ammonnews.net

Ammon News - Bon-chan the tortoise belongs to Hisao Mitani, a 68-year-old funeral director, and has recently become an internet celebrity after featuring in a viral TikTok video.

Bon-chan, an African spurred tortoise, belongs to 68-year-old funeral director Mitani Hisao, and the pair have become the focus of a video by TikTok-er @sugiomart.

In a video, which has already been viewed over seven million times, the pair can be seen walking around the streets of their home city, Tsukishima, in Tokyo, Japan.

The narrator explains how their long walks are often slowed to a snails pace as they are stopped for pictures and for passers by to pet Bon-chan.

During an interview with Play Tokyo in 2019, Hisao said: "The first time we went for a walk was when Bon-chan was 10-years-old, that was already 13 years ago.

"Until now we had three different routes, we used the first one for a couple of years then we walked another route I was thinking of, and now we got for a stroll through the shopping street.

"If we have more time, we walk up and down the shopping street twice near our home, that's about one kilometre."

Bon-chan has grown massively over the years, to a whopping 70kg, despite originally being small enough to fit into Mitani's hand.

He said that he fears Bon-chan may have to go onto a new owner one day, as tortoises of this kind can live up to 100-years-old.

Hisao continued: "At first, Bon-chan was only as little as my palm. I thought Bon-chan would grow slowly over (his) lifetime, but as soon as Bon-chan was 10-years-old he began to grow rapidly.

"Bon-Chan seems to be the type that continues growing, since Bon Chan grew much bigger than the turtles of his kind.

"However since Bon-chan will live much longer than me, I have to find a new owner soon.

"I hope there will be a person who'll tell me that he or she can take care of Bon Chan

"I assume that I can walk together with Bon-chan another 10 years."

*MIRROR