the zoo!
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Back in the Winter, we went to Ueno zoo and did about half of the place before Kenny fell asleep. Today we went back to finish the job.
One of Kenny's favourite animals is the elephant, but when one of the elephants let out a series of loud trumpets, he panicked and clung to me tearfully crying for "mama!" He was hanging on so hard that I couldn't even turn to take him away, at first.
But as soon as we turned away, he immediately brightened up and said, "bye-bye". Thinking that he'd suddenly overcome his fear, I turned back again. He instantly resumed wailing.
I managed to recreate his panic as I wrote this journal item by using a rolled-up piece of plastic in what Mari and I thought was a rather good impression of the elephant's trumpet.
We slunk away, and headed for the monorail. I have to say, as much as I'm impressed with the Ueno zoo overall, the monorail is pointless. It took ten minutes of lining up to take a ride that lasted only 90 seconds. The thing didn't even afford much of a view while we were aloft, as it followed a route that took us among trees, a bridge, and some buildings.
No matter, we went on to see some more of Kenny's favourites. The rhino and hippos also scared him, but he really enjoyed the smaller animals. I think his favorites were the meerkats. I liked some of the funny nocturnal critters with big eyes. There was one display in particular that I recall had some really acrobatic critters in it. The glass at the front of the display was covered in tiny paw prints, way up to around my head level and the two meter mark. The miniature acrobats had been swinging or jumping all the way up there.
When we got back, Mari and I both fell asleep. We woke to find that Kenny had been playing happily by himself, going through a book that Satoi-san gave him and puttering about with his toy cars.