Showing posts with label mishima. Show all posts

01 December 2010

lucky monkey


Just on the off-chance that any of you were following the saga of the Attack Monkey as closely as Iain and I were: the contest is over, and a name has been announced! Alas, neither Mikka Junior nor my personal favorite front-runner, Kami-chan ("Bitey") won the day*, but in any case, meet Lucky! And so closes the saga of Lucky the Attack Monkey of Mishima and Susono. At least until Lucky goes all Jurassic Park on us and learns how to open doors...

* I may be suffering from ESL-teaching induced idiomatic amnesia (that's like, a thing, right? Other former-and-current ESL teachers, did this happen to you too? Where after a day of teaching you just start to forget English?) but Iain swears this is a phrase for victory, though he can only quote Independence Day as proof**, which to me casts some seriously doubt on the validity of such a phrase.

** Actually, to be specific, he quoted the entire speech in Bill Pullman's voice; and he wants me to tell you that fireworks went off in the background when this happened. 

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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. 



At any rate, it's rapidly becoming hand-warmer weather here, though it's still gorgeous outside at the moment: 




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14 September 2010

I want to catch a monkey!

... and no, that isn't a euphemism for anything. "Rogue" monkeys are on the loose in Shizuoka prefecture! Despite the fact that they've been attacking people in nearby Mishima and Susono, Iain's students told us that the reward for trapping one is around ¥200,000 per rogue monkey, which runs somewhat contrary any warnings to stay away from them and their sharp teeth. While there have been no sightings in Numazu yet, Iain and I are keeping our eyes peeled. In the meantime, you too can stay appraised of the current monkey situation by checking in on the  Mishima city webpage, which is posting real time updates on the status of the marauders. And you thought Japan was a safe country...

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