Zoo Notes

Today the Suzukis took me to the Toyohashi Zoo. Toyohashi is a neighboring town, just down the coast. I'm really torn by zoos. Many do good things for preserving animal species. But the compassionate side of me is easily dissuaded into seeing what they do wrong, more than what the do right. Some of the exhibits at this zoo seemed more than adequate. And my favorite wild animals, the rhinos, seemed okay. And most of the hooved animals seemed to have plenty of the things they needed. But then again, I don't know a great deal about these guys. The zoo was in good repair, and all the cages were quite clean and sanitary. But it was obvious to me that the elephant was miserable, the lioness was going stark raving mad (while the male lion seemed to think life was not bad), the monkeys were bored (one actually painted his window with his own feces, and I do mean painted) and even the maccaws had nothing to play with. I didn't try and preach to the super-generous Suzukis about the problems with the zoo, but I did point out a couple of the worst and best habitats at the zoo. But in general I had a good time. Attached to the zoo was an amusement park. I convinced Yuuma to go on the roller coaster - he's quite the chicken, so I was really impressed when he agreed. It was a pretty tame roller coaster, but we both enjoyed it.
Spending time with Mikio, Yoko and Yuuma was great. Really nice people, without being too sugary sweet. At one point today Yoko was teasing me pretty bad, and I asked her if she knew what a particular hand gesture meant - she did, and she loved it!