On Turning 29 & 24 Months Old

They say the third time is a charm, which I have found to be certainly true with my 29th birthday.

The week preceding my birthday (4/29-5/6) is Golden Week, or 黄金週間 (pronounced, "Ougon Shuukan") in Japan, which is a blanket holiday that knocks out the following: Emperor's Birthday, Greenery Day, Showa Day, Constitution Day, Countryman's Day, and Children's Day (天皇誕生日 "tennou tanjoubi"、緑の日 "midori no hi"、昭和の日 "Shouwa no hi"、 憲法記念日 "kenpou kinenbi"、 国民の休日 "kokumin no hi"、 and 子供の日 "kodomo no hi", respectively). Yes, the Japanese are efficient with their holidays, too.

During the earlier part of the week, Yoko and I went to the Ueno Zoo, the first time that I have been to a zoo in perhaps 20 years. Good news, the animals are still the same as they were 20 years ago. Bad news, animals are still so rude. They do nothing but poop, urinate, fornicate, and fight.

Yoko and I both quickly became fans of the Slow Loris, a nocturnal animal of the Nycticebus genus typically inhabiting the southeast Asia area. It's eyes are a prized ingredient in local medicine and the associated over-hunting of the Slow Loris pushed it into the endangered species list. Guess that's what happens when you move slow and have the reflexes of a pothead. In any case, it is cute as snot and its abnormal movement had us cracking up in the dark room at the zoo.

We also had an interesting run-in with the gorillas, with whom we could communicate through two approximately 1-inch glass walls that punctuated their otherwise enormous habitat enclosure. It is safe to say that they were not the least bit interested in us. However, one of the gorillas did in fact approach the glass wall where were standing and sat down with his or her back toward us. After a few minutes, the gorilla turned around and (seriously) smiled at Yoko. Later, he (or she) turned around a second time to smile at Yoko again. Yoko evidently did not keep up her end of the bargain as the gorilla quickly became uninterested, spotted a nearby pieces of fresh feces on the ground, and proceeded to eat it. Gross, I was less than a foot away from a poop-eating gorilla. Luckily, the zoo provided us with a chart nearby listing the bios of the captive gorillas so that we could spot out our new acquaintance who, because of my discriminating eye for gorillas, I was able to narrow down to 6 candidates from 8, in which case his/ her name is either Fifi, Bobo, Jiji, Juju, Kiki, or Koko. Repeting syllables is an important habit for naming children in gorilla culture. Also, the gender remains undetermined.

Oh, yeah, I had a birthday this week, too. Yoko took me to a 旅館 ("ryokan" or traditional Japanese inn) that featured an Onsen (Japanese bath) located about an hour by train outside of Tokyo. We rented a traditional Japanese room for about 4 hours (G-rated), which featured room service of a traditional Japanese meal and a patio with an overlook. It happened to be raining that day, so it was extra relaxing. See the pics!

As I write this, my internet sucks and will not upload the photo album. I promise to get it up shortly.