Animal visitors

Yesterday I was driving to a school to teach some English when I saw what I thought was a big dog on the footpath... however after a closer inspection I discovered that it wasn't in fact a dog, but a big monkey just hanging about. It didn't seem too worried by the car and my camera (for once I actually had it with me!), although it did move back a few metres to the safety of a tree. As I have mentioned in previous posts there is a big mountain here in which many monkeys live. It looks like one of the male monkeys was kicked out of his group and has come wandering into this area. Here's hoping he stays away from our house - not too many worries there considering how noisy my children are!

The other animals which are roaming about at the moment are wild boars - they come out to rummage in the chestnuts and unless fences are put up they also love to roll in the muddy rice fields. One farmer near here has an interesting way of putting them off - he puts a tiger in his field! I'm not sure whether it was the fence or the tiger, but his field hasn't been invaded by boars. Maybe it could be a big seller for next year!

Last night my sister, Beth, also arrived which means my children go a little crazier than usual for a while. We thought we would surprise her and go to the station to get her off the EXPRESS train (she was going to call when she arrived, but we thought we would guess which train she was on and surprise her) so went to the 4:08 train, the 5:08 train and finally arrived for the 6:08 train a few minutes early only to discover her there already. She had managed to make it to us via the LOCAL train.... a longer journey than necessary, but at least she got to stop at ALL the stations between here and Kokura! A hint for the unknowing... if the train is at the station for more than one minute before it leaves then chances are it is a local train and not an express train! Either way they both make it to us....