Japanese man spends $21,000 on a dog costume to fulfill childhood dream of 'becoming a dog'

A? Japanese man has spent a pretty penny on fulfilling his childhood dream, and while ordinarily that wouldn't make anyone blink an eye, this particular goal may have a few people scratching their heads.

The man, known only as Toco, uploaded a five-minute-long video of himself being interviewed by a German TV station, RTL. The only catch is that his face is never seen, as he is encased by a huge hyper-realistic costume of a border collie? the entire time as he goes on a walk in a public park with the presenter.

In the video, he sits, rolls over, shakes hands, and plays with the other dogs in the park, with many onlookers none the wiser that the border collie is actually a human in disguise. However, the neighbourhood dogs were somewhat fearful of the abnormally large pooch.

Watch the video above.?

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In the subtitles of the video, Toco explained, "Do you remember your dreams from when you are little? You want to be a hero or a wizard".

"I remember writing in my grade school graduation book that I wanted to be a dog and walk outside."

To help achieve his childhood dreams, Toco spent two million Yen (approximately $21,000)? to commission the custom border collie costume from Japanese company Zeppet, which makes costumes for TV commercials and films.

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They spent 40 days making the costume, with a spokesperson from the company commenting, "Modelled after a collie dog, it reproduces the appearance of a real dog walking on four legs."

Though Toco has a dedicated fan base of over 31,000 subscribers on YouTube, he has never shown his real face, fearing that it would blow back in his daily life.

He told the Daily Mail last year, "I don't want my hobbies to be known, especially by the people I work with,

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"They think it's weird that I want to be a dog. For the same reason why I can't show my real face."

"I rarely tell my friends because I am afraid they will think I am weird," he added in another interview with the Mirror.

"My friends and family seemed very surprised to learn I became an animal."?

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