Terry the MOO in Japan
MOO Tails

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I was chuffed to be invited to go to Japan and have a yak with the teachers over there about how good I am.

We decided to fly Qantus (Australian Airlines) 'cause I reckoned my arms would get tired otherwise. I packed light (I had to because my pet human also wanted to take some clothes and other bits and pieces).

The airport was huge and noisy and since I had never flown before, my pet humans had to do things like show the ticket, have me X-rayed and I couldn't work out what the nice customs man was doing with the rubber glove but the humans certainly did look startled.

We moved into the departure lounge and waited until we were told we were allowed to get on the plane. This was a bit boring but I was still chuffed to be coming along.

I had trouble with the buckle for my seat belt, so my pet human had to help - hooves instead of opposable thumbs can be a nuisance sometimes. When I was strapped into my seat I watched as some female humans performed a complicated dance with plastic masks and lifejackets. They mentioned crashing and how to cope with that - it seemed to me that it would be all over red rover if we did crash but they seemed cheery about it all.

I found some safety instructions in the chair pocket and thought it wise to read them, three times (a cow can never be too careful).

I felt a bit queezy and found a convenient bag to chunder in - only once. That was not too bad for an animal with 4 stomachs I thought.

We hurtled down the runway and take off was at great speed. I hoped the pilot knew what he was doing (he is only human, afterall).

We flew for ages, over huge dams and lakes that my pet human tried to explain were oceans and seas - I had never seen so much water - no sign of drought out there I thought. I was told they were salty which would seem to be poor pasture management to me. We could see the wing and occasional glimpses of clouds and bits of land but everything was so small and seemed so far away. I am not sure a cow is supposed to be that high.

I was fed on the plane (even though my special dietary requirements were ignored, whatever it was tasted like chicken - I just hope it was no one I knew) and managed to stumble to a tiny cupboard that humans called a toilet on a couple of occasions. I had read that DVT was a problem (deep vein thingy) so walked around the cabin a bit - must say some of the humans appeared a little bewildered - can't think why.

We had meals and saw movies - I have decided that I like flying a lot and must try to get my pet human to take me other places.

The cockpit (which is a strange name as there were no chooks to be seen) was terriffic - the pilot let me land the plane and play with the joystick - he told the passengers that there was some turbulance up ahead before we started.

The passengers seemed to be a little nervous when they heard there was a cow at the controls but I soon got the hang of it and it was smooth flying for most of the way. All the guages and lights were really cool but I didn't have the foggiest about what they all meant.

The ejector seat seemed to work though as the co-pilot discovered.

We arrived at Konan Boys High School for Humans (a specist establishment). We were shown around by some very nice humans, given lunch and had the facilities explained to us.

They were very glad to see us and treated us really well. Their school is really like my school except for the uniform, language, bell times, course content, timetable, class sizes and nearly everything else. Apart from that, we were almost exactly the same as them.

I ran two training sessions while at Konan - training teachers on how to use terraMOO. I learnt that I had to speak slowly, to give time for the interpreter to catch up. I wish I could speak Japanese also but Cow and English are my only skills to date apart from some basic Japanese greetings.

The teachers were rooly enthusiastic about the potential for terraMOO to teach English in an active way.

I had dinner with the staff of Konan Boys High School and rather misjudged the strength of Japanese sake.

The Headmaster, Higuchi Sensei and Mr Young did their best to keep me away from the bottles, and assures me that what we were eating was no one I knew. They refused to explain what Shabu Shabu was, but merely said it was a type of beef dish - everyone was very polite and only occasionally looked at me with hungry expressions.

I must remember not to gulp at sake. 4 stomachs can be an advantage at times - we ate so much wonderful tasting food that I got all tired and emotional and needed a kip inbetween the 11th and 12th courses of the meal.

I do not think I will ever get the hang of those chopsticks.

I really enjoyed the food we had while in Japan. This is an Obento Box and my pet human and I shared this one at Konan Elementary School on a visit there to see the environmental studies. Chopsticks are a real challenge with hooves but I managed.

We walked along the Sumiyoshi River but it was really no more than what we would call a creek. The kids and I had great fun splashing in the mud, collecting plants and animals - someone found a snake but I didn't want to touch it

My humans planned a big expedition and needed me to help them sort out what train to connect with which ferry and so on - really, sometimes humans can get confused so easily.

Breakfast was familiar - I insisted on toast and vegemite for brekky.

Der Dairy,
today we travelled to.....

Late night diary writing was my only opportunity to record what happened - I can't rely on my humans memory so I thought I would write it all down - human compuers are so easy to use. Japanese TV is fantastic but I couldn't work it out - what was the man in the gorilla suit doing being chased around by the teapot?

Faster than a speeding cow.... We boarded the Shinkansen (bullet train) for our expedition to Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Crikey, travelling at 300km/h is comfortable but a bit scary. Luckily the seats were comfortable.

Travelling by Shinkansen is fast and furious - we sped through towns, suburbs and farming areas, hurtled through tunnels in mountain ranges and alongside rivers.

I would guess that we mostly went straight as turning the train around tight corners is a little difficult - like parking a tractor. This picture is downtown Osaka taken from the Shinkansen

We travelled with the mother of a boy at Konan who was our tour guide for the day - another bewildered human along the way. I cannot think why humans would think it so strange to see a cow sightseeing - we are curious about the world as well. I find human-developed places interesting as cows rarely build anything and one paddock tends to look like another after a while.

We were blessed to meet many lovely humans on our trip and they were all very keen for me to tag along also "You bring cow?" they would ask.

I got to see some amazing places (when my pet human remembered to take me out of his backpack).

Flat out on a local train in Hiroshima, our journey was nearly at an end - train back to the Airport, long flight back to Oz - Sayonnara Japan for now.

You can see my new charm - a Shinto Blessing from a temple in Kobe. I feel like I lead a charmed life and look forward to travelling some more.