Pandas from China love Japanese food !?

A few weeks ago, one of major Japanese newspapers, the Asashi newspaper, uploaded a video about two giant pandas at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.　Ｉn the video, the cute pandas are eating with gusto (Please see the Youtube video). The caption says that the pandas are becoming overweight because they eat too much.

These pandas came to Japan from China in February. At the time, it was a controversial matter since the annual rental fee for them, "about 950,000USD (78,000,000JPY)," is supposed to be paid for by tax money (The zoo is run by Tokyo prefecture). However, the 3/11 massive earthquake seemed to sweep the criticisms away. As a matter of fact, in late March, they started playing a more significant role than expected because a lot of children, not only in seriously-damaged areas but also in the Tokyo area (where all the people were shocked by the huge quakes), needed things which could cheer them up.

As you may know, on the 2nd of September, Mr. Noda was inaugurated as Prime Minister. In his address, he likened himself to weather loaches (which are very popular fish in Japan), saying that he knew he looked dowdy. He insisted that he was a weather loach, not a goldfish, so he would work his fingers to the bone in his own uncool way. I'm sorry I can't translate the statement into English well. We hope that the weather loach will do well, cheer us up and last a long time in office.