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Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

31 October 2011

bullfight!

I never thought I'd voluntarily watch a bullfight, but when these (non-killing) ones were announced as part of the celebrations for Ollanta's town anniversary festivities, Iain and I figured, why not? It turns out bullfights in Ollanta go something like this: you show up at the town's tiny bullfighting ring at the what everyone said was the right time, and wait an hour before a marching band heralds the arrival of a random crowd of people who jog through the stadium and then leave:

At least they were having a good time?

A few minutes after them come the matadors (in pink socks!) and also a clown.

And then we all wait another fifteen minutes for the bull to show up, while the matadors pose for pictures and yawn, and vendors ply the crowd with yet more of the same ice cream, cotton candy and beer they've been selling for the past hour.

Finally, the first bull is eventually coerced into the ring. Waving of colored flags commences.

The matadors do in fact wear very tight pants, were you curious.

The matadors, clowns, and some random dudes who do not appear to be officially affiliated with the proceedings, take turns jumping out of the bull's way.

Or just jumping over the bull.

Eventually the bull is lasso'd and dragged back out of the ring, much to (I'm assuming) its relief. Iain and I stayed for two fights, and then left; it turns out we missed some drunk guys jumping in from the crowd and one even getting mildly gored and then fighting with the police - something I think I'm okay with having missed.

So that was my first, and most likely my last, bullfight. I'm glad I saw it - and am extra glad that it was of the non-bull-killing variety - but mostly we just felt bad for the bulls and a bit freaked out by the idea of random people drunkenly hopping in the ring. Next time, I think I'm happy just to sit under the cork tree and smell the flowers.

04 September 2011

don't be naughty at the zoo

When I taught kids in Vietnam, we used to sing a song called Don't be Naughty at the Zoo to help the kids learn imperatives. You can actually see a video made by a different Vietnamese English school here - skip to two minutes in, unless, like me, you melt at the sight of small school children saying Hello, my name is Linh and I am a kangaroo. As you can see, the song is pretty annoyingly catchy, even if I think most children are sensible enough to know better than to touch the bear; I could always tell when someone had had to teach that lesson, because they'd be humming the song in the staffroom all day. ANYWAY, the point is, the Mysore Zoo was clearly the inspiration for this song. Yeah, there were animals there too, but the signs were the best part.

That dead peacock is ALL YOUR FAULT.

Tigers and zebras: the world's deadliest animals. (PS, how awesome is the look of shame on the guy's face as he's being led away by the police?)

Oh god, the day monkeykind figures this one out, it's all over (insert your own Planet of the Apes joke here).

No mimicking the animals. Also, no Bluth-style chicken dancing.

My favorite animal in the zoo was actually this wild monkey baby. I think he looks so sad because he wishes he had a sign of some sort too. Or maybe the signs are really up to discourage the wild monkeys from taunting their captive monkey brethren, who knows.

06 April 2011

animal park

You know how awkward it feels when you bid goodbye to someone and then bump into them ten minutes later? That's sort of how it feels to blog about Numazu after writing my too-long and rambly goodbye post. But in any case, the weekend before our last, some of Iain's students took us out for one last excursion, to the Fuji Animal Safari Park.

The safari park is half zoo, half "safari" - in which you board one of these buses, and drive through a Jurassic park-esque safari filled with bored-looking wildlife.

On the bus, you sit safe behind the bars armed with a pair of metal tongs and a bowl of carrots and raw meat...

... so that you can FEED the lions and bears. No big deal.

You can also forgo the raw meat and the bus and drive your own car through - stopping periodically at heavily fortified gates that separate the different types of animals. Iain's students wanted to drive through twice. Though it seems like a perfect storm for a disaster, we made it through with only one tiger-induced traffic jam.

It seemed like a lot of lions for such a small place?

In the "zoo" part of the park, there was an alarmingly wide array of animals we were allowed to feed by hand. The highlights were the wallabys...

You were allowed to go INSIDE the cage. So weird, and yet, so cute.

... and also there were hungry squirrel monkeys! For 50 yen, you could feed them a handful of sunflower seeds.

Don't say you weren't warned?

There was also an area where children could ~~manhandle~~ pick up and pet guinea pigs and rabbits. Not as exciting, but it did yield a truly awesome sign.

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07 November 2010

bad monkey!

So, you know that bad monkey who was attacking people in Mishima? Someone caught it! They didn't even get the reward, because they were a city employee assigned to catch the monkey (best job description ever), but at any rate, the citizens of Mishima can breathe easy again, because the attack monkey who not only bit old ladies but also snuck into houses and apparently stole food from refrigerators (!) is safely behind bars. Or chain link fence, actually, since the monkey now lives in the tiny zoo at Rakujyuen park, where it's clearly the main attraction:

There's even a contest to name the monkey - zoogoers are invited to submit their ideas. Because the monkey appears to be a girl, Iain and I both submitted "Mikka Jr." I think it has a good shot of winning. Anyway, it's important to vote.

Above: when prompted for an explanation for the suggested name, Iain wrote - since Mikka means beautiful in Japanese - "Because it's a beautiful monkey!" in Japanese.

There are a lot of other cute animals at Rakujyuen, but they haven't attacked anyone lately and so were less interesting.

Although these goats really didn't like each other for about 2 minutes. Then, inexplicably, they were cool again.

Red panda!

Also, attack monkeys aside, Rakuyuen is really beautiful, so the free tickets that Iain's student gave us turned out to be especially appreciated.

I've been making my own knitting patterns up lately, so I also used the pretty scenery as a chance to get a few photos of some hand-warmers I'm knitting for Iain. They're not done, unfortunately, so he could only model one, but I'm pretty happy with them so far.