Princess Aiko's elephants were allowed to comeout to play yesterday and I missed it. Rats.

I heard the best story while I was in Ireland. Here's how it goes:

Once upon a time there were 3 little Zebras and each one built a Zoo to live in. The first little Zebra built his zoo out of zweiback (a very tasty zoo!). The second zebra built her zoo out of zigzags (quite architectural, don't you think?) and the last zebra built her zoo out of zealots (oooh, scary!). She tucked them into plastic Ziploc bags and stood them in a circle, facing outwards.

One day, a big, bad ZOU cam along to the first zoo. The Zou stomped on all the zweiback until it was little crumbs. The zebra ran away to his sister's zoo while the zou hovered up all the yummy cumbs. When the Zou was full of tasty toast, he ambled over to the zigzag zoo.

"Zebras, zebras, let me in!" he called out.

"Not on our stripes, no way!" they replied.

"I'll stomp and and I'll trumpet my way in!" the Zou shouted.

And he did. He flattened out all those zigzag and then walked right over them. The zebras ran away to their sister's zoo while the Zou rolled around on the flattened-out zig-zags. It was fun! Then he got up and walked over towards the zealot zoo.

But before he could even call out to be let in, the zealots were yelling and screaming all sorts of crazy mottos and singing anthems and doing zealot things. The Zou got scared and ran away, leaving the zebras alone with their zealots.

Isn't that the best story ever? Except for the part where the Zou got scared, maybe.

On Friday, two new elephants are coming to Tokyo! They will live at Ueno Zoo. Kristen says that's only 30 minutes walk from where we are, though it might take me longer becasue I walk pretty slow. I hope we can go visit them. They come from Surin province in northeastern Thailand and are presents for the Imperial princess Aiko, who will be 1 year old on December 1st. I hope she loves them as much as Kristen and Tod love us.