We’re used to seeing salarymen in this part of Tokyo, and now there are salary goats too.
Along with travel and desserts, cute animals are something we’ve got a lot of love for here at SoraNew24. So when we spotted an adorable-looking goat the other day, we quickly got our camera out and started snapping some pics.
But unlike many of our other wildlife encounters, this one didn’t take place on a walk through a forest or a visit to a farm. No, we found this goat in the jungle…the urban jungle of downtown Tokyo!
We were barely outside of the Akasaka Exit of Yotsuya Station (part of which you can see in the bottom right of the above photo) when we noticed a crowd of people that had formed on one of the pedestrian walkways that lead to the ticket gates. They were looking down towards a patch of land below the bridge, and that’s where the goat was hanging out.
To give you a sense of the geography, Yotuysa is only about five minutes by train or subway from Shinjuku, the central Tokyo rail hub that’s the busiest train station in the world, and only about 10 minutes from Shibuya and its massively crowded Scramble Crossing.
▼ From Shinjuku to Yotsuya
And as unusual as it is to see a goat in downtown Tokyo, it’s even stranger to see two!
So what were these goats doing here? Working, because they’re temporary employees of East Japan Railways/JR East.
OK, technically JR is paying to rent the goats’ owners to rent their services, but either way, they’re here in a professional capacity. Their gig started earlier this month, on October 9, and they’re being employed as an ecologically friendly way of clearing out weeds from this patch of land on the station’s property.
The two animals dispatched to this job site are Nagi-kun, a one-year-old male, and Pokke-chan, a two-year-old female.
▼ Since this is a work relationship, we suppose that make Pokke-chan Nagi-kun’s senpai.
▼ This shot shows how much they’ve already chomped away at.
We spoke with a staff member who happened to be present when we came by, and they told us that Nagi-kun and Pokke-chan are scheduled to be stationed here until the end of the year. Since the grass and other underbrush doesn’t grow very quickly during the coldest part of the year, the animals will then take the winter off, but they might be back again in the spring if JR needs their services again.
If you want to see them for yourself, you can find them underneath the bridge seen here:
Be aware, though, that JR East asks that everyone be kind to the goats, and also to refrain from offering them any snacks.
After all, if they munch on treats, they might end up be too full to do their jobs.
Photos ©SoraNews24
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