogs that were sheduled to be gassed from that horrible death. With humble beginnings she now runs the shelter with over 130+ cats and dogs and has a clinic that spays and neuters cats and dogs. She is at over capacity and had to recently stop taking animals in. They have 4 levels of outside floors of dogs. The volunteers, like me, walk the dogs for 15 minutes each.

I haven’t really had much experience with medium to large dogs so walking them wasn’t easy, especially when they are scared and don’t want to walk. I had to literally pull the dogs to get them to walk. One dog was soo scared he was walking backwards most of the time and accidently walked himself over a ledge! In a panic I pulled him up by his collar. Good thing I didn’t choke him to death! Another time, later in the day when I was feeling pretty good about how I was doing, when transferring leashes I mistakenly dropped a leash and that dog went running off… free. I ran after him up the hill and thank goodness the staff was there and she grabbed the dog. Never forget those two… BeeBee and Dixie. Now I hold on to the leashes with a steel grip. They are not going to get the best of me again!

So day after day I spend walking the dogs picking up poop for about 4 hours a day. It gets to be physically as well as emotionally draining. I am saddened by the condition of some of the dogs … many are scared, have goop in their eyes and their fur is matted and dirty. The staff do the best they can. They are constantly working at cleaning and feeding as well as walking dogs. I am saddened when I think they spend the most, if not all of their day, in their cages. I wonder if they are happy and if it’s the best for them. Some do get adopted, but what about those that don’t. My thoughts disturb me and my heart feels heavy, but I just walk the dogs.

I have to admit, though, that they are less scared of me as the days go on. The one that walked backwards off the ledge is not doing that anymore.
I will continue to follow the website to see if some get adopted.

If not for Heart I wouldn’t have come here and as a result I have discovered the many wonders of Shikoku. Tokushima is known for the Awa Odori (tradition bon dancing). Every August for 3 days they have a festival that draws many from all over the world. They get over a million people to come. As a result Tokushima has the infrastructure to handle such an event. It gets obvious as you see many stage venues and wide streets to enable such a feat. All year around they have performances here at the Kaikan 3 times a day and once at night to give you a taste of Awa Odori. It is quite enjoyable. I went to two performances on different days and each one was great. Some different dances and performers, and still a fabulous show with audience participation. The dancing was vivacious and lively.
The costumes were colorful and attractive. It was amazing to see the women dance in their ghettas. I need to see if I can walk that way in my ghettas.
They give a brief history and show the evolution of Awa Odori.

Besides Awa Odori, I went up to Mt Bizan, saw the view… and ate the most delicious ramen I have ever had. I decided to walk to temples # 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 out of the 88 Temple Pilgrimage here on Shikoku. It was wonderful. The mileage between temples ranged anywhere from 1 mile to 3 miles so I could do it all in one day. Met some great people walking. Got hooked into getting the Goshuin at each temple. For a price of 300 yen they do calligraphy and stamp which is unique to their temple. It is just beautiful and now I want more. So much so that I decided next week to do 5 more that are close to Tokushima.

More walking dogs. A girl from Sado Island that I worked with showed up this week so I am no longer the only volunteer. Nice to have help here. She finds the work just as hard and, like me, struggles to find meaning. She has more experience working with rescue dogs and she feels that they need to first lose their fear of people. She says we should be building relationships not just walking the dogs. She spends more time with some of the dogs, but I just do as they ask… 15 to 20 minutes walking the dogs. I have to admit, though, I think some of them are not as fearful of me as they were in the beginning.
This next weekend I walked the 5 other temples. Temples # 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Those took me longer than I excepted. It was tirering, but I met up with some more fun and interesting people and even walked with some to the last temple. At the 4th temple, I left my wallet at the goshuin counter and they drove to find me to return it. I didn’t even know. Think it might been because I took a low hanging persimmon from a tree and ate it, thinking that maybe it gave me bad karma. The persimmon wasn’t even that good. I was just tired and a bit hungry. So glad to get my wallet back and I won’t break the rules again.

Maybe someday in the future I will come back and finish the 88 temples. I just didn’t plan on it this time and don’t have the time. You need at least 2 months for just that. We shall see. Where I am going soon, in Dogo, there are a few temples close by. I may try to do them.
My time in Tokushima is done. Three weeks, actually, went by fast. I am heading to Iya Valley to see Scarecrow Village. So excited for that. Leaving my new friends, Maddy and Jenor. Maddy from Victoria Canada and Jenor from Germany. We will keep in touch via Instagram.
Japan is known for their questionable treatment of unwanted animals. Each year thousands of animals are getting destroyed at cruel gas chamber’s in Japan. That is what Susan Mercer is trying to stop.
Each city has its own kill shelter which are named as so-called animal welfare center’s. Some cities utilize lethal injection as method of killing but majority of the cities still utilize gas chamber which cause extreme fear and suffering to animals. I don’t want to explain the suffering and how long it takes to die, because it is very upsetting. Look it up if you want. So, no matter what, I commend Susan for doing what she has started and continues to do. I wonder, at times, if there are other ways to do things in order to get them adopted faster. However, I remain committed to those like Susan who attempt to make a difference in the lives of animals. Now I am off the do what I want to for the remaining of my time here in Japan.