End of Year Concert

 Joshua had a concert that was kind of his final exam.  It was on a Saturday afternoon and was suppose to be outside on the soccer field.  Mother Nature did not cooperate and the event had to be moved inside the gym.

While the Japanese have a great many amazing things, they do have a flaw.  They do not believe in putting Air Conditioning in their gyms.  And when a gym is packed full of hot bodies on a muggy day... well, it is a bit uncomfortable!

Rylee rocking the shades.

This kid has amazing radar for the camera. He spotted me super-zooming in on him from across the room and gave me this face! 

I tried again later and he still saw me!  

And when it was time for his group to play, this was about the best shot I could get! 

 There's my boy!  He did a great job playing his trumpet and it almost made the 90 minutes of sweating in the gym worth it!

Callie Poses

Good-Bye Safari Land!

 After petting adorable little animals, everything else is a let down.  Fortunately, the kids had gotten all the fuzzy snuggles they needed and were happy to check out the last few things the park had to offer.  (There was a whole ride section, but it was about $5 per ride, so we briskly marched them past that.  "Nothing to see here, folks!")

There were some capybara and a giant tortoise.  And there was a fantastic (not-real!) elephant that squirted water from it's trunk.  Then there was a lovely park-ish area that Callie got a lot of mileage out of.

It was a fun day.  The kids had a great time with the animals.  It was a bit of a speedy day- Y2,850 in tolls EACH way, plus the Y12,450 park fee (and lets not forget the additional Y15,000 ticket), and various Y200 charges for animal food and drinks from the vending machines.

Was it worth it?  Yes.  But I probably would not take the family out there again. It was kind of a one time thing and once is enough.

Isn't the elephant cool?! Marian is cranking it to get it to squirt water.  It didn't get me though!

Capybara are awesome!  Sadly, no petting, just looking.  Well, some poking through the fence to pat. 

The meerkats were cute and Josh's face here is great. 

This is how much fun Rylee had!  Enough to knock her out for the drive home.  

Wherein I pet a Lion Cub!

One of the big draws for most folks are the baby lions.  There were 2 little bear cubs as well, but apparently those are too rough for people to touch, so we only got to look and enjoy their cuteness.

However, after the kids had mauled the small animals for a while, a lady came out and opened the lion cub cage and brought out one of the cubs.  She stayed near him, but let him prowl up and down the bench.  Poor little guy could smell all this tasty prey around, but couldn't get to any of it!

The girls got to pet him and love on him and he was very cute and very fun.  Then the girls lost interest and went back to the smaller things they could hold and cuddle.

Petting the baby lion!

Look how cute he is!! 

Even Joshua went in for a pat. 

Out of all the photos I snapped, this selfie, taken blind, is the ONLY one with the cub looking up!  Awesome for me! 

Look at the little King.  Adorbs!

Squeee! Little Fuzzies!

 By far, the highlight for the kids was the small animal petting area.  There was unsupervised and unrestricted petting of delightfully tame little critters.  There was a sweet bunny in a harness, who was on a chain like a little dog.  There were several small  baskets on the benches and inside were guinea pigs and chicks.  There were more bunnies in pens, and a cage of mice.

Oh the joy and rapture!  The girls were so happy and I think they would have stayed for hours and hours.  Joshua was even enthusiastic about holding little chicks.  I'm pretty sure the animals were less than thrilled.  The only plus is that I think they were very well fed.  You could buy a cup of carrots and lettuce and the animals were happy to snack.  I think the pictures speak for themselves.

(And no, I'm not sure how Callie managed to kiss every animal she could and didn't get bitten at all.)