Holiday in Maruyama Zoo

You may think that my favorite animal is only horse. Of course I love horse, but I also like animals very much.

Do you have been to Maruyama Zoo? People who live in Sapporo may have been there many times. I know two zoos in Hokkaido. One is Asahiyama zoo which is famous all over Japan. And another is Maruyama zoo which is close to Hokkaido University. When I came to Sapporo for the first time, I knew there is Maruyama zoo in Sapporo, and there are white bears. I had been hoping to go to Maruyama zoo since then. How nice the white bear in snow is, I thought.

However, the time passed in an instant. It becomes November. Yet there was no snow and I could go to the zoo by walk. That day, it was so cold and windy. I went there by subway and then walk. I heard that there are many smart shops and café around Maruyama. At a bakery near the zoo, we eat lunch. The shop was very nice both bread and interior design. I had a pumpkin soup and it was very delicious.

At the Maruyama zoo, I saw many people in spite of the cold weather. I was very happy to come to the zoo. First, I saw ressar-pandas. There were two little ressar-pandas. Those two children were born recently and names of them was advertized. All of them had fluffy and orange fur, so they were so cute.

There were many species of owl and hawk. I saw Ural Owl and Snowy Owl for the first time. Snowy Owl is bird which ride on Harry Potter’s shoulder. The birds were very beautiful and look smart. Next, I saw a show of a black kite (one kind of hawk). The black kite whistled close to my head and I was very moved as I forgot cold weather.

In the zoo, there were Lion and Tiger, white panther, giraffe, hippopotamus, too. I was worried about those tropical animals because the cold whether in Hokkaido must be hard to live. But, they were all in indoors. The room of those animals was warm, however, it was little narrow for them, I thought. The animals in Maruyama zoo was all have beautiful body and look healthy. The breeders must love those animals, I thought.

White bears were outdoors. There were some kinds of bears. I could compare bears. White Bears have slender face and long pliant body. Ural Bear (Higuma) is little small but I felt a sense of closeness. Black Bear is very big but look like teddy bear.

I wanted to see not mainly white bears but also wolves. I had never seen them. I love a story of wolves and I admire wolves. There are three wolves, and they are family. Wolves ran lively and their body was brawny. Their eyes were upright and cool, I was impressed. And I remembered a dog which had been in my home. He looked like a small wolf and so tender. At the same time I thought that why wolves in Hokkaido disappeared.

 Zoo gives us very precious chance to meet animals in other country. Zoo gives precious chance to think about us, too. Human is not only a living life in earth. When I see animals that we never meet in daily life, I am impressed and my heart becomes full.

I could refresh my mind in the zoo. I want go there again. And I also want many people to go to zoo. Many wonderful animals wait at zoo!

Riding Horse

  I’m going to write about the sequel to last story.

  I enjoyed riding horse very much on the day of short trip with my family. When I ride on Jerom, I felt refreshed because his back was high. I touched Jerom’s neck. His body was warm and smooth. I thought he must give me a wonderful time. My family took each other by cameras. The time of trekking by horse arrived!

  At first, we did warming up in a small enclosure at LAKE TOYA RANCH. Horses walk in a round line. The top of line was instructor’s horse. The second horse was Hanako and the third was Kimuch and the fourth was Jerom and me. I noticed that holding horse by the bridle (a strap which control horse) was more difficult than I had thought. My horse Jerom gradually walked slow and went out from the line. Jerom did not want to walk, the instructor taught me. (Horses always want to eat and don’t want to use energy to move.)  I think horses are very honesty. I could make Jerom walking by showing signals.

Here, I touch about how to give a signal for horse. When you want horse to go forward, kick horse’s both side of stomach. When you want to turn horse right or left, pull the bridle the direction you want to go. I taught I could do this well by pulling bridle lower and outside. When stop, you pull both side of bridle toward your body. The horses of LAKE TOYA RANCH were all smart and well trained. You don’t need to worry.

  After we became to be able to handle horses, we went to trekking course. The course went between trees! And there were many trees and the course was slope. Interestingly, Jerom always hoped to eat leaves because there were lot plants around course. He tried to eat leaves but I must stop it. Jerom looked so lovely when he acted to eat. The instructor told me, “Horses are like children. They are very honest to their feel. They always study our expression and try to eat or rest as possible as they can. We have to make them noticed that they are working now.”

At the first half, Jerom went away from my handling. However, he came to follow me at last. I was really happy, I could communicate with Jerom! Jerom was so nice horse because he could climb slope and could go bad mud ways. I am lucky to meet Jerom. Of course people there, too!

After we finished riding, Jerom and other horses began to eat. Horse is how interesting, I thought. Horses at there turned out into free. They ran, played with other horse, or rested. I looked at horse for a long time until they went back to their house.

We stayed at a hotel with a hot spring in Noboribetsu. There was good spa and we can see colored leaves from it. It was so nice. At dinner, I enjoyed it with my family after a long time.

Next day, my family went back home. Left by my self, I felt lonely. But I want to say them, “Thank you for coming!”

Short Trip With My Family

Today I am going to write about my holiday with my family.

I really love my family and I spent very happy time with them.

 On last weekend in October my mother and elderly brother and elderly sister came to Hokkaido. It had been a long time since I saw them last. My family was busy with their work but they made time for this trip. I am very grad to meet them in Hokkaido. However, greatly to my regret, I could not saw my father because he had many things to do that day. I had a good time with them.

 My family flew from Haneda air port to Chitose air port. I got up early and went to meet at Chitose air port. When I rode on train, I was very looking forward to meet them. My mother and sister’s smile made me happy. I heard that my brother bought new boots and a jacket for this trip, and I’m grad to know that he was looking forward that day, too.



We rented a car and went to eat lunch at first. We have sushi in revolving sushi bar. Although I live in Hokkaido, I can not eat sushi very often. It was so good.





 At that time, trees on mountain turned bright red and yellow. It was really beautiful. We can saw that wonderful colored leaves through windows. I was very moved with the scenery. We went to Toya lake. There was an island in the center of lake. The lake was very large. It was sunny and warm. Besides, there was no wind on that day. We had very calm weather. I thought we were very lucky because only Hokkaido was sunny and whole Japanese Islands were rainy. This photograph shows “Kita” in kanji. I made this with my sister.

 

Next we went to ride on horse. We went to LAKE TOYA RANCH where we can experience horse trekking. There were many horses and riding people. I wanted to touch horses as soon as possible but our turn to ride horses did not come yet then. We waited at cafe till the turn came. At the café I had a nuts and dried-fruits cake. It was nice. Its picture is this. From the café we could see Toya lake and trekking horses.



  We went to LAKE TOYA RANCH. And then, two black dogs ran toward us and welcomed us. After we wore helmets, we were taught how to ride horse and each of us met own horse.

 My partner was Jerom. Jerom was a male horse who had light brown body and yellow hair. My mother rode on a female horse, Haruka. My brother’s horse was named Kimuch. Kimuch had short curly hair. My sister rode on Dorry. They were beautiful and lovely horses. Horses were absorbed in eating. Jerom  was not concerned about me. Every horse was well-behaved and gentle. Instructors were very kind and we were very amused by their talking.



Jerom



  

Sorry, in the next blog, I will write about riding.

                                                           (To be continued… )