A Day at the Zoo

Today Ha and I spent a glorious Sunday afternoon enjoying our season pass to the Okinawa Children's Zoo. She loves animals and was saying and signing "more animals please" all day long!

Now that she is a big girl, she insists on checking out all the exhibits herself, lol. Here she is trying to get a closer look at the elephants.

Ha standing by a cutout of a full-grown Indian elephant. These are new to the zoo and the ones in the exhibits are still in their toddler years. The zoo puts on a show where they paint the elephants in "traditional Indian facepaint" and do a live performance where "real Indians" jump around on them. We have yet to catch it in action--but we certainly go enough, so sooner or later I'm sure we'll get to witness the shenanigans firsthand!

Turtles are VERY popular here, and Ha enjoyed checking out the exhibits.There is an elaborate "water slide" constructed in the turtle exhibit. These guys, however, don't seem to be much in the way of thrill seekers and usually just sun themselves or go for a swim.The anteaters were very active today and Ha had a blast watching and talking to them.Ha & Ma on the carousel!Other animals...Something I have never understood: What you are looking at here is the pig exhibit. It is about 5 or 6 times the size of the lion enclosure, has a gate around the edge, and also a protective dry moat. The little black spots you see toward the center are the 3 little pigs that live there. There used to just be one, so I guess now they are filling up the space a little more, but seriously, this is the largest enclosure on the premises!Ever since our first visit, back in September, I have been meaning to take snapshots of these classic pictorial signs. I guess this is one way to make sure nothing is lost in translation!!

"Watch out! Large cats may spray urine!""Caution! Chimpanzees may throw poop!"Ha loves the stone statue garden, but will only observe the giant gorilla from a safe distance...She loves the piggy though!! (Probably reminds her of 'Tunia, lol!)And what outing would be complete without stopping to feed some fish? Ha is such a meticulous sweetheart when it comes to doling out food. Generally speaking, she will only hand out one pellet at a time--and then she waits for them to eat it and get all excited before she will consider passing out any more, lol!