70kg tortoise becomes a celebrity by strolling the Tokyo streets

A huge reptile is on the prowl through Tokyo’s streets but unlike Godzilla, who stomped across Japan’s capital in a blaze of destructive energy, Bon-chan the giant tortoise isn’t doing anything very quickly. The metre-long African spurred tortoise, which tips the scales at 70 kilogrammes, is a regular sight on the streets of Tokyo’s Tsukishima district, as he and owner Hisao Mitani take their snail-paced daily walk. "My wife just fell in love with him when she saw him at a pet shop, so she brought him home,“ Mitani, who runs a funeral home, told AFP. That was 20 years ago, when Bon-chan was small enough to fit into the palm of your hand.

I sort of knew he would become a good size tortoise but did not think he would be this big.

Bon-chan's owner Hisao Mitani

Like Godzilla, Bon-chan can also stop traffic - though generally it is so motorists can take a look at him, rather than because he has crushed their vehicles. While his fictional forerunner fed - in some incarnations - on nuclear power plants, Bon-chan prefers cabbage and carrots, gently taking them out of the hands of children who rush to greet him. The tortoise lives in a pen at Mitani’s funeral home, where he greets callers. "Some people may say it’s absurd to keep such a big tortoise at the entrance of a funeral service. But even in their time of sadness, people smile when they see him, so I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have him,” said the undertaker.

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