Hi, everyone!
Grandma and Grandpa and I are in Japan, visiting Bill-kun and Karin-chan and their mommy and daddy. Bill-kun really likes Cheerios, but they aren’t sold in Japan. So Grandpa bought six big boxes to take to him! And Grandma bought some American chocolate for Bill-kun’s other grandma. I was a good helper packing up the gifts to carry on the airplane. Then Grandpa put me in charge of the bags when we were waiting for our flight to Chicago. It takes all day to fly from Chicago to Tokyo, so I took a long nap. Grandma woke me up when we were almost there! Then we took the train from the airport to Shinjuku station and met Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s daddy there. He was surprised to see so many boxes of Cheerios, and I was happy to have help carrying them on the crowded local trains! When we got to Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s house, my Japanese lion family were waiting to greet me. It’s good to see the other Lion-sans again!
The next morning, Grandma and I went to the garden with Karin-chan and her daddy to do some weeding and harvesting. It was a hot day! Karin-chan found a great big stag beetle eating a tomato that fell on the ground. Sometimes Japanese children keep stag beetles as pets, but this one wanted to stay in the garden. I was a good helper with the harvesting, especially the carrots! There were lots of them! Look at all the yummy vegetables Karin-chan and her daddy grew that we get to eat! And Bill-kun and Karin-chan are growing flowers, too. Don’t their morning glories look nice?
On Sunday, we all went to Showa Kinen park to play. This is a great big park with lots of active things to do. First, we went to the bouncing dome. Karin-chan and Bill-kun took me bouncing, but I got tired before they did! Look at how high Bill-kun can jump! All that jumping made us hungry, so then we had a picnic lunch. Bill-kun had soba — his favorite kind of noodle. Grandma made potato salad out of the carrots and potatoes from the garden, and I had some of that and shared some rice cakes.
After lunch, we found a great big pyramid to climb. There were a lot of steps for a little lion, but I made it all the way to the top! Bill-kun and Karin-chan climbed up too! Looking down from the pyramid, they could see that the Foggy Woods was misty. That just happens twice every hour, so they ran down to play there. The Rainbow Hammocks are just beyond the Foggy Woods in Showa Kinen park, so that’s where we went next. Bill-kun and Karin-chan did more bouncing and running and jumping there, but I was happy just to climb up and sit on the blue hammock. Karin-chan helped me get there! Then we all went to slide on the roller slides. This curvy one is REALLY long!
Showa Kinen park has dragons, too! The one in the middle roars whenever someone climbs in his mouth, but he’s really nice. I made friends with him, and he let me take a nap on his head! The other dragons were friendly, too!
The park is so big that Bill-kun and Karin-chan took their bikes along to ride. Grandma and Grandpa rented bikes, and their mommy and daddy rented a bicycle for two! Grandma gave me a ride in her basket. We finished our day at the park by taking a ride on the bike paths. What a fun day!
Love,
Lion-san
The dragons looked friendly , do you think they would be friendly even to a little Moose? Nancy-san looked envious at all you got from your garden.