The last time I went home to the U.S., my parents told me sternly over the telephone: "This time when you come home, bury your dog. He's been on that shelf in the garage for years now." And they were right. My dog, Dammit, had died while I was in Japan, and the few times I went home, I was either too busy or the ground was still frozen or I just didn't feel like holding a funeral. So my faithful dog sat in a box on a shelf in the garage waiting for that final resting day. Maybe my parents should have brought a tombstone into the garage and called it a done deal. They could turn their garage into a dog mausoleum and make some money off it.

When I was home I went out to the garage, located the wooden box that said "Pines Pet Cemetery, 1998" and opened it. Inside was a plastic bag full of ashes. Which got me to thinking, wouldn't it be nice to spread his ashes somewhere? So my family and I spread my dog's ashes on the hills around our house.

When I ask Japanese people why they don't have a dog, they always answer: Because dogs die. Well, of course they do! I wonder if anyone has ever told Japanese people that they are going to die too someday. Many Japanese find the pain of the loss of a dog too much to bear. But I say, better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.