animal park

by mikka


You know how awkward it feels when you bid goodbye to someone and then bump into them ten minutes later? That's sort of how it feels to blog about Numazu after writing my too-long and rambly goodbye post. But in any case, the weekend before our last, some of Iain's students took us out for one last excursion, to the Fuji Animal Safari Park.



The safari park is half zoo, half "safari" - in which you board one of these buses, and drive through a Jurassic park-esque safari filled with bored-looking wildlife.


On the bus, you sit safe behind the bars armed with a pair of metal tongs and a bowl of carrots and  raw meat...


... so that you can FEED the lions and bears. No big deal. 


You can also forgo the raw meat and the bus and drive your own car through - stopping periodically at heavily fortified gates that separate the different types of animals. Iain's students wanted to drive through twice. Though it seems like a perfect storm for a disaster, we made it through with only one tiger-induced traffic jam.


It seemed like a lot of lions for such a small place? 




In the "zoo" part of the park, there was an alarmingly wide array of animals we were allowed to feed by hand. The highlights were the wallabys...


You were allowed to go INSIDE the cage. So weird, and yet, so cute.


... and also there were hungry squirrel monkeys! For 50 yen, you could feed them a handful of sunflower seeds.




Don't say you weren't warned?


There was also an area where children could manhandle pick up and pet guinea pigs and rabbits. Not as exciting, but it did yield a truly awesome sign.