Yokohama Zoo I went to a nice zoo the other day. It's called Zoorasia but it's more commonly known as Yokohama Zoo. Not far away from the train station where I got off, I saw a huge IKEA sign, indicating the location of IKEA's huge second outlet in Japan, opening later this year. Right now IKEA is located in Chiba, kind of far to the east of central Tokyo. The Yokohama branch will give people on the west-side easier access to cheap Scandinavian interior design... me included! You can expect me to post pictures of Swedish meatballs later this autumn...

Anyway, the Zoo was great. They have some really exotic animals that I've never seen before, not even on TV. My favorite was the Golden snub-nosed monkey, seen here. They really look and move like miniature people.. it was hilarious! Somehow their behavior struck me as very un-monkey-like...







Did I mention that it's really hot and humid here right now? During the summer, there are a lot of huge bugs, cicadas.. they make a lot of noise and it's not of the pleasant kind I heard in Singapore. It sounds more like some kind of whining mechanical baby.. Once, one almost flew into my face. I'm glad it missed cause judging by the size of those bugs, I could have had some teeth smashed out!






Also.. here's the latest Engrish sign, this time on a vending machine. ¶ 18:11