26

Heading home late at night I stop at a street corner to wait for the light to change and a white dog suddenly appears in my peripheral vision behind a plate glass window. At first I thought that the dog was standing in a bank (the sign on the marquee said Softbank), so I asked the dog about the economic situation in Japan. The dog responded that it did not train in economics – woof – but in communications – woof – hence its current position as representative for a cellular phone company – woof. I asked the dog if communications was an interesting field to work in and the dog stated that it simply wasn't interested in talking to me, or anyone, because linguistically expressing one's deepest beliefs was such treacherous terrain – woof – woof. I stood there, mouth agape, momentarily stunned by the brusqueness of the response. It was without doubt a reluctant spokesperson / spokesanimal. I was channeling the friendly dog Hachiko from a classic Japanese story about loyalty, but it turns out that it wasn't the real Hachiko and that I was only talking to an inflatable corporate mascot that didn't want to get its plastic paws dirty. I was projecting, which was a chancy endeavor at best. Once you think about it, the plastic dog’s attitude towards communication actually makes a tremendous amount of sense, particularly in regards to conversations between species, or between animate and inanimate matter. The light changed from red to green and I was off.