Our Japanese neighbors wanted to take us to a couple places since they knew Steve was away. The first was the big zoo. We went to the little zoo with them a few months ago. My friend had read that they don't treat the animals well, and it's dirty. That was all I ever heard about the place, so I never planned a trip there and wasn't expecting much. We actually really liked it (and I've never been a big zoo person....even as a kid or in San Diego where the zoo was supposedly one of the best in the country). It was very hilly (like San Diego) with pretty views. It had just about all the big animals. However, the gorilla and the lion were pretty angry, and I've never seen that before. The gorilla clapped his hands really loud and threw things while the lion growled. The Japanese are not aggressive people, so I can't imagine they abuse the animals...but really, are any animals really happy in a zoo? I'm not sure. Anyway, the kids loved seeing the animals. It's been about a year since we've been to a zoo. And this one was only 20 min. away and the kids were free, and I was only 500 yen (about 7 bucks....much cheaper and closer than the San Diego zoo). I'm sure we'll be back.

Lots of exercise with the hills!

We certainly were able to get close to the animals.

The place is huge.

A place to walk around the river and rent boats.

The Wonder Museum connected to the zoo, that we will have to check out next time.

Where they put on shows.

Boy did they love driving these cars!

And the train was a hit.