The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera

22. Konichiwa, Huck!

May, 1976

Huckleberry Hound sat back in his seat on board the airplane, napping contently as the clouds drifted by. He was on his way to Tokyo, Japan...the latest destination on his lifelong dream of traveling the world. What better time to visit, when the weather was warm and the scenery was full of beauty?

"I spent a good number of years visitin' Europe after my show finished," Huck had said to himself as he had looked through the encyclopedia his Aunt Cranberry had given him. "I reckon it's high time I visit Japan! It sure looks beautiful, from what I can see in these pictures!"

So, he decided to pack his bags, and spend a nice vacation in Tokyo. Snagglepuss, Mr. Jinks and Hokey Wolf had promised to look after his puppy dog Pudgy and his kitten Mimi, and Huck promised them in return that he'd sent all of them lots of postcards. So, there he sat on the plane, enjoying a leisurely nap as he waited for his flight to land. In his dream, he was sitting in a large arena in Tokyo...the biggest arena in the world, that is...and watching a sumo fight between two famous movie monsters that appeared in Japanese cinema: Godzilla and King Kong. The crowd was on the edge of their seats as the two gigantic creatures had their arms locked together, trying to knock each other down.

"Attention all passengers," the flight attendant suddenly announced. "We'll be starting our descent into Tokyo. Please return your seats to the upright position."

Huck immediately sprang awake from his nap. "Huh? Was I..." he soon found himself giggling. "That was a pretty funny dream! Personal-like, I was rootin' for ol' Kong to win. Huhuhuhuh!"

The plane soon started landing in Japan as Huck looked out the window. "There it is! Tokyo, Japan looks so pretty!"

As soon as the plane landed and came to a complete stop, Huck grabbed his suitcase, and stepped off the plane. After leaving the airport, he made his way over to the currency exchange to transfer his money into Japanese yen, then he began to look around at the sights. He wanted to try to ask someone to help him find a nice hotel to stay in, but when he tried to ask them, they couldn't understand him. Of course, Huck couldn't understand what anyone else was saying either.

"今日はなんか手伝うことある?" ("How can I help you today?") a young woman asked him.

"Excuse me, but do you know where I could find a hotel?" he asked the young woman.

"Eh?" the woman wondered. "理解できません." ("I can't seem to understand you.")

"Hmmmm, I don't speak Japanese," Huck said to himself. "This is gonna be a challenge."

Soon a young man came riding by on a bicycle. When he saw Huck, he gasped in awe and pedaled backward to a stop. He recognized Huck immediately from television!

"Chin-ken Hakkaru?" he cried. "Huckleberry Hound, that is?"

Huck whirled around and his eyes widened when he saw the young man. "Golly! Looks like I'm pretty famous over here in Japan too!"

"Of course!" the man smiled. "We've been watching you for about ten years now!"

"Ten years!" Huck beamed. "Oooh, wee! What a surprise!" Then he did a double take. "Hold on...you can speak English?"

"I can," the man replied. "We have a lot of American tourists here, so many of us have learned how to speak English."

"Ohh, that's good to know!" Huck said. "I was just trying to ask this nice young lady where I could find a hotel."

"I could help you," the man said. He looked at the young woman. "申し訳ありませんが、ホテルの方向を教えていただけますか?" ("Pardon me, but could you point us in the direction of a hotel?")