Showing posts with label monkeys. Show all posts

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. 

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14 April 2011

ode to monkey sticks


above: yakitori at the Ishioka matsuri last fall

Entirely unrelated to all and any earlier posts about Lucky the monkey, I swear: I love all kinds of Japanese food, but yakitori - grilled chicken skewers - may be my all time favorite. They're cheap, decidedly un-fussy, and easy to order - which make me love them all the more in expensive, culinarily-intimidating Japan - and they fill the gaping void left in my heart by Hanoi's amazing, food-poisoning-logic-defying chicken street. Or maybe I just love them because they make awesome bar food, so I just associate them with beer, friends, and having a nice evening out? In any case, this post is my ode to our favorite yakitori haunt in Numazu, which Iain and I referred to rather unoriginally as Monkey Sticks: 


above: guess why.

Yuka introduced us to Monkey Sticks our first month in Numazu, and she was also the one to break the news that Monkey Sticks' days are limited: with imminent remodeling happening at nearbye Numazu Station, Monkey Sticks is closing down with no new location yet in sight. Fortunately, it stayed open throughout the end of our stay in Numazu.


Two of my favorite yakitori sticks: liver (リバ) and kashira (okay, I am not entirely sure what part of what animal that came from, but it was delicious). 


above: a sign of a successful meal




Maggie also approved.

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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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30 January 2011

runaway monkey!


For those of you keeping tabs on Lucky the Biting Attack Monkey (okay, that's me and Iain only), you may be interested to know that she garnered international headlines by briefly escaping from captivity, only to be re-captured less than 24 hours later:

(Thank you, Ben, for the link!)

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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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18 May 2010

nature walk


Above: ominous clouds over a field. 

On Saturday, some of Iain's students invited us to join them on a 12 kilometer nature walk in a nearby town, so we pulled ourselves out of bed uncharacteristically early to meet up with them. The walk itself was being sponsored by the JR Line - our train to the starting point was packed with people in walking gear, there were JR employees handing out maps, and the entire route had been sign-posted. We all got little badges, too - a lot of the hikers we passed (or who passed us) wore backpacks covered in tiny badges from similar such walks.  Iain's students are all beginner English speakers who hadn't explained it very much, so I didn't know what to expect - at first, it seemed like we were just being herded through lots of farmland. 



Tea plants.


Soon enough, though, we were climbing up hills and passing through shrines and forests.


Some seriously weather-worn statues. 



Wisteria blooming in the trees. 


Three quarters of way to the end, there was a special "Green" festival, where we were given free postcards and (very excitingly) free packets of basil seeds! Also there was some drag ballroom dancing. 


And a monkey doing crazy tricks! Who doesn't like monkeys? (Some of those kids, by the looks on their faces.) 


Also, there was a crazy beautiful waterfall. AND I bought a cone of cotton candy the size of my entire head, and totally disgraced myself by eating the whole thing in front of Iain's lovely students. So, all in all, a pretty good day - this area just keeps getting more and more beautiful. 

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