Good-Bye Kara-Kun

While my mother was here in Japan they took a trip to see the cherry blossoms at Kobayashi Bokujo. All along the street there were vendors peddling food, toys, etc. At one of the booths my daughter tried her hand at "Kingyo Sukui" (金魚すくい) where kids try to catch goldfish with a disk of paper that slowly falls apart in the water. If you are not quick, you will lose the fish. Anna was able to catch three orange goldfish and one black big eyed goldfish.

The three goldfish are named Remi, Kina, and Hina. The black fish, Kara from day one tended to hide underneath the plastic plant inside the tank. The Remi, Kina, and Hina would pick on Kara while he hid there.

Yesterday, our worst fears were realized and Kara was found floating underneath one of the tree he liked to hide under. Anna took it pretty hard but she learned one of life's hardest lessons. We made a grave in the front yard for Kara and my wife made a little drawing of Kara underneath his name.

In the afternoon we went to Joyful Honda to see if we could find another fish to replace Kara. Unfortunately, the salesgirl there warned us against buying another one at that time. Many of the fish were not well there either. She told us to come back in a couple of weeks to see if the fish had gotten any better (or some of the weak ones had died off.)