THE ZOO!!!

Monday was a National holiday, so we made big plans to see some Christmas things in Tokushima. Our friends Chris and Kara invited us to go to the Tokushima Zoo with them. They were having a Christmas event and if you dressed like Santa you got free admission. 

Bird Enclosure

The Zoo is just outside our biking range so we had yet to go, Chris and Kara picked us up and we all headed out.  I was surprised by the lack of decoration and the lack of “Santas” as it was touted as a Christmas event.  But the weather was perfect and there were animals to be seen.  We say some birds, deer, and some monkeys.

Red Panda

Bear

  As we tried to take pictures of the monkeys they launched themselves from their ropes and flung onto the wall of the cage. Had the fencing not been there I’m quite sure Clint’s face would have been eaten of by a red faced macaque. He did manage to get a good picture in the face of danger. The chimpanzee also had some pent up aggression and would bang on his door cage five times then charge to the glass wall of his cage where he would sit almost majestically for about 30 seconds before returning to bang on the door some more.

Red Faced Macaque trying to eat Clint

Chimp

The Zoo itself was set up nicely and had a large picnic area and was well landscaped.  The map lead us in a circle to see all the animals and touted some animal encounters such as throwing sausages to the bears feeding carrots to the elephants and getting up close and personal with some sheep. We passed on the special timed events and instead headed over to the monkey enclosure.

Meercat

Zebra

Giraffe

Lion

Having seen the aggression form them larger monkeys earlier I was a bit weary. There were several signs indicating to close our bags and check our pockets for protruding items. Chris warned us to watch our things because last time he was robbed by a monkey.  We entered and almost immediately the monkeys were fascinated with us. They shook hands with Clint and eventually climbed up onto his back and tried to get into his bag, and drink his coffee. They really seemed to like my hair and began grooming me while sitting on my shoulders. If was funny and cute until I got pooped on. We didn't get anything stolen form us but they did take Kara’s chapstick from her bag, we had to make quick moves to get it back, but it was recovered. 

Oh Coffee!!

After the excitement of the monkeys we wandered around the zoo a bit more and into a connected Family Fun park. It looked like a low budget carnival but had permanent structures, one of which was dilapidated and eerie, we thought it was closed, but no, still a fully functioning arcade, albeit it a gross and old one. there were also large mechanical animals you could ride. they were mostly Pandas and some were in better shape than others.

 

We left the Fun Center and the zoo and decided to take a stroll around the nearby botanical garden. It was small and being winter, didn't have much to look. I'm sure it it gorgeous in the spring and I am looking forward to returning then.