Anyway, as I'm sure you know, my time in Japan has come to an end. I leave for the airport tomorrow morning. My suitcases are packed, my apartment is empty, and I've said good-bye to everyone. I will seriously miss Japan. It still doesn't seem real that I've spent an entire year here, and now I'm on my way home.

This isn't quite the end of this blog. After work ended, Aimee and I journeyed to Tokyo for a few days, and then one last time to Kyoto. So, there will be pictures and descriptions and reflections, just a little bit late. Stay tuned!

And keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I make the big trek over the Pacific tomorrow. Good-bye, Nagoya. You were totally my favorite city in Japan. Why? Because you were so like, and so unlike, Buffalo. Which sounds stupid, but I'll explain later. Have a good night, all.

Anyway, today was the After Event at Volks. Aimee and I went to see the new Robot Fighting Stadium. It was smaller than I had expected, but still really cool. I also drooled over the new dolls I love but cannot even remotely afford. Such is life, yeah?

On the way back to the station, we stopped at a Denny's for lunch. We thought that we might as well see what it was like so we could compare. Well...apart from the name, it was nothing like a Denny's back home. The meals were all special types of ramen and oyster pasta, bizarrely arranged Caesar salads and 5 dollar drinks...like orange juice! We got some unsatisfying sandwiches (which we paid much too much for) and headed out. Give me a normal Denny's any day! Where was my Moon Over My Hammies? Huh? Huh??

So...today was sort of disappointing in many ways. The last few days have been. It's a really good thing that we do have some plans. Monday we're heading to Tokyo for a few days. We even have our hotel booking. And then Friday we're going to Kyoto. Again, we already have a booking there. So we MUST go.

For some pics, here is a famous site in Nagoya. One of the foods the city is known for is miso katsu, a deep fried pork cutlet with miso sauce. This restaurant, identifiable by the huge sumo pig mascot, is one of the most popular places to sample this dish. I haven't eaten there (this one is in Sakae, the downtown district), but today at around noon there was a line around the building of people waiting to get in for lunch.

This last batch is from the closest subway station to my apartment, Kamejima. It's a very small station, but it works for me. The pictures below are the platform, the sign on the side that I need to stand on to head to work, and finally, the sign on the floor that tells you where to board if you're a woman, before 9 am, who doesn't want to get her rear pinched. *shakes head*

Stay tuned for a more...upbeat entry. :)

We went out with Amy and Alex for dinner last night to our favorite izakaya. Amy works with me at Hara, and is super funny. I love working days that she's wearing. Alex is her girlfriend, and she works at a different branch. I actually met her first at a help shift, working in Sakae. They're both from Canada, and have no illusions about working here, heh. So, they're fun to talk to. I tried some raw beef for the first time. Yuck! Never again! That was the nastiest texture I have ever experienced. *shudder* I also tried a spicy Korean dish. I don't know the name of it, but it's cold veggies and a thin strip of meat, wrapped up like sushi in a very thin rice ...pancake? Then there's a spicy sauce squirted artistically over it. The spiciness was weird because you felt it on your lips, rather than actually tasting it. I'll try to find a picture. It was a very fresh texture and taste.

Today was a little slower. I mailed home my dolls (family, please watch out for them!) I'm terrified until I know they're safely home. I sent them via EMS, so they should be fine. *knocks on wood* We also went through some stuff and sorted, threw out, etc. I also pulled out my smaller suitcase and started filling it with all the stuff that's not clothes. Woo...it's heavy and almost full! But really...most everything's in there. So after I pack my clothes (which will not be for a bit), maybe I can repack and the two won't be too heavy. I'm rather anxious and nervous about getting everything to the airport in time. *hides*

Election time is upon us in Nagoya, and it's a unique experience. First of all, the campaign. There are posters, articles in the newspaper, spots on tv, you know. There are also trucks with loudspeakers mounted on them chug their way through the streets, shouting out about their chosen candidate very very loudly. From 6 am to 10 pm. And basically, these redundent spiels consist of three phrases: "Sumimasen!", "Arigatou gozaimasu!," and telling the listeners to vote for the candidate (so many repetitions of the candidate's name). This doesn't sound odd until you put it into an English perspective. Imagine if, for the last presidential election in the US, all you heard from the loudspeaker-bedecked trucks was: "Pardon me! Pardon me! Thank you, thank you! Vote for Bush, Bush, Bush! Thank you, pardon me, Bush!" The trucks are also full of smiling, waving young women. Secondly, the voting for each candidate is scheduled for a different day. Man...you'd have to be really sure before you went to vote, I guess. :)

That's all for today. Stay tuned for...heh, I dunno yet. Maybe I'll post our post-Nova vacation plans. Whee!

In other news, I have twelve days of work to go. Turtles are reptiles. Drow are really cool and evil. And...yeah, we yaki-ed that niku big time. That is all. :)

The painting is "Death of Chatterton," by Henry Wallis.

Today is actually the anniversary of the real Thomas Chatterton's death. He went to his room, alone, on the night of August 24, 1770, and never came out. He was starving to death, panicked at the thought of having no money and no future, and totally unable to talk to anyone about it, least of all his family. Too proud to beg or borrow, they always say in his biography. They never think of the fact that he couldn't think straight; he didn't have the nutrition to. Try not eating for one day and making big decisions. He hadn't eaten in days on end. It makes me so sick to think of him, alone that night, with the arsenic and opium, probably scared out of his mind. That's why I have to keep researching him, reading and analyzing his poetry, writing about him and for him. He wanted an angel to trumpet his name around the world. All he got was a short eccentric American girl, but I did play the trumpet in middle school, at least. I hope you're resting well now, Thomas.

"Perish the thought in night's eternal shade:
To live, then die, man was not only made.
There's yet an awful something else remains
Either to lessen or increase our pains...

Oh! may our portion in that world above,
Eternal fountain of eternal love,
Be crown'd with peace that bids the sinner live;
With praise to Him who only can forgive--
Blot out the stains and errors of our youth;
Whose smile is mercy, and whose word is truth."
(Chatterton, 'On the Immortality of the Soul,'
1770,written as an impromptu for his friend William
Smith, before his departure for London)

And here's a pic of Thomas, the doll inspired by him, dressed in one of the outfits I got at Dolpa. It was made by Puredrop, an amazing seamstress who draws her inspiration from Chinese traditional imperial clothes. I can't believe I actually own a Puredrop outfit. Squee!

Tomorrow I'm going shopping with James to all the goth/visual kei shops in Nagoya. Woooooooooot. And maybe getting bagels, yay!

However...I have an extra day off tomorrow! Yay! Which is good, because I need it after working in Seto again today. Man, I hate it. Today, because I had a bunch of free periods (because, you know, no one takes freaking lessons), I had to hand out packages of Nova advert tissues. First of all, I want to know where it says I do that in my contract. And secondly...I wouldn't mind doing it in Sakae or something. But they're such hicks in Seto. They either take it and whisper excitedly about the fact that I'm a foreigner or they shrink away in apparent terror/disgust. Kinda...humiliating, really.

Last night was fun though. After work, Aimee invited Blake over (he works at Ozone too and is from Oklahoma...I think) and I had James over (he works with me at Hara, and is from England. Hull, specifically. And no, I can't say it at all the way he does). Aimee cooked and we all ate and played Pokemon Snap and just talked. After Blake went home, James stayed on and we went through his visual kei magazines and my Gothic Lolita Bibles and planned outfits. Heh, James is fun like that. So, now we just need to find a day to go shopping together so I can tell him what to buy. :) Very fun, and the apartment was even clean for it.

That's about all the news for today, apart from the fact that we used up the last of the barbecue sauce. Yeah, that's Hunt's, from the International Store in Sakae. And KT's butt is made of spears. That is all.

Meiji Mura is out past Inuyama, to the north of Nagoya, and took us almost an hour to get there, via train and bus. We got a special discount ticket package, that cost each of us twenty bucks for transport both ways and the entry ticket. Not too shabby!

I took a bunch of pics, though the day was very bright and a lot of them ended up overexposed. But here's a sampling. I'll try to give some details as well. :)

The first two are from a school. The little desks were so tiny, and the thing that seemed most Western about it, for some reason, were the windows. I loved the sound of walking on those old wooden floorboards. The blackboard was actually wood painted with some black substance...I don't know what it was. The next picture if from an institute that studied bacteriology. There was a whole room full of antique microscopes. Wooo...heheh.

The first two here are from a house that was owned by two different writers. The most famous was the one who wrote "I am a Cat." I loved all the tatami rooms in here, and the sunken kitchen. I am also such a huge fan of those narrow little porches that are always highlighted in anime like "Rurouni Kenshin." The last one is an Episcopal church. It was interesting, because the I'm not sure what the first floor was used for, but the actual chapel was on the second floor.

The first picture in this batch is a theatre, which was actually built in a slightly older style, though it was built in the Meiji era. They actually have plays going on, which the actors heartily encouraged us to attend. Unfortunately, without going to the play, we couldn't get inside. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. And the plays performed were modern ones, sort of vaudeville-styled parody of the Meiji era. If I understood Japanese, we would have been there. :) The second picture is the crown jewel of Meiji Mura, a Frank Lloyd Wright house. It's beautiful, so airy inside, with detailed pillars all around that are lit from within. There are some non-Japanese buildings on the grounds, but they were all built within the timespan of the era.

And the last pictures I'll leave you with are from the Red Cross Hospice. A hospital room, with all the cots and little writing desks...and a birthing chair. *shudder* Sweet dreams! :)

I HATE IT!! I DESPISE IT!!IT'S A WASTE OF TIME/ENERGY/MONEY/INTELLIGENCE/AIR/AND EVERYTHING ELSE REMOTELY OF VALUE ON THE PLANET!!

That said...I hated it.

Firstly, it takes me an HOUR to get there. I take the subway from Kamejima to Sakae, then transfer at Sakae and go to Ozone. Then I run up a lot of stairs to catch the overground train and ride it a half hour out to Owari Seto. Then I got lost for twenty minutes trying to find the mall, then I ran around the building because I needed security clearance because the mall wasn't open yet. Then I had man-to-man low level students all day. The 'food court' of this 'mall' (the mall being less than the size of your average KMart), consisted of four little shops, all selling variations on the Japanese "big bowl of soupish and noodlish stuff."

Thank goodness I'm only there three Sundays, and one of them is down already. *nods*

In exciting news, I learned that I no longer need the English announcements on the subways and trains. I can figure it out myself! And...I've restarted learning hiragana, frantically. Nothing like waiting until I'm going home in a month and a half to get into it, huh? ;)

As Aimee found out about a month ago, these guys are actually recruiter pimps. They hassle young women out shopping and try to get them to come work for them. I'm not kidding you.

And today they were out in full force, totally harassing these young women. Who, grant you, were dressed rather like little tramps in super short skirts and stilettos. But still...serious sexual harassment. I don't think you could have anything like that in the States. The girls handled it all very masterfully, pointedly turning their made-up faces away and giggling with their friends. Maybe they're used to it, but it just made my skin crawl. The guys can be really persistent, and I totally just wanted to shove them and tell them to go away. How...vile.

In other news, the mac and cheese continues to go. Tonight we consumed two whole boxes of it over a two hour period. And in case you were wondering, mio famiglia, what those green squiggly noodles look like, here you go!

And lastly, let me tell you about the bugs here. Firstly, the mosquitos must be Satan spawn. There are two types. One is the normal, annoying variety. The other is larger and has a striped body. The bits of this insect are terrible! They leave huge painful welts that can bruise and last weeks. Terrible! The other summertime bug is the cicada. I was told by a student that there are seven breeds of cicada in Japan, and they seem to all be trying to vocally outdo the others all day, every day. They're so loud! And huge! In the mornings, the sidewalks are littered with dead ones. Which are probably 2 or 2 1/2 inches long. I managed to get a picture of a living one up in a tree at the Tokugawaen last weekend. Here you are!

So, off I go to Apita Seto for work tomorrow. I've heard it takes an hour to get there. And that because it's a new school, there are like two students. The same two students. All. Day. Long. Woo. *dies*

I forgot to mention the other day I got a package from my family. Thanks so much everyone! Now I have fun food (one box of Mac and Cheese is already gone), and some new books and movies. Happy early birthday to me!

Thanks to Dad *hugs* I have now seen the Tim Burton incarnation of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I know it's more authentic and everything, but I have to say I still like the old one better. As Aimee said, it was all about Tim Burton, and I would have rather it had been about the...you know, story.

To read more of my thoughts, go behind the cut...

On the other hand, the Oompa Loompa songs were such a waste of film. Having one man play all the Oompa Loompas was stupid; it made it look so obviously CG. And the lyrics were impossible to make out, so the songs didn't really matter much, except to bring a little bit of N*SYNC to the movie.

And the weakest link? Willy Wonka himself. Which was such a disappointment. Firstly, the visual was just...bad. The pasty white skin, high voice, and really REALLY bad pageboy hair was all sorts of icky. And he seemed emotionally stunted, rather than an eccentric genius. And what's with the backstory? What's this new trend? Mr. Wonka's (non-canon) relationship with his father really added nothing to the movie as it was done in hurried drips and drabs that didn't influence anything except to make him particularly eager to off Mr. Salt and to add some sort of conflict to the story of the perfect Charlie taking over the factory (in the Gene Wilder version, this was handled with the Fizzy Lifting Drink and the Everlasting Gobstoppers bit). He very obviously despised all children, unlike Gene Wilder, who seemed a bit fascinated by them. And lastly...he didn't seem to enjoy the candy. And that's a big old question mark in my mind.

Lastly, just little things. Why did Grandpa Joe look like he was going to die any second? And how on earth did they manage to get a child to play Veruca Salt who looks identical to the original little girl? That's just freaky...

My final decision? Eh, two and a half out of four stars. Good adaption and great vision of the factory and stuff, but it just didn't leave me wanting to stuff my face with smores. *nods*

As I said, the entrance fee was very high, but the building is huge! Lots of interactive exhibits, all very high tech. Not as many, ya know, living things as I'm used to at an aquarium, but lots of dolphins and a huuuuuuuuge number of penguins. The areas were split up into sort of a first floor with the dolphins and lots of high tech exhibits. And beluga whales. Oh...the joy of them! The lighting wasn't the best, so I didn't get any good ones, but a few months ago one of the belugas had a baby, who's very into swirling and blowing bubbles. So cute! But here are dolphins, since the pic came out better.

As for the names of these fish, it was alittle hard, because mostly the labels were in Japanese and Latin. But let me see what I can do. Left to right:1. No clue...but it was a brat while I was trying to take its picture. 2.Giant crab. We're talking like two feet tall and four and a half foot long legs. 3. Big angry lionfish. 4. The pointy things are pincushion anemones, the long fish are shrimpfish,and I couldn't get the name of the stripey fish. 5. A sea turtle...though I'm not sure what kind. 6. A yellow tang...I believe. Dad, feel free to correct me on these.

The third floor was smaller, and included a restaurant (called "The Tortoise Cafeteria." Never you mind that a tortoise is a land animal). This floor had a learning area about penguins, and then a viewing theatre sort of room. Millions of penguins!! All swimming insanely. Some fat, some small, and one whose feathers were all ruffled up which I desperately wanted to brush. The water was very deep, making them submarine penguins, and it was all raised so you could see it through the glass. The ceiling in the enclose had a little device that was making snow, hehehe. Very cute.

Unfortunately, the lighting was rather strange throughout, so even though I experimented with the underwater setting on my camera, not many pictures came out very well at all.

After that we went to Volks to pick up our programs/entrance tickets to the Nagoya Dollpa (woot! August 21!), then headed to Suikoden, our favorite izekaya. And since I finally had my camera with me, I took pictures of tebasaki, which is one of Nagoya's local foods. Basically, it's chicken wings with a garlicky, salty outside. Yum! It's just funny to me that the local food here and at home matches. :) Don't they look tasty? I'll definitely miss them when I come home. Dad, I expect you to figure out how to cook them!

So, that's all for today. Stay tuned next week...hmm...maybe Meiji Mura? Who knows! Just stay tuned!

When we got to the entrance, we got a ticket to the gardens. I sort of thought that the gardens would be more extensive, but the amount of water was nice. A big pond, and a few little streams, lots of beautiful bright koi, and bridges. The one thing lacking in many Japanese gardens is trees, which would be nice when the strong sun is beating down, as it was today. Still, a beautiful little pocket in the midst of an industrial area.

The museum itself was a bit smaller and more limited than I'd expected, but still pretty cool. Of course, I couldn't take pictures inside, and it was more of a historical gallery than one of art. I guess it depends on if you look at artifacts as art or pieces of history/anthropology. Anyway, we saw armor, spears, and looooooooots of painted scrolls depicting many of the shrine festivals inside Nagoya Castle town. There was also a replica of a daimyo's tea hut. The tea ceremony in the 18th century had become very elaborate and some people, including warrior lords, decided that they sort of had to go back to their roots. So they changed the ceremony (wabi), using more primitive vessels and building tea huts away from their expansive and luxurious houses. These huts had thatched roofs and were deliberately rustic.

The other item of extreme interest at the Tokugawa museum is a book manuscript they have. They have the one surviving copy of "Tale of the Genji," an ancient novel written by a noblewoman about the amorous adventures of a prince. The copy is too fragile to be displayed continually, and I believe it's only brought out once a year. But they have an interesting display of exact replica pages. The paper is beautiful, varigated and sprinkled with gold. The artwork is very unique; I forget the name of the style, but the people have very round cheeks and long silky hair. Sort of huggable, I thought.

After buying some postcards (have no fear, Mom! There is one for you!) we headed back to the apartment. On the way, I noticed some unique signs. Heh, first of all, I don't even need to tell you what this prohibits. See? Japanese signs are so clear they just blow up the language barrier.

And the second...this is for you, Boog. Do you want to know what this tiolet-lacking little boy is the mascot for? A pharmacy. With a working tinkling prince at the front entrance. There simply are not words...

Stay tuned for this week's adventures...not sure where yet, but they should be exciting!

We woke up early, though I must confess to having ignored the alarm for a good hour. We had no trouble getting there, but by the time we did, there were no available reservations for any of the corporate pavilions, such as Hitachi and Toyota. Which we expected, but had hoped for; there are dancing robots. *swoon* What we didn't expect is that everything else in the Japan section, such as the 64-foot kaleidoscope and the Mammoth, were also done by reservation and by 11 am, all the reservations for the DAY were given out. Pretty lame, eh? We were feeling pretty down after we'd wandered around and could get into nothing. And, all the nature was fenced off...then we saw the Seiko clock.

It was noon, and this clock plays awesome music and a panel opens in the side. Mechanical dolls move and dance and turn gears and pull chains. Absolutely lovely. We though, maybe, just maybe, the day could be improved. :)

We went to *deep breath* Bulgaria, Turkey, Tunisia, Jordan, Morocco, Ireland, Egypt, Ukraine, UK, USA, Argentina, Cuba, Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, etc), and Andean Amazon (I don't remember the exact countries). I can't post about all of them, but I will try to give a little bit about the really interesting ones.

Our first was Bulgaria, and now I know that Bulgaria is important in the rose, honey, and yogurt economies. See? I learned lots! Mostly we were in there because the line wasn't too bad, and it was air conditioned. :) But we ended up getting rose-flavored frozen yogurt, which was good and very fresh and yogurty. I wanted to try a meal called...kashikavalka? Something like that. Anyway, it looked good, but we wanted to get going. Next we went to Turkey, which was my very favorite pavilion. The theme was showing Nature's influence in the art, and it was lovely. The inside was set up like a dome, with little lights in the ceiling. There was a wooden structure, lotus-like, that went around a round area with a fountain in the middle. There were also examples of the beautiful painted tiles often found in mosques. I couldn't get any pictures that really did it justice. The music was also beautiful.

In the Tunisia pavilion, there were some guys making little clay pots who would write your name in Arabic on it. We got some for free, with little hearts on them, because we could speak a little French. Many people treated us wonderfully because we were non-Japanese and so they could speak English with us. Though there were some wonderfully sweet middle-aged Japanese women who waited in line with us for the Ireland pavilion (there was a band, Bru Boru, and dancers!) who held their parasols over us because we were in the sun.

Jordan had an interesting exhibit displaying the properties of the Dead Sea. As I'm sure you know, it's so salty nothing can live in it, and if you jump into it to commit suicide, you'll be sadly disappointed. Since you'll float. You can't tell from my pic very well (*shame*) but there was a big tank and these guys were just floating in it. Just laying there. Very very comfy, I think. The Morrocco pavilion was set up like a bazaar. You could even haggle, but only in Japanese. Aww...It was all very Kismet. :)

Next we headed over to the Egypt pavilion (actually, I'm doing this sort of out of order, but bear with me). It was set up all pharoah-style, probably because of all the renewed interest in King Tut. They had many replicas of famous artifacts, such as the famous golden burial mask and the bust of Nefertiti. Again, super cool music, and I bought a belly dancing hip scarf with all sorts of jingly coins. Because...how could I say no when the seller tied it on to me? Then we went to Ukraine, where I was sooooo embaressed. Heh, I didn't do anything stupid, but I felt so bad that I was one of these people, yet I could say anything to let them know that. I could say hello in Ukrainian, and that's it. Very very sad...I want to learn Ukrainian now, really badly! There was no dancing at the pavilion, but a cute band, with a bandura and a guy who could do that groovy Ukrainian bird call stuff. I also bought a ragdoll there. And something for Grandpa, shhhhh. :) There were also these statues, but I'm not sure what they are or what they represent. Ancient gods, perhaps? Must do more research.

By this time we were hungry, so we decided to try out some Romanian cuisine. We ate at a little restaurant that made me feel like I was in a Mel Brooks movie, but the food was good. I meant to write down the names, but I forgot. I had sole breaded in cornmeal, with some salad and mashed potatoes with veggies in them, and some creamy caviar on bread. Cornmeal and potatoes seemed very prominent, along with tomatoes. Pretty good though! I was hoping for someone dressed up as Vlad the Impaler, but instead there was this cute guy in traditional garb. Very bright, isn't it? Adorable boots...and you can't see it, but there's like a fan of peacock feathers on the side of the hat. Heh. After dinner we headed for the UK pavilion, which was one of the only ones that really stuck to the Expo's theme. They showed technological advances that were influenced by real things in nature. I really liked the gecko tape, which lets people climb walls, and this onscreen book that you could turn the pages of by waving your hand. The walkway into the pavilion was lovely as well, with actual green growing things and...modern art. :) I didn't get it, but it was a breath of fresh air.

Woo...my little fingers are getting as tired as my legs were yesterday. Lastly, we went to the North, South, and Central American pavilions. Cuba's was so open and airy, with a fancy bartender and was selling Cuban cigars. We got some delightful hibiscus juice from the Honduras pavilion. It was a beautiful pink sunset color and very sweet. Wish it was available elsewhere. And, of course, we had to check out the US pavilion. It was huuuuuge, of course. :) The main attraction was a ten minute 3-D projected move about Ben Franklin and his learning from nature. The show was sorta silly, but way fun; when there was lightning, the seats rumbled. When it rained, there was actually water sprinkling the audience. After that you walked through a hall about flight in America, from a perfect replica of the Wright brothers' plane to the a sorta shoddy replica of the Mars Rover (seriously, it was covered in copper gift wrap). It was nice to hear English again, and talk to someone with a Boston accent, though. :)

All in all, not a bad day, though there were some lingering disappointments. It's a huuuuuuuge area, and impossible to cover in one day. And not very friendly to tourists; without reservations, you can't see any of the big ticket items. Meaning, if you're a tourist who didn't know about it, you'd have no chance at all. However, seeing some trees in Japan is always nice, and I did learn stuff (Bulgaria is a big producer of honey, roses, and yogurt!). So...not a wasted day, though I wish it had cost a little bit less.

Stay tuned for next weekend's grand adventure...though we don't know what it is yet!

Hmm...well, it cost 500 yen to get in, so about five dollars. It would have cost more had we wanted to go up into the Sky Tower, and though the view was probably great, we opted out. We were more into seeing animals. The grounds were huge, but the animal enclosures were disappointingly small. And a bit behind the times. Kind of like zoos in the 60's, or something. But the animals were all healthy, and in beautiful condition. Just made me a bit sad to see them in smallish spaces. I'm not a fan of zoos for that reason already. The polar bear and elephant areas were nice, as was a vivarium with small nocturnal mammals, reptiles, and amphibions that was up at the top of a hill. Anyway, I tried to get pics that didn't make the animals seemed closed in...*sigh*

First we walked past a rhino enclosure, which wasn't too bad. However, in the heat of the day, one rhino was sleeping and another was playing in a thing of water...with his rear end facing us. So...no pic. However, all of a sudden, a THIRD rhino walked across. Just like I'd practiced in Pokemon Snap, I got a nice, relatively centered pic of the fast moving pokem-um, creature.

We moved on and saw the lions and tigers, which all seemed hot and bored out of their minds. This tiger was lounging in a little stream when we walked up, them got up to check out the people standing around. He didn't seem to appreciate some of the people infringing on his territory. I've never heard a shriek quite like the one the woman made when he sprayed. He was a proud, proud beast.

The seals were really cool too. The spotted seals were a bit mellow, and seemed to enjoy swimming underwater on their backs. The other seals were really zippy, and while we were drinking ramune in the shade near their pool, became very vocal. We figured it was seal drama.

The pride and joy of the Nagoya Zoo is its koala exhibit. This exhibit is the result of cooperation with Australia, and it is a really nice little home for these adorable little guys. We couldn't use flash, even though it was a little dim, not wanting to scare the poor things, so the pic came out a bit blurry (it was through glass). But he was so napping in his eucalyptus. So cute! I also bought my one souvenir--a big coin, with an enameled pic of two hugging koalas, that say Higashiyama Zoo on it in Japanese. Then we figured out how to use the other machine to stamp the date and my name onto it. Heheheh...so touristy. So nice and loud when the metal was being stamped.

We went through the rest of the zoo pretty quickly (it closes early). We particularly enjoyed the house at the top of the hill. It was more modern and it had all sorts of adorable mammals and reptiles. Oh, I just love my reptiles! Here is a...I believe it's called a gaviel. It's some kind of alligator/crocodile. If anyone has any info on it, I'd love to hear it. It was a cool looking animal.

The sun was hot, but we were prepared; we wisely slathered ourselves in sunscreen. Watch out for next weekend, when we go on to make history. Finally...we are going to the Aichi Expo. *cue dramatic music* See you later!