Trip to Japanese Zoos and aquariums

T

Tarsius

Well-Known Member
At Monday, I start my long awaited Zootrip to Japan. I start in Tokio to see Ueno and Tama-Zoo, Tokio Sealife Park, Shinagawa Aquarium and Sunshine Aquarium ( located on the 10th floor of a skyscraper ). From Tokio, I will take the train to Aquamarine Fukoshima and Kamogawa Seaworld.

My next station after Tokio is Yokohama with visits of Zoorasia, Nogeyama and Kanazawa Zoo,Hakkejima Seaparadise, including a daytrip to Enoshima aquarium.

After two days for relaxing in the Fuji Area without any Zoo or Aquariumvisit, I will go to Nagoya for the famous Aquarium and the Zoo, and, not to forget, the Japan monkey Center.

Then I take the Train to Osaka, I will stay there for several days with visits of Tennoji Zoo, Kaiyukan Aquarium and daytrips to Toba aquarium, Kyoto Zoo, Kobe Zoo and Kobe Suma aqualifepark.

My last stop in japan will be Okinawa with a visit of the Churaumi aquarium. On my way home, I make a stopover in Taiwan to visit Taipei Zoo and the Aquarium Checheng. Then I go home.

I hope, it will be a great trip, altough the summer isn't the best time to visit japan.

Any questions, suggestions or advices ?
 
Sounds all very exciting Tarsius, if you can get any info on the proboscis langurs at zoorasia, as well as some pictures, that would be great.
I look forward to your visit reports when you get back, have a great trip.
 
@Kiang. No Problem, I'm also very interested in the Proboscis monkeys, I look forward to see them again after the last of them dissapperead from Stuttgart Zoo in the 90ty's...
So I will try to get more information of them, depends on the english knowledges of the keepers..

@CGSwans. This should be no problem either, I have 23 memory cards with me, if this is not enough, I can get more in Japan.....
 
I'll be back from Japan !

I had a great time in this beautyful country with all the many nice and friendly people, especially all the zoopeople I've met during my visits. Additional tot he Zoos I've listed above, had the chance to visit also Hakkone Aquarium, Himeji Central Park ( its a combination of Safaripark, Zoo and Amusementpark ) and Himji City Zoo.

Generally I have to say that the Japanses Zoo are veyr traditional and tehy have to lern much about keeping animals in human care. The Japanses Zoos,w ith one exception, are behind all western zoos for 50,60 years, they are full of old and small cages with no enrichment, not only for primates, alos for bears, cats, birds and eevn hoofstock !

Elephants are be kept on tiny concrete platforms. Himji Zoo is definetely the most worst zoo I've ever seen. Of course there are some nice and good exhibits in some zoos, but it took a lot of time for the zoos to get the standard of western zoos. Unfortuntely, most zoso do not have enough money or the interes to do better exhibits, the japanese people do not think about the animals in the way we do.

Zoorasia in Yokohama is probably the"best"Zoo in Japan and is the most western style zoo in japan. Also a good zoo is Tama-Zoo located close to Tokyo.

The Animal colelctions are great, because there are lot of rare asian, especially japanses species, which can not be found in zoos outside of asia or japan. Everybody whos interested in marine mammals will find his El Dorado in japan, there is no better place in the world to see so many diffrent kinds of whales, dolphins, seals and sealions than in japan. Also lovers of primates can see in japan a big varity of monkeys and apes, but manly in very bad exhibits and cages, and in some cases, the zoos are keeping only one gorilla or orang utan. So do not expect to much in japansese Zoos. Fortunately, I have kwown this in advance, but nevertheless, often I was really surprised how bad some of the zoos are in japan.

Much better than the Zoos, and this was my main reason for my visit to japan, are the the aquariums. They all have phantastic collections, not only fishes, all aquariums are keeping also seals ( Toba Aquarium is keeping not less than 8 species of seals and sealions ! ) and of course, every aquarium in japan has a really big tank. You can see a lot of species which are can not be seen outside of japan, so some aquriums are keeping good collections of deep sea animals. And the breeding successes of hard to keep aniamls are very impressive, Churaumi Aquarium got a lot of Awards for its great succes of first time breeding of many animals, especilly sharks and rays. In 2010, the fouth manta ray was born, unfortuntely, it died by an accident. Two were traised succesfully and can be seen now on display in the big tank, together with two pairs of adult manta rays....Its unforgettable to see 6 manta rays schooling.....

Of course I did tousnads of pictures, but unfortuntyley, its seems I've lost one of my memory crads with some great pictures of Osaka Aquarium and Toba Aquarium with the pics of the west african manatees.... Okay, live will go on, fortunately, some Dugong pictures are on another memory card, there is not really a visable diffrence between american and african manatees...

So, this was just a first short sneak preview of my experiences in Japan, more informations will follow the next days.
 
reviews of each of the zoos and aquariums would be great, and help fill out the Japan forum :D

eight pinniped species at one Aquarium sounds pretty amazing!
 
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