Japanese tour 2023

aramacao

aramacao

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Hello everyone:

I plan to take a trip to Japan this year, mainly focused on zoos and aquariums, although I also want to visit other places and do normal sightseeing. The currently idea is to make a 17-day trip (trip from Spain not included) focusing on Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka and Toba. I know that Japan offers many other interesting areas, both in terms of zoos and aquariums and tourism, but my traveling friends can't stay longer. I would like to expose the centers with animals that I have selected and ask for advice and help from zoochaters who know these sites.

1. Kobe Oji Zoo

2. Kobe Animal Kingdom

3. Atoa

4. Suma Aqualife Park Kobe

5. Osaka Aquarium

6. Tennoji Zoo

7. Toba Aquarium

8. Zoorasia

9. Nogeyama Zoological park

10. Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

11. Saitama Children’s Zoo

12. Tama Zoo

13. Inokashira Park Zoo

14. Sunshine Aquarium

15. Adachi Park of Living Things

16. Ueno Zoo

17. Sumida Aquarium

18. Maxell Aqua Park Shinagawa

19. Edogawa Natural Zoo

20. Tokyo Sea Life Park

21. Shinagawa Aquarium

Logically, in some cases the idea is to visit a couple of centers on the same day. Other days, we'll only visit one center, combining it with typical tourism.

I have many questions, but right now the main ones are related to the organization of time on the trip. Here we go!

Do you consider this list exaggerated? Do you think there are centers on the list that are not worth visiting? I have chosen them all in reference to species that don't exist in Europe, but I am aware that in some cases even these species are repeated. However, I'm afraid to remove any of them from the list and miss something. However, cutting the list would decongest the list and allow for calmer tourism. I am undecided and I wiWillead your advice carefully.

To organize the trip, it would also be very useful to know the approximate time needed to visit these places. It's necessary to start from the base that I do not know these centers, it would be my first visit in all of them, so this may cause me to need more time than normal to visit them... or not. You also have to remember that I take a lot of potos because I look for rare animals that I have not photographed, including subspecies. I photograph all the different species that I see. I would like fellow Japanese experts to tell me the time needed to visit each zoo or aquarium on this list.

These are my initial doubts, but I obviously have more and will keep asking. I hope you can help me in this task and plan a great zoo trip! ;)
 
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You’d better hurry if you want to get this trip in by 2021. ;)

I’d drop Shinawatra, unless you really feel the need to just go to as many places as possible.

Further afield, Asa Zoo in Hiroshima might be your best chance of ever seeing an African forest elephant.
 
CGSwans said:
You’d better hurry if you want to get this trip in by 2021. ;)

I’d drop Shinawatra, unless you really feel the need to just go to as many places as possible.

Further afield, Asa Zoo in Hiroshima might be your best chance of ever seeing an African forest elephant.
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Shinawatra = Shinagawa?

The Asa Zoo seems very interesting to me and the idea of being able to see foretst elephants is great, but the route is closed with my travel companions, I can't travel to more places in this trip :(. In case of sacrificing zoos or aquariums from the list, the time would be spent on typical tourism. I think that Japan deserves to make several trips, both for tourism and to see zoos and aquariums!
 
I don't know if this would be suitable but if you have a car then I suggest Kanazawa which is just 27 minutes away by car (around 40 by train) from Nogeyama (closed on Mondays.) They have Bairds tapir and big-horned sheep if you are interested in rarities.

Do you have a schedule of your trip instead of just a list of zoos you plan on visiting?
 
aramacao said:
Hello everyone:

I plan to take a trip to Japan this year, mainly focused on zoos and aquariums, although I also want to visit other places and do normal sightseeing. The currently idea is to make a 17-day trip (trip from Spain not included) focusing on Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka and Toba. I know that Japan offers many other interesting areas, both in terms of zoos and aquariums and tourism, but my traveling friends can't stay longer. I would like to expose the centers with animals that I have selected and ask for advice and help from zoochaters who know these sites.

1. Kobe Oji Zoo

2. Kobe Animal Kingdom

3. Atoa

4. Suma Aqualife Park Kobe

5. Osaka Aquarium

6. Tennoji Zoo

7. Toba Aquarium

8. Zoorasia

9. Nogeyama Zoological park

10. Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

11. Saitama Children’s Zoo

12. Tama Zoo

13. Inokashira Park Zoo

14. Sunshine Aquarium

15. Adachi Park of Living Things

16. Ueno Zoo

17. Sumida Aquarium

18. Maxell Aqua Park Shinagawa

19. Edogawa Natural Zoo

20. Tokyo Sea Life Park

21. Shinagawa Aquarium

Logically, in some cases the idea is to visit a couple of centers on the same day. Other days, we'll only visit one center, combining it with typical tourism.

I have many questions, but right now the main ones are related to the organization of time on the trip. Here we go!

Do you consider this list exaggerated? Do you think there are centers on the list that are not worth visiting? I have chosen them all in reference to species that don't exist in Europe, but I am aware that in some cases even these species are repeated. However, I'm afraid to remove any of them from the list and miss something. However, cutting the list would decongest the list and allow for calmer tourism. I am undecided and I wiWillead your advice carefully.

To organize the trip, it would also be very useful to know the approximate time needed to visit these places. It's necessary to start from the base that I do not know these centers, it would be my first visit in all of them, so this may cause me to need more time than normal to visit them... or not. You also have to remember that I take a lot of potos because I look for rare animals that I have not photographed, including subspecies. I photograph all the different species that I see. I would like fellow Japanese experts to tell me the time needed to visit each zoo or aquarium on this list.

These are my initial doubts, but I obviously have more and will keep asking. I hope you can help me in this task and plan a great zoo trip! ;)
Click to expand...
I have no idea why Adachi Park of Living Things and Edogawa Natural Zoo is in your plan but i guess they are small places that you can just add 1 to your zoo list? I don't see any need to go to those 2 other than that.
 
If you have the time, I'd suggest a trip to Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden would be good - I'm not entirely sure if the Amazonian manatee there is still alive but I haven't heard anything on the contrary?
 
PossumRoach said:
I don't know if this would be suitable but if you have a car then I suggest Kanazawa which is just 27 minutes away by car (around 40 by train) from Nogeyama (closed on Mondays.) They have Bairds tapir and big-horned sheep if you are interested in rarities.

Do you have a schedule of your trip instead of just a list of zoos you plan on visiting?
Click to expand...

These species are very attractive, but I have already seen them both in Europe and in the USA. My interest in Japanese zoos is mainly related to species that I can't see in Europe, mainly Asian and Australian species. In Japan there are many very rare species in captivity.

An important point: We'll not drive on this trip, we'll use public transport only.

At the moment, I've a list of the zoos and aquariums (and other list with typical tourist places). The Schedule and itinerary is the next stage
 
aardvark250 said:
I have no idea why Adachi Park of Living Things and Edogawa Natural Zoo is in your plan but i guess they are small places that you can just add 1 to your zoo list? I don't see any need to go to those 2 other tan that.
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All the zoos and aquariums on the list are there because at some point I saw that they had interesting species in their collection, but I don't know by heart what species each center keeps. I'm looking at pictures of Edogawa Natural Zoo and Adachi Park of Living Things right now and I don't really see anything interesting hahaha :p
 
aramacao said:
These species are very attractive, but I have already seen them both in Europe and in the USA. My interest in Japanese zoos is mainly related to species that I can't see in Europe, mainly Asian and Australian species. In Japan there are many very rare species in captivity.
Click to expand...

Then what is the point of going to Edogawa Zoo? Other than the spider monkeys which can also be seen in Europe, their animals are otherwise considerably common. Otherwise if you have seen them before that’s groovy but for some species having an extra sighting probably doesn’t hurt.

I am sure @Veno might have an idea about the rarities you want to see and your stops.
 
amur leopard said:
If you have the time, I'd suggest a trip to Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden would be good - I'm not entirely sure if the Amazonian manatee there is still alive but I haven't heard anything on the contrary?
Click to expand...
Uhmmmm, very interesting. If I delete Edogawa Natural Zoo and Adachi Park of Living Things, I would have a day to visit Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden, which is also between Toba and Yokohama, so it is not a big detour on the trip :)
 
PossumRoach said:
Then what is the point of going to Edogawa Zoo? Other than the spider monkeys which can also be seen in Europe, their animals are otherwise considerably common. Otherwise if you have seen them before that’s groovy but for some species having an extra sighting probably doesn’t hurt.

I am sure @Veno might have an idea about the rarities you want to see and your stops.
Click to expand...

As I said, these zoos are quite unknown to me, so I can make mistakes. I think I'll remove Edogawa Natural Zoo and Adachi Park of Living Things of the and I'll include Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden...
 
Although it is far away, I recommend Toyama City Family Park.
This zoo specializes in endemic species, and the Local Animal House is a nocturnal animal collection limited to endemic species. The Japanese Weasel can only be seen here!
 
Veno said:
There is a Giant freshwater stingray at the Itabashi Tropical Botanical Garden in Tokyo!
Click to expand...

Interesting, but I don't have time for everything... :confused:

I am trying to include Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden but I see that the transport time is enormous. My intention would be to travel to Tokyo and immediately go by train to Kobe. From Kobe We would go to Osaka and from there to Toba. From Toba We wanted to go to Tokyo and Yokohama, but the idea of Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Gardenis very attractive to me. The problem is that going from Toba to Tokyo or Yokohama takes 3-5 hours and from Toba to Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden 11 hours!
 
Veno said:
Although it is far away, I recommend Toyama City Family Park.
This zoo specializes in endemic species, and the Local Animal House is a nocturnal animal collection limited to endemic species. The Japanese Weasel can only be seen here!
Click to expand...

In other trip, sure, but in this travel it's impossible...
 
aramacao said:
Interesting, but I don't have time for everything... :confused:

I am trying to include Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden but I see that the transport time is enormous. My intention would be to travel to Tokyo and immediately go by train to Kobe. From Kobe We would go to Osaka and from there to Toba. From Toba We wanted to go to Tokyo and Yokohama, but the idea of Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Gardenis very attractive to me. The problem is that going from Toba to Tokyo or Yokohama takes 3-5 hours and from Toba to Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden 11 hours!
Click to expand...

I think you can skip Toba and Kobe, but if you want to see Commerson's Dolphin and　Stripedpossum, you have to go.
 
While seeing the Amazon manatee and Toba’s diversity of marine mammals would be cool I do believe that Atagawa and Toba are really out of the way to justify having both. The Giant freshwater Stingray seems more convenient to reach. If you do decide on Atagawa (and don’t care about throwing out your moral compass) then you might want to check out iZoo which is only 30 minutes away from the alligator gardens.
 
Ok, I thought to organize the trip like this. The days do not have to be in this order, but I expose it so that a planning can be seen:


Day 1.
Kobe Oji Zoo
Kobe Animal Kingdom

Day 2.
Atoa
Suma Aqualife Park Kobe

Day 3.
Osaka Aquarium

Day 4.
Tennoji Zoo

Day 5.
Toba Aquarium

Day 6.
Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Gardenis
IZoo

Day 7.
Zoorasia

Day 8.
Nogeyama Zoological park

Day 9.
Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

Day 10.
Saitama Children’s Zoo

Day 11.
Tama Zoo

Day 12.
Inokashira Park Zoo

Day 13.
Sunshine Aquarium
Tokyo Sea Life Park

Day 14.
Ueno Zoo

Day 15.
Sumida Aquarium

Day 16.
Maxell Aqua Park Shinagawa

Day 17.
Shinagawa Aquarium

It would be great to be able to gather two centers in more days, to be able to dedicate a whole day to tourism and rest from to see animals
 
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