Category: Pets

Japan Extra: Maron

Maron is the hotel robot. She stole Kristin’s heart in January, and she’s stolen mine now as well.

Maron lives at reception, and is often there to greet people when the elevator doors open. She looks right at you and waggles her ‘wings’ and makes cute noises. It’s very easy to assign a personality to her.

She’s small and extremely cute. I’ve visited her every day this stay, and it’s always been great to see her. If you were living somewhere you couldn’t have a live pet, one of these would be a wonderful substitute.

She knows where her charger is and when her energy gets low she goes and charges herself. I snapped a photo one time when she was having a rest: doesn’t she look funny!

She’s got a few different outfits, which she changes every few days. I heard one of the hotel employees takes great pride in dressing her and washing her clothing 🙂

Maron made me smile every time I saw her and it will be genuinely sad to say goodbye to her. I hope I get to see her again!

Safari!

Yesterday we visited a local animal park. We’d been twice before but due to covid they were a bit different this year. Specifically: they’d turned themselves into a drive-through safari!

After paying it was a short drive from the entrance to the first gate, beyond which we saw this:

Yes those are camels, and amongst them were also ostriches. In seconds we were mobbed!

We had little cups of food and the animals knew it. They were absolutely fearless when it came to getting the food of us, and didn’t hesitate to stick their heads right into the car.

Yes that’s a gigantic camel helping itself to food from the caddy between us in the car!

The animal flocked around us (and every car) so much that we couldn’t move until the attendants scared them away just long enough for us to drive forward a bit. Of course the cloud of camels and ostriches simply moved to the next car in line 🙂

A bit further along were some zebra! I hastily closed the window because of all the animals in the safari this was the one with warning signs. Apparently zebra can bite!

Next we drove into a forested section full of fallow deer, sika deer, albino deer, llamas and a certain evil bird (see below). This part overloaded with cuteness, mostly because of all the pretty deer and their big dewy eyes.

Of course had no food left since the ostriches and camels had taken it all!

The evil birds were these guys:

I have an ancestral fear of these (as do all Australians) so we closed the windows when they got near. This guy was tapping on the window with his razor-sharp beak as he stared at me with murderous intent. I gibbered as we drove on…

The last section had rhea, oxen, and a few other unusual cow like things. Alas we had no food for we surely would have fed the elegant rhea! They came right up to the car and looked at us with their lovely gray and blue eyes.

It took us a little under an hour to drive through and it was much better than we expected! They did a great job of converting their zoo, and the density of animals was hilarious. A great time was had by all 🙂

Ocean Apes

It was our wedding anniversary the other day, and naturally I purchased KLS a gift. To be specific, this:

Just add water for beloved pets! Of course we’ve done these before (and maybe you have too since I’ve given some as gifts) but it’s been many years. But who can resist their own aquatic humanoid shrimpy friends?

Instructions were read:

Water added:

And waiting began:

Now we – and probably you – know that ‘sea monkeys’ are just a form of brine shrimp, and the first packet (the purifier) contains the actual (water activated) eggs with subsequent packets – including the one labeled as eggs – being just food for the little guys. So it wasn’t surprising when only one day after we added the supposed egg packet we saw our first pets!

They are shy and difficult to photograph, but I succeeded more or less in capturing images of two of the half dozen or so that have already joined our family. So with pomp and ceremony let me introduce:

That little guy (circled in red) is Emperor Titanus, aka first-among-monkeys. As the firstborn he is naturally the undisputed leader, and his reign has started off well although his fuse is short and I worry he tends toward authoritarianism. Luckily his more primal urges are kept in check by:

High-Ambassador Alkarab. Third-born he may have been, but he quickly established a seat next to the emperor and attends to matters of state whilst keeping the masses distracted. As his name suggests it seems his true loyalty rests with another colony somewhere, and I fear this distraction coupled with his many day-to-day obligations may make it hard for him to resist the machinations of the unnamed second-born who hides in the depths, whispering madly.

The colony increases daily, with the monkeys simultaneously growing in size. We’re on the edge of our seat watching the politics evolve, and waiting to see if the rumors of a prophet emerging from the proletariat come to pass.

Stay tuned…