100th Post!

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A Trip to Tama Zoo, At Which Some Things Are Bigger or Smaller or Spottier Than I Would Have Expected

Firstly, though, I must post a picture of Helen and Kevin sporting their Jager-gear that I picked up in Madison, Ohio, and accessorizing it with, what else? Jager shots.















Monday was Coming of Age Day, on which kids turn into adults as they reach their 20th year. It's a national holiday, so Helen and I took the kids to Tama Zoo. Kumi came, too. Jeff left town for the week.

It has its own train and train line! One stop.


































If they look cold, that's because it was cold. Not as cold as Cleveland, not by a long shot, but you also wouldn't catch me hanging out outside all afternoon in Cleveland.

The zoo is known for its natural-like habitats (the opposite of Ueno's concrete boxes, tho I still like that zoo).

There was a baby tapir! Did you know they were born with brown spots? Me, neither. Very cute. Someone probably makes handbags out of them.















There was a petting zoo, limited to guinea pigs you could pick up, and one rabbit that you couldn't.















There was a Mole House. It was pretty cool. There were two glass-topped tables in which you could see the mole-tunnels, and these were attached via tubes to glass aquariums on the walls, so the moles could run around everywhere and be spied on by humans wherever they went.

The highlight for me, however, was this guy:















He was the size of a quarter, or the top joint of my thumb. We all squealed over it and wished we had one to carry around in our pocket.




















Very pretty peacock. One can never have too many photos of peacocks, can one?

Baby snow leopard! He kept attacking his older sibling or adolescent cousin or whatever the relationship was. They both had giant "I'm not done growing yet" paws and big puffy tails.















Tiger! I think D took this one. Very nice.

















The first example of carnivores in action, the gray wolves:















And the second example, also the eating of a dead bit of flesh, but much more gruesome. The kids' reaction is the best:



Then there was the wombat. Did you know they were this big? Like a gigantic rodent? (OK, it's a marsupial, technically). Probably easily weighs as much as a good-sized dog. Scary.





























There was a great big area for the lions, which we saw from a bridge above. There were a whole bunch of them, males and females, roaming around this area. Very unusual. We could've taken the Lion Bus, which drives through the area and gets right up close to them, but we were in a hurry to get to the Insectarium before it closed and D would be so sad. Couldn't have that (even though he later threw a tantrum on our way out because I wouldn't buy him another stuffed animal from the crazy overpriced zoo store. In his defense, he did have a cold and we were outside in the cold all day). Anyway, at this point he is still happy and I wasn't yet The Worst Mom EVER:















They had a lot of cool bugs, giant ones, and camouflage specialists.











































That guy was hand-sized. Hate to wake up with one of those on my face.

Anyway, a zoo is always a great way to kill an afternoon. It was kind of far (a bus and 4 trains), but it was a good zoo. Animals posed well, they had lots of almost natural-looking space, they all looked happy.

Except maybe this female orangutan. The oldest and saddest-looking primate in captivity. Reminded me of a bag-lady.


Rest of the zoo pics here, if you want.


On a completely different topic, I thought you'd enjoy a look at a Japanese Denny's. Denny's was the first place I ever ate in Japan, a few years ago on my first visit. Unlike McDonald's and Starbucks, the menus are completely dissimilar from their American counterparts.


You won't find any Moons Over My Hammy or Pigs in a Blanket here:





























The kids' menu is much more extensive, too.
















And they don't bother giving the kid a little cup of sprinkles to kiddify their pancakes, no. They just go ahead on top them with ice cream.















That's my lunch in front. Some kind of udon and good-luck-for-the-new-year mochi and stuff. Mm-mm, good. I also burned my tongue.

Just to further illustrate the strange things done with originally-American brands of food, I found this at the grocery store the other day. Yeah, that's Quaker Instant Oatmeal, but you are apparently supposed to forgo the maple and brown sugar and serve it with mushrooms instead.




















Don't knock it 'til you try it, I guess, but, uh, hm.

In other news, our trip to China is on. We fly into Beijing and are thinking of taking a sleeper-train to Shanghai. Anybody been and have suggestions?

Also, I will be going to San Francisco this spring to go to Karla's wedding. Yeah, you read that right.