Takasaka Zoo

There's a little dry cleaning place that's right behind our apartment. That's where we met Ringo. She is a 17 year old junior in high school and wants to learn English. She works in the dry cleaning shop and was so excited to speak English with us whenever we went in until finally she asked if we could exchange letters, which turned into us helping her study for tests, to going out to dinner together with her and her family and finally going to the zoo. She is such a sweet girl and it has been so much fun getting to know her and her family since last spring!

Last weekend we finally made it to the zoo that is near our house. It's not a big zoo but I was surprised how nice it was and how many different kinds of animals it had. It was a really fun day!

From left to right is Ringo's mom Yayoi, her little brother Hinata, Ringo, and of course us. 

Brad and Hinata with a giant capiburra that Hinata liked. Hinata was a little shy since he doesn't know any English but it was still fun to talk a little bit. (Side note: we didn't see any capiburra but apparently they will be arriving in November once their hot spring enclosure is ready. Lucky animals!)

This little calf was only a week old. So cute!

This is a red panda which is the big attraction for the park. There were twin red panda's that were born in June which were so cute! 

Weird, big scraggly bird. It's the white Big Bird! 

Pretty fall colors!

Three toed sloth. They had this enclosure where you were basically on a bridge walking through their environment--no barriers whatsoever. You could almost reach out and touch the guy!

This little guy was my favorite. He was just taking a nap on a tree in the open enclosure. You can see with the picture of Brad that there were no barriers in the enclosure, but we still couldn't touch them. :( They look so cute and cuddly!

There were tons of kangaroos! And again, there was no barrier between us and the kangaroos...

This isn't a good picture but see how close you can get? Crazy!

Some turtles having fun...haha

These little pigs were in the petting zoo area. They were so cute! They had little numbers painted on top of them so you could tell them apart. 

Giraffes! They had at least 3 of them, and a couple zebras too.

So that was our day at the zoo. I'll try and post all of our pictures on Picasa soon, but for now enjoy!

And... HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I think Brad and I will go to the Hard Rock Cafe this weekend for their turkey dinner. Unfortunately turkey is pretty hard to come by here, but hopefully this will hit the spot. We will definitely be missing all the amazing home cooked meals and family this week!