Japan's Most Loyal Dog
Shibuya, Tokyo
October 23, 2004
A bronze statue outside of Shibuya station commemorates the loyalty of an Akita, who in the 1920s walked its master to the train station every morning and then returned in the afternoon to greet him. One day, the dog's master, a professor at Ueno University, suffered a fatal heart attack at work. The dog came down to the station as usual that afternoon, waited, and eventually went home. The dog returned the next afternoon, and every afternoon for the nine years remaining in his life. (One could make the argument that the dog was merely a slow learner, but the loyalty angle makes a better legend.)
