Jim and Karen's visit, Part I.

One of the first activities we did after they arrived was go to the zoo. It is within walking distance of our home so that worked very nicely.

It was a sunny Friday when we went but the sky looked a little ominous so we brought an umbrella. Thankfully we didn't need it. I would love to share a picture of Ev with her Grandpa before we left but with Facebook's new-ish photo viewing options I cannot figure out how to grab the link or how to even right-click to save it.

Evelyn was awake when we left but by the time we got to the zoo she was zonked out and slept the whole time. Her first zoo experience and she slept right through it; that's okay though because it'll be very pocketbook-friendly to go back again. And again. And again...because a season pass is only 2000 yen!

The mosaic tiles lined the upper walls of the zoo. The middle picture is a view from the zoo and the third picture is of a group of zoo kids with their cute, cute sunhats.

The zoo was filled abundantly with flowers and art made out of flowers. The little butterfly was a pretty fellow I saw before we even paid for our tickets.

The aviary was the first place we stopped. The bats were Karen's favorite though they grossed me out. I was excited to get out of there.

The monkeys were next and they were my favorite. Between the monkeys, elephants, and giraffes at any zoo I think the monkeys will always win. My Granny's favorite animal at the zoo were the monkeys.

The turtles were pretty cute, too. Check out the algae on the one on the left. The turtle on his back struggled for a little bit before a man reached over the short wall that separated us from the turtles and flipped him over. Bless his heart.

We got to the elephants right as it was bathtime. They really seemed to enjoy it; I'll eventually get around to uploading the video I took of them.

You can see Grandpa Jim among the crowd that gathered to watch the elephants bask in the cool water. To the right is the sleepy zoo princess.

The left is another beautiful view from the zoo and the photo on the right was some pretty foliage that caught my eye.

Part II of their visit will capture our extremely busy Sunday: we hiked to Katsuren castle, went on the glass bottom boat tour, and hiked up to Hiji falls.