A giant African tortoise and its owner have become somewhat used to turning heads as they go out for walks in Tokyo. 62-year-old Hisao Matani has been walking with his pet Bon-Chan, who his wife got from a pet store, for some years. But it’s only recently that the pair became an internet sensation when still pictures of them walking around parts of downtown Tokyo went viral.
Bon-chan was named after the day they bought him, which was around the holidays called O-bon, a time when Japanese Buddhists customarily honour the spirits of their ancestors. Bon-chan is also nicknamed “Master Roshi” in reference to the Turtle Hermit from popular Japanese cartoon series “Dragon Ball Z.”
He lives in a wooden enclosure designed by Matani himself and chomps on vegetables and fruits, including carrots, lettuce and apples.
“He’s becoming a little selfish, so he tries to go on different walk paths than the usual ones, and he tries to develop new paths, so that’s a little bothersome. He tries to go different ways.”
Matani says Bon-Chan has not been weighed in a while but he thinks his pet is probably around 70 kilograms in weight.
Difficult words: turn heads (to make people look at you), sensation (something that is very popular), still picture (a photograph), spirit(ghost), enclosure (an open area with walls for an animal to live inside).