For Father's Day last week, we had planned to do a day outing to something special. The original plan was to go down to Naha, the big city in the southern part of Okinawa, but as Chris has to work half the day on Sundays, he wasn't home until just before noon. With over an hour travel time, and very many different things to do there, we decided that we rather want to go down there early morning one time to make a whole day out of it.
So with pretty short notice, and weather that couldn't be trusted, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Okinawa Zoo, that isn't too far from our house.
We started off with the merry-go-round and drive some motorcycles that were just past the entrance before heading to see the animals.
Both wanted to ride the panda, luckily there were two on the merry-go-round!
Little bikers
After the rides, we headed up a steep hill to get the the different animals. The condition of this Zoo is not what we are used to in America and not what they normally have in Europe either for that matter, but we are in Asia, and have to accept that there are different ways of handling animals and different rules and regulations. The cages and their areas were small, but for the most part it seemed clean. Big down side were the many spiders above and around the cages, and one did NOT want to raise the eyes to look up, as there were many many thick spider webs and spiders all around the cages, the walkways and all around the Zoo. Freaked us out here and there and made us have to keep a closer look at the kids so they didn't run ahead, lean over some bushes etc..
I have read that in Japan, it's considered to bring luck if you see a spider in daylight, so maybe that's why they didn't clean or spray against them? Maybe they also like to keep them around as they do a great job in catching bugs, flies and other insects that would be bothering the animals? I don't know, but some areas we almost skipped, as it was just too many spiders.
Monkeys
The girls posing with the protectors of Okinawa, the Shisas.
Luckily, the signs were also in English...
As a horse lover, I was happy to learn from Cassandra, that got this knowledge in her "Japanese culture class" in school, that this horse breed, Yonaguni pony, is a breed of horse native to the southwest islands of Japan. It used to be used for farming and transportation of timber, but since technology took over, these horses were no longer bred. They were down to only 59 living in 1975. The Japanese started breeding them again, but it's still very rare, and there is only around 200 known living today.
Hippos
Father's Day picture, before going into the reptile house.
Ben had been wanting to see the alligators and wasn't too happy about the size of this one..
Many little turtles!
We were here for Father's Day,
we still couldn't understand what they offered extra at the different times scheduled..
Daddy elephant!
And mommy and baby elephant in a separate area.
We smiled at many of their warning signs..
Playing soccer...
Another easy to understand warning sign!
It was a hot and humid day, and the ice creams melted faster than they could eat them! Nice to have a brake from all the walking and have a snack though.
After the ice cream break, we walked to the Petting Zoo. They had some guinea pigs on some tables easy for the kids to pet and to feed. They also would have some bunnies, but they are not doing as well in the humidity, so they were not out this day. All around this area were several big fans to cool the animals off. Ben helped with his little hand held fan!
"Cute Chick"
A colorful Koi fish in it's true habitat..
Above are some of the spiders that we saw during our walk around, especially where the monkey cages were. I had to take some close ups, to be able to Google them to see if they are poisonous or not. To me- all spiders and snakes are BAD and I tell my kids to keep away from all, especially here where we aren't so familiar with the many different insects, spiders and other animals that can harm you. Here the yellow one to the left is a so called Banana spider and the one to the right is called the Giant Wood spider. And it was true to it's name. This one was probably as big as my palm..BUT, as from what I have heard and what I've read- they are both not poisonous.
After the Petting Zoo, it started to get late, but we wanted to get a look into the Wonder Museum that is connected to the Zoo. More about that in the next post.
