Many moons ago, before I could speak a lick of Japanese, I ran into this poster on the Philosopher’s Walk in Kyoto. Given where I was, I just couldn’t help but ponder over it. What was the dog saying? Why was there a poo there? Did it smell?

I had a look through my photo collection recently and noticed that I can understand most of the poster now, at least the important stuff anyway. Like a modern day Dr Doolittle I can let you know what the dog is saying.

わすれもの
Wasuremono
something forgotten

です
desu
there is

よ！
yo!
<sentence particle, shows that the dog knows something the owner needs to be told>

Therefore the dog is saying “Hey! You’ve forgotten something!”.

Underneath the dog is the legend:

フンの
Fun no
of poo

後始末は、
atoshimatsu wa,
clean up after is

飼い主の
kainushi no
owner’s

責任
sekinin
responsibility

です。
desu.
it is

Consequently the poster is telling us that Cleaning up dog waste is the pet owner’s responsibility.

When I first saw it, all those years ago, I had hoped that the dog was saying “Pick up my poo!”, but it was not to be.