Mutsugorou

Have you ever heard of 畑正憲 (Masanori Hata)…more commonly called 「ムツゴロウ」 (“Mutsugorou“)?

He’s a 74 year old Japanese man who graduated from the prestigious 東京大学 (University Of Tokyo).

When he was twenty-five, he got a job making documentaries, but quit eight years later to become a professional author after he got his first book published.

Almost every book he’s had published and movie that he produced has been about animals.

「ムツゴロウさん」 (“Mutsugorou-san“) is famous in Japan for his love of animals.
He loves any and all animals! Bugs, reptiles, housepets, wild beasts…all animals.

He often appears as a guest on Japanese TV variety shows because of his unusual habit of “playing” with animals…even wild animals. Many times he meets an animal that’s not in a “playful mood” and he’s been bitten and scratched many times…a few times he’s been nearly killed!

But that doesn’t hinder his love for the animals…nor does it cause him to hesitate to continue to “play” with animals. When he gets bit or injured, he just says that the animal is only acting natural…he doesn’t seemed fazed in the least.

He’s quite a character!

Here’s a video of a program I saw on TV that featured the “Top Five Mutsugorou Moments” as chosen by Japanese pop singer 中島美嘉 (Mika Nakashima).

Recent weekends

Do you know that you can click on all of the “thumbnail” size photos on this blog to see it in full-size?

A couple weekends ago, we decided to look around the Tokyo University campus.

We’ve been in the university’s area many times, but this was the first time we walked onto the campus.

Have you ever heard of Tokyo University? It’s an “Ivy League” school like Harvard or Oxford? When we visited Boston years ago, we checked out Harvard’s campus…just out of curiosity. And that’s why we went to 東大 (“Todai”…the common abbreviation of Tokyo University’s name in Japanese (which is 東京大学 “Tokyo Daigaku”)).

It’s a large, beautiful campus.

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The weekend before that, we went to 東武動物公園 (Tobu-zoo), north of Tokyo.

It’s a very nice zoo / amusement park! They have many rides, roller coasters, a ferris wheel, etc that the kids love…as well as a very nice zoo! And there’s a dog-park…where you can sit and hold and play with any of the numerous dogs there. We don’t have any pets at home…so my kids love that part of the zoo (my wife and I do, as well)!

Here’s a picture of the ferris wheel:

And I took this picture of the roller coaster as my kids were riding it. It was a very fast roller coaster! It looked like torture to me…but they wanted to ride it again (the line was too long, though)!

The hippo’s lunch time:

And this is a “Lesser-Panda”. They are very popular in Japan…because they’re cute—and one was seen standing upright at Ueno Zoo a couple years ago…it was on the news.

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Today is Saturday. The weather is nice and and it’s warm. So my youngest is at the park with her friends…and my oldest daughter took the train with her friend into downtown Tokyo to go shopping!

I recently have been allowing her to take the train with her friends…but always to go somewhere close. Today was the first time I allowed her to go that far. Her and her friend are going to a part of the city popular with teenagers.

I have to let them grow up…I guess.

Anyways…me and the second daughter are about to go to the local library together now.