Hello
My name is Nao Adamson.
I am a Japanese essayist writing about
international marriage with my English husband.
Recently, there was a tragic incident
which made lot of Japanese people sad. 
A baby panda died on 11 July at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.
Pandas are very popular in Japan
since two of them came from China
for the first time in 1972. 
I still remember that I went to see them with my family
when I was a little girl more than 30 years ago.
According to The Daily Yomiuri (12 July, 2012),
the first panda cub was born in Japan
through natural breeding on 5 July. 
However, it died of pneumonia 6 days later.
Here is the photo of mother panda and her baby.
It is on the top page of The Daily Yomiuri (July 12, 2012)
▲ Click here to see the expansion ↑
Unlike cow and horse cubs
which can immediately walk after being born,
panda cubs are extremely small. 
For example, the baby panda in Ueno Zoo
was only 133 grams
and you can put it on your palm.
Therefore, I heard that more than half
of panda cubs die before they grow up. 
Nevertheless, since Shin Shin, the mother panda
and Ri Ri, the father panda seem to get on very well,
I hope that they have another baby in the future. 
Have you ever seen pandas?
