Kobe Animal Park
Yes, this place is worth its own post
Kobe is a small town near Osaka that has a small zoo (which we didn’t visit), and a unique greenhouse-enclosed animal park that looked to be more interactive than a typical zoo. So we hopped on a train and a subway, and was about to do the final leg on another rail system when we found out that it was closed on Thursdays. What?
Well, we rejiggered some of our trip and came back to the small(ish) town of Kobe a few days later. It was well worth it, as this was one of our top animal experiences ever (maybe another post on the top 10 at some later time).
Kobe Animal Kingdom doesn’t have the largest number of animals, but they have all the cute ones. Otters, wolves, bears, sloths, small anteaters, a tiger, deer you can feed, kangaroos, the most handsome camel you’ve ever seen, and a cute nest of prairie dogs. They had the most unique birds, including beautiful pheasants and ducks, and the giant spoonbill which stood as tall as a human. They even had a frogmouth, the bird that looks like a wooden stump. And all these animals had an odd propensity to want to take selfies with us!
But the most amazing part was how close you could get to the animals and how interactive they were. There was a show for pelicans, where they had them fly from one side of the pond to the other. Watching pelicans kind of stomp on the water until they get enough speed to take off and then water-skiing as they land is quite fun.
Then there were the lemurs. They hopped all around the place, narrowly missing landing on our heads. Mama bear loved watching the beavers. They looked so cute standing on their hind legs and using their tiny hands to grasp the twigs that they gnawed on.
They even had an outdoor field where they did a bird show, with falcons swooping overhead and demonstrating their ability to catch prey. But none of this could compare to the red pandas. I’m pretty sure this is the only animal that is far cuter in person than any cartoon or stuffed animal can represent. I’ve never touched a red panda, but they look ridiculously fuzzy. I got pretty close though.
The highlight of the Park for me was the capybara. I LOVE capybara. They have such a calm friendly attitude. And these capybara had a nice warm pool to relax in, but they mostly spent their time wandering around the path with the humans. They would just stroll on up to us and let us pet them along with some giant tortoises. It even looked like one was standing in line to buy capybara food (leaves). We found one capybara chilling near the exit door. When we went through, it followed us out, and we had to shoo it back in. I pet SOO many capybara that day. We visited three times throughout the day.
Having only enough time to pass through, we did not eat any super expensive Kobe beef, but we were still happy with the quality of “cheap” food here, mostly because it had some cuteness to it, and we could see a pygmy hippo while eating.
Best animal experience ever!
